Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
Such a joy to be in this house. If I haven't had the privilege
of meeting you, my name is David Narvaez.
I get to serve as the high school and young adults pastor
here at Illuminate Church. Do we have all three young
adults in the 9:00 AM service? Anybody.
Young adult. Oh, wow.
OK. That's like 1520 people.
Usually it's like 2. So I'm grateful to have you
support, but I'm excited. Thank you, brother, for this
message. If you have your Bibles, I want
to open up now. Actually, we're going to be in
Genesis chapter 32. I love the Word of God.
I love this series that we're on talking about where faith
begins. The story of Genesis is such an
important story to our faith. And so when we we want to
understand the Bible, we have to understand this story of
Genesis. I want to take you back about
probably 15 years or so ago. I was 18 years old and I was
about to get baptized. And there was a lot of wrestling
behind it because I got saved when I was about 10 years old.
But I kind of wrestled and struggled with my faith.
I did not have an easy upbringing.
And so it was a challenge for me to really make a commitment.
I had to let go of some things. And so I remember going back and
forth, should I get baptized? Should I not get baptized?
And it was a big decision. I said, this is what I'm going
to do. And I remember stepping into the
pool. It was the water was cold.
Y'all OK? I'm going to be honest.
I, I was like frigid. I'm like, Lord, I don't know if
that's your presence, but I'm freezing right now.
And I remember stepping in the water.
It was a beautiful moment. The pastor was there, my dad was
there as well. And I remember going under the
water and when I come came back up, it was almost like
electricity shot through my soul.
It was like a moment I'll never forget for the rest of my life
where I encountered the manifest presence of God.
And I remember after that moment saying there's no other greater
purpose, no other greater desire, nothing else greater
than following Him. He is so worth it.
And then I also remember years after that.
Because if you follow Jesus for any length of time, you know
that things aren't always smooth.
Can I get a witness? Y'all know what I mean?
For some reason we got this picture of faith where I get
saved and man like God is good and life is good but but life
smacks you in the face sometimes.
And I remember five years later being in one of the darkest
moments of my life. I remember I was in a bathroom
stall, not at home crying my eyes out because I was so broken
and I was so defeated. And in that moment of praying
out my heart, the God of compassion and his presence
just. Rested on my soul.
And in that moment I realized there's no one more
compassionate, no one more merciful, no one more loving
than our God. And those two moments for me
marked me for life. And there's more that I could
share, but those are two specific ones where I remember
it was a high point in my life and the lowest point in my.
Life. And guess what?
God was there for both. He was there for it all.
And maybe you've experienced moments like that in your life
that you can turn to and, and, and you think on maybe it
happened this year, a few years ago and you can just imagine
that moment. Or maybe you're in this room.
And if you were to be honest, you would say, I've never
experienced that. I've never had that moment.
I've I've been living through life trying to understand this
thing called faith and if this God is really present and you
say. I don't know if I have.
Had something like that. And for both of you, this
message is for you. And it begins in this life of
this character named Jacob. Now, now Jacob is such an
interesting person and there's no smooth sailing for Jacob.
And so Jacob had a brother named Esau.
Him and his brother were born around, are born at the same
exact time Jacob came after. And there was this moment where
they were being born where Jacob tried to grab the heel of his
brother Esau. And that's how he got his name
Jacob or Heel Grabber. And so from the RIP, there was
like this little bit of a competitive nature between the
two. And then and then a few years
later when they got older, there was this moment where Esau was
hungry and he was starving and he was like, Jacob, man, I just
need something to eat. Can you give me some of your
food? He was like, yeah, I got you,
brother. Just one thing.
Give me your birthright. And Jay and Esau was so hungry
that my man was like, I'm that's not a problem at all.
So Jake Esau literally gave over his birthright.
And when you think of birthright, that's your
inheritance. Like that's the four O 1K,
that's the Roth IRA, that's the house.
And for a literally some like soup, my brother was like, yeah,
you can have it because I'm starving in that moment.
So in that moment, Jacob actually took the birthright of
Esau. And then years later when Isaac
was getting older and he was struggling to see, he wanted to
bless his son Esau because he loved Esau more, to be honest,
than Jacob. And so Jacob and his mother came
up with this plan to to sneak in and pretty much make Isaac
believe that Jacob was Esau. And so Jacob walks into this
room while Esau's out somewhere else, and Isaac ends up blessing
Jacob. And so not only did he steal his
birthright, he also stole his blessing.
Not only did he steal like the the inheritance of the land and
the property and whatever else he built up, he even took away
the blessing of God that would be carried.
With him for the rest of his life.
And so Esau shows up and he's like, wow, I just love you,
Jacob. No, no, no, that's not not the
story at all. Esau shows up and he was so
angry. He literally wanted to kill his
brother. So Jacob did the smart thing and
he booked it. He's like, I'm out of here.
I ain't doing this no more. And so Jacob is now running away
from home. He has an encounter with God in
a place called Bethel, meaning the House of Lord at the House
of the Lord. And he has his beauty, this
incredible vision of this ladder going up to heaven.
And then God affirms the covenant promise that he gave to
Abraham and he gave to Isaac. In the midst of a broken period
of time in Jacob's life, God affirms the covenant promise
that he gave to his forefathers. And then years go on.
And then this story be from Laban and he has two daughters
and he gets deceived for working 14 years to marry one of his
daughters. He's having years of prosperity.
And then all of a sudden in this moment in Genesis 32 where he
has to confront Esau and this is where we pick up in the story.
But I was kind of imagining this person of, of, of Jacob.
I remember going through my interview process here at
Illuminate Church and it, it, it takes like 6 months, OK, It's a
very, very long time. I jokingly remember telling the
staff I was like, am I applying for the CIA?
Like, is that, is that what's going on right now?
Because, because this is kind of intense, like 6 months long.
Like my man, I what could have, you know, children be born.
I mean, so many things could have happened.
I mean, got Chick-fil-A, not on Sundays, you know what I mean?
Like there's so much that could happen, but it was a six month
long process. And and I was imagining Jacob
having an interview or a position on staff at Illuminate
Church. Like Jake was shows up, he's
applying and this interview, you know, and they're like, all
right, well, well, well, tell me you know your story.
And he's like, well, you know, you know, I have a brother and I
might have manipulated him out of his birthright and like, OK,
so you're manipulative and you know, I I might have deceived my
father to steal a blessing. OK, Dishonest and a thief and
he's like, well, and my brother wanted to kill me so you know, I
ran. He's like, all right, so you're
a coward and you avoid conflict. And he's like, and I I spent
years trying to outmover my uncle is like, all right,
controlling and a little bit shady and I played favorites and
my family definitely dysfunctional.
And then when I thought Esau was coming, I split my family into
groups in case some of them died and they went ahead and and said
of me fear driven and definitely selfish.
That's the interview process. I just want to tell you, is
Jacob getting the job? Absolutely not.
Like my man Jacob, if he walks in Illuminate church, he is not
on staff. And here's what's crazy is that
we can place biblical characters in a different atmosphere.
So we do not have to bear the responsibility of courage,
character or calling. We say they're so special, but
the fact is Jacob was just as broken, if not more broken than
you. And so we we cannot look at the
Bible and look at these characters and say, well,
they're just this special. We think of faith begins and
they're in this special category when God in this story is
talking about this person named Jacob.
So the question that I have for Jacob is what can God actually
do with him? What can God actually do with
Jacob, with all of this dysfunction and all of this
brokenness and all of this chaos?
And I want to ask you a question.
What can God do with you? What could God?
Actually do in your life, that's different than just being normal
and different than just a routine and different than just
going. By the wayside and and working
and eating and sleeping and pooping and all the things that
happened in the cycle of life and retiring and then we end our
life and then we're just like, well, that was life.
What could God actually do with your life?
And that is the struggle that we have is we serve, and I want you
to get this, we serve a good God that made promises to not good
people. We serve a good God who made
promises to not good, not with good people.
And there's an old thing that says well don't make a deal with
the devil, But the fact is God made a deal with the people that
many times act like the devil. And Ephesians chapter 2 in
scripture it says that we are children under Satan or children
of. Wrath, that was Jacob 2 but yet
he was still chosen. But yet he was still chosen.
So what will God? Do with him.
So Jacob was freaking out. He's learning about having to
meet his brother Esau, who has about 400 men, mind you.
So a little bit of an attempt, a tense situation, and this is
where we pick up here in verse 22.
It says during the night Jacob got up and took his wives and
his slave woman and eleven sons and crossed the forward of
Jabek. Now this is really important
because this is something that Jacob could have done the next
day, right? This is what Jacob could have
done. This is in the middle of the
night. And so you have to think that
Jacob is literally so scared of Esau, he could not sleep.
Anyone had this before where you're just so anxious about
something that you just keeps you up all night no matter how.
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
No matter how hard you try, you just cannot get rest.
And so he's anxious. It leads to his insomnia.
And so his only response is, well, I got to do something
because obviously I'm not getting any sleep.
And I would argue this that many times our anxiety levels, many
times or in the life of Jacob, his anxiety level is in
correlation with his faith. Let me put it this way, is when
we are anxious, we are worried about things that are to come
and we are stressed out because we're not going to know the
outcome. But faith is the assurance of
things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.
So the greater our faith, the less we are worried.
I would say this, if you would actually trust God with faith
that He could deliver you from that situation, your worry level
and your anxiety level would just decrease.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible.
I just think, by the way, Jesus is hilarious.
OK, if you've never read the gospels, I love Jesus.
He is just like so incredible. He's, he's just, he's so witty
and so funny. This is one of my, my favorite
moments is in actually in Mark chapter 4.
And there's this moment where they're on the boat and they're
crossing over the waters. And then this, the storm
happens. And of course, you know, if
you're on like raggedy boat and this storm hits you, you're
freaking out like, you know, you're on a cruise ship, except
the cruise ship is like probably like a 10, 10 by 10.
And so you're freaking out about this storm.
And so the disciples come up to Jesus after this great
windstorm. And this is what happens in in
Mark 438. It says he meaning Jesus was in
the stern sleeping on the cushion.
Jesus is in the boat by raging storm and getting the best sleep
of his life. OK, that's my Jesus.
And so the disciples say they woke him up and said, Teacher,
don't you care that we're going to die?
They're acting out of their anxiety.
But the fact is for Jesus, he has so much trust in his Father
that even the greatest storms can't shake his peace.
Even the greatest storms, he is getting rest because he has
faith in his Father. But as much as we should have
faith, like Jesus and unlike Jacob, it also creates A
catalyst for this moment. So here's the point I'm trying
to make here is just as God, just as much as God wants you to
be free from worry, anyone going to say Amen to that?
God wants you to be free from worry.
We also serve a God that can encounter you.
Through your worry. So in other words, there's a
life and a principle we should live by, which is by faith,
which is the antidote to worry and anxiety.
But yet our God is so good that he can actually work through
that. And so our focus should not be
on the faith of Jacob. It's easy to think that faith
begins and we think of Jacob. Really.
We should think about the faithfulness of God.
It's his goodness, it's the fact that he steps in, it's the fact
that he decides to do what only he will do based off his
character, regardless of the life that we're living.
So what happens then as we continue on in Genesis chapter
32 it says here in verse 23 it says he took them across the.
Stream along with his possessions and Jacob was left
alone. Jacob.
Was left alone. We cannot overlook the power of
these 3 words. All throughout scripture we only
see examples of this idea of people.
Getting alone with God And what about in?
Genesis and Abraham's Covenant Encounter In Genesis chapter 12,
the Lord speaks to Abraham, the original promise.
Because Abraham was alone, he speaks in this covenant promise.
In Genesis chapter 15, the Lord creates A binding covenant with
Abram when he was alone in Hagar in the wilderness.
In Genesis chapter 16, she was alone and abandoned, and God
meets. Her and she calls him Elroy the
God. Who sees me?
Isaac in the field in Genesis chapter 24.
He's alone, meditating in the evening.
And God provides a wife named Rebecca.
You singles out there? I'm just saying, get along with
God. He might provide a wife.
All right. Can I get a witness in the
house? He sometimes does that.
OK, He's out in the fields and. Oh shit, you're looking pretty
good, all right. The Lord provides.
And then there's this moment with Jacob at Bethel when he's
alone, fleeing home from from Esau and God.
Reveals his covenant promise. And it does not end there.
In Exodus chapter 3, the burning Bush God encounters Moses and
and calls him to the ministry. In Exodus chapter 19, God Moses
goes up to Mount Sinai and receives the laws of God.
And for the story of Elijah in First Kings 19, he encounters
the God the the voice of God which gives him the
encouragement that he needs. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus goes
to the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights before he starts
his ministry. In John he literally writes the
Book of Revelation on the Isle of Patmos because he was alone.
The point I'm trying to make is that isolation often becomes the
best setting for revelation if you want to receive a revelation
from God. There is something that is so
unique about closing the door. When we close the door when we
get alone with God, it's crazy. The door is shut, but a window
from heaven is opened. It's so beautiful.
There's something so powerful about when we get alone with
God, and Jesus says it best when he says in Matthew 6/6, He says,
But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door and
pray to your Father who? Is in secret and your Father who
sees in secret will reward you. And I would say this, the reason
many of us do not encounter God's presence is because we do
not create a setting in which His presence is welcome.
When was the last time you invited God into your car?
You invited God into your house? You invited God into your walk,
You invited God into your work day.
Do you actually create a setting to host the presence of God?
Maybe you should start, because here's what Jesus says in
Matthew 7/7, he says. Ask.
And it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find knock,
and it will be open to you. How can you ask God if you're
always talking to someone else? How can you seek?
God, if you're always. Seeking something else?
How can you knock on the? Door of God's.
Heart. If you're always at someone
else. 'S door but his.
And here's the sad thing is, some of us can actually use
community as a guise for the lack of satisfaction in your
soul. It can happen like that where we
think, well, I'm going to keep keep being around God's people,
But the fact is you actually use that as a crutch so you don't
have to spend time with the Lord.
And yes, God is with you and God is with us, but there's
something special about getting along with God.
And at the same time, we can also say, well, I'm alone A.
Lot. But the fact is, just because
you're isolating yourself from people typically means you're
also isolating yourself from God.
The goal is an isolation. For the sake of being alone,
it's isolation, For the sake of meeting with someone special.
And the Lord desires a people that desire him.
The Lord wants the people that love him, that want to meet with
him. And how do we just show that
desire? We must be willing to get along
with God. It's not an option.
It's not a suggestion. It's something we have to be
willing to do. And here's what's crazy Jacob's
greatest encounter with. God was a result of a moment
alone, and I would say this, if you would just take this week
and say for whatever block of time I'm going to get along with
God, you'll be surprised how God shows up.
You just create one setting and God will invade your space.
He will. So then what happens as we
continue the story in verse 24? It says Jacob was left alone and
a man, by the way, pops out of nowhere and a man wrestled with
him until Daybreak and when the man saw he could not defeat him,
he struck Jacob's hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his
hip. So.
So Jacob yet again, he is not expecting this moment
whatsoever. Like it's not on the calendar.
Jacob might have been physically ready for this moment, but I
know. For a fact that his heart was
not. And so we have to ask the
question, what does it mean to wrestle with God?
I'll talk about the identity of the man later, but later it says
that he's seen the face of God, so he's talking about wrestling
with God. What does it mean to wrestle
with God? Well, in the Hebrew, it means to
grapple. It means to wrestle.
But I also think it's interesting.
It has this connotation of getting dusty or dirty has this
connotation of like, you're not clean anymore.
And I think that's interesting because I, I remember when any
baseball fans out there, I, I love playing baseball.
I, I love this sport. And I I remember I I was on this
this team, this Little League team, we were bad.
Y'all OK, all right, I was not, just to be clear, but this is
some pride coming out. But our team, our team was
terrible. Like at least 80% of the team
should have been in the right. Field.
That's just the way it was. Like our team was so bad.
There were some years like we didn't win a game, OK?
Like, like we were like, oh, and 17, like now, like one in 16,
like, oh, and 17, we were garbage.
And, and so I remember as a kid, the, the like, when you would
come home, like your uniform would get dirty, right?
You'd, you'd have this nice uniform, you'd be nice and neat.
And then typically I would get, I would get tired of kind of
washing my clothes. You know, it's like, I got to
get all the dirt out and everything.
And so, you know, if it was a game that we were losing, like
I'm probably not going to slide, you know what I mean?
Like, I don't want to get my I don't want to get my shoes
dirty. I don't want to get my clothes
dirty. So if we were losing the game,
like I'm not going to try that hard.
Like I was kind of running to the base hay side.
I'm like, Oh yeah, let me not do that.
You know, I'm just going to stay right here.
Nice and pretty. Didn't want to do it.
But then there are some games where I was like, we could
actually win. Like we could go from like, oh,
and 14 to 1 and 14. I'm so excited.
And so I remember also those times where I would play
baseball and I would go all out. I would be sprinting, I would be
sliding. I would do everything I can.
If I was out in the outfield, I would die for catches to do
everything I could to win the game because I valued it,
because I thought it was important.
I thought we could actually win. And so it, when I would come
back from home, my mom always knew it was a good game because
of The Dirty of my outfit, that my devotion to the game is what
led to the, to the dirtiness of my outfit.
And I would say this, that our commitment to God is a
willingness to get dirty, to get in the dirt, to get messy, to
figure things out, to to not be satisfied just looking straight
and pretty, but really posture our hearts in such a way in
which whatever God wants to do, I'm ready.
And I'm available. For to wrestle with God is to
get Dusty and think of this with Jacob, it's dark, he's isolated,
he's exhausted, probably he's a little bit messy.
He's anxious, he's fearful, he's frustrated, and he's probably
still guilty from stealing his brother's birthright and
blessing. That looks like to.
Me a messy life. The moment is messy, but so also
is his life. And I would ask you, does anyone
here have a messy life? Anyone, if you be honest, people
like, oh, I don't, I'm like, I know you do.
Don't play. It's a it's a messy life.
Like like, I don't know about you, but.
Marriage can sometimes be messy. Like till death do us part.
And then you get into your arguments.
You know what I mean? Oh, after the honeymoon phase
and all of a sudden I'm like, well, why didn't you wash your
clothes? You know what I'm saying?
Or why don't you pick up after yourself?
Or why do you like it's, it gets messy?
Or what about finances, right? The the best thing is when you
finally save up money and then your car breaks.
I'm just like, brother, can I just get like a moment here to
save up some money? Anyone I'm talking about, if
you're a young adult, you definitely know what I'm talking
about. OK, I'm like, come on, brother.
Or what about relationships in general?
Like you start this relationship and, and you think it's going to
go well and all of a sudden all this complex things happens.
Or even our faith walk in general, Like when you think of
our faith walk, it's not like a, a, a straight line going up.
It's kind of like a a, a. What are these things like?
Not a heart thermometer. I don't know what I'm trying to
English right now. You know what I'm saying?
Well, they, they they test your heart.
I can't think of the word. Someone help me out.
What do you what AKG or something like that?
Or when when you're in the. Hospital room and like they want
to make sure your heart's OK and they test.
I don't know. OK, someone help me out.
Live stream is probably long, long at me right now.
I'm sorry by the way. My dad is watching, so I love
you Dad. Just want to throw it out there.
Love you so much. And so like, you know, they,
they, they would, they would test your heart to make sure
it's OK. Like, like our life is kind of
like that words. It's like, it's like this, like
we think it's like we get saved. And all of a sudden I'm going to
turn this way. Is that OK?
Like we get saved and it's like, wow, I start here and it's just
like, get to heaven. Anyone had that picture?
I know I did when I was younger, but here's life as you start
here. And all of a sudden you go up
and down and up and down, down, down and up, up, up and down,
down, down, and it's. Like this jagged edge, but
ultimately it does lead to glory.
This is the walk. This is our spiritual life.
Many. Of us have had so many plans
that just did not work out. They just didn't.
You had a plan for your life, a plan for your marriage, a plan
for your finances, and if you were to be honest, the plan
isn't your current reality. There's this famous quote by
Mike. Tyson, he says this, Everyone
has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
It's like that. Like we all have an idea for our
life until life happens and we get punched in the mouth.
Like that's what life happens. And I'm sure Jacob's plan, if I
were to ask him, it wasn't to end up alone.
It wasn't to end up exhausted. It wasn't to end up terrified of
his past catching up to him after a lifetime of striving, of
scheming, of trying to control every outcome.
But here's what's so cool is that God chose a man with a mess
to give a message about his mercy.
I want to say it again for someone in the back.
God chose a man with a mess to give a message about his mercy.
God isn't scared of your past. He's not scared of your
brokenness. He's not scared of your fears.
And if you think your life is too messy, then you don't know
my God, because my God works through the mess.
But I would say. This we have to be honest with
it we have. To be willing to be honest with
what's going on in our lives and that provides space and
opportunity for God to work and so to wrestle with God.
Is to endure, to endure through the mess, to continue pressing
on, to continue to. Believe that God can and will
deliver you. I remember going to it was
Animal Kingdom literally for the first time like a month ago.
OK, I haven't been to the Disney parks I went to.
I rode Guardians of the Galaxy like a few months ago.
Have I'm so new to this whole thing.
And so I had a friend. I was able to get us in.
It was a great time. ID group.
We met up and it was like our last end celebration.
And so I was able to ride the the Yeti roller coaster thing.
You know, I'm talking about with the with the, OK, you know, OK,
we're Disney people. It's the roller coaster.
It's pretty cool, right? I gave it a 7 out of 10 and then
I found out how much they spend. I'm like, alright, I'll give it
an 8 out of 10 because that's a lot of money.
But I remember rating in line and I'm sitting here like, and
we're having a great conversation.
It's a great time, but we're just waiting, you know, it's
like an hour and 40. 5 minutes and then you do one of these,
you know, another 15 minutes, you do one of these and I'm
like, man, all these people do this.
Like is this, is this like a common occurrence?
We're just sitting here waiting in line and, and, and I, I get
it right? Because we got to the ride, it
was exciting. We were to get the front row
seat. They go up and you hit the end
of the track and then it's a broken track and you head
backwards. It was, it was a cool
experience, but I was thinking about like, why do we spend so
much time doing this? So if you want to ride like a
couple of rides at Disney, unless you have like a fast
pass, you're probably spending at least like 4 hours, right?
If you want to ride a few of them and I was like wondering
like, why are we doing this? Like why, why are we actually
waiting here? And, and to be honest, it's
because we enjoy it like it's a great time, like we love the.
Experience and and I was thinking about this is the
reason people wait this long for a ride.
Because they believe on the other side, there's joy, there's
experience, there's fun, all of these other things that they
say. I'm going to sit here for an
hour and a half. And here's what's crazy is will
wait longer for Guardians of the Galaxy than for the one who
created the Galaxy. And don't get me wrong, it's a
great ride. Like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not
knocking. It's probably one of the coolest
rides I've ever read in my life. But nothing, and I mean nothing
in this. Life compares to him and if you
would just wait on him. And be willing to spend that
time and be willing to take part of your.
Calendar, I promise you, on the other side of that is a glory
you've never experienced before. That's the God that we serve.
And then you will wait in line for him because he is worth it.
And so what's on the other side of this endurance, this enduring
type of wrestling with God? It's prayer, it's in the Word,
it's serving. I want to encourage someone in
this house that you're being burnt out on serving and don't
quit now before you've seen the fruit of it.
There's some of you I know in this.
Space that you like you've. Been like I'm kind of getting
worn out. But don't quit now.
Before you see the fruit of what God's going to do.
Because on the other side of these things is the abundant
life that Christ offers that a season pass can't give you.
It's on the other side of it, and only He can offer it.
Jacob wrestled with God for hours because he believed in
what God could do. We must be willing to wrestle
with God. All of the mess, all of the
brokenness, all of the chaos. We must be willing to wrestle
with God. So then what happens here in
verse 25? So he dislocated his hip and
then he said to Jacob, let me go for it is Daybreak.
But Jacob said, I will not let you go until you bless me.
So Jacob's wrestling with God, his hip socket gets struck and
now he's like kind of limping. And he's like, well, I, I, I
don't know if I can go on anymore or to put it this way,
like my man is cooked, right? Like and and by the way, cooked.
Does not mean he started cooking food.
All right, this is a I'm still learning.
I'm the young adults pastor. I also oversee youth to cook is
to. I don't even know how you define
it. This is a weird word message,
part of the message. I don't know, I'm just I'm
learning these terms, but he's like, in other words, yeah, no
shot anymore trying to translate.
Someone will correct me later, but he's good.
Like he's got no no longer any other option, but instead of
fighting with God, the only option he has is to.
Surrender to God. And I want you to think about
this, that his whole life for Jacob.
Jacob tried everything his way. I'm going to try my plan.
I'm going to try my solution. I'm going to try my way.
And for the first time in Jacob's life, there's no escape
route. Like there's no time for him to
run away. There's no other point to do
except to surrender. Jacob had to surrender his
ideas. Had to surrender his plans and
had to surrender his sins. He had to let go of it all.
I remember years ago, my wife and I were very, very low
income. We had just moved to Tampa,
newly married. Like that's when the car
problems really affect you, if you know what I mean.
And we were living in an RV because we couldn't afford rent
at the time. And this RV that we had
purchased, unbeknownst to me, had hidden water damage, which
means it had developed black mold.
And if you've ever had. If anyone had slept with a black
mold before and you know what affects your respiratory system,
I almost developed a little bit of of an asthmatic response.
Almost permanently, actually, because of it.
And this went on for six months. Like when?
I mean, it was some of the most miserable time of my life.
At this point, I was a youth pastor serving at a different
church. I was not able to sleep.
I didn't want to eat. I had no motivation to pray, to
get in the Word, to do anything. I was just so tired.
It got so bad. I would sometimes sleep at the
church to get relief. That's how bad it was.
And the frustrating thing is, I was doing everything right.
Like I was serving the Lord, I was building up this youth
ministry. I was staying faithful.
Like I was doing all of the right things.
And I and I remember asking. Why?
Like I, I don't even understand. It doesn't even make any sense
to me. And there's a, there's a
picture. I don't know if we have it.
I, I wrote this in my journal. I want to see if we have it up
on the screen here. This is from.
My journal, hopefully. Maybe not, I don't know.
So imagine there's a journal entry up there that looks so
great. I'm so glad.
OK, so I'm so this is a journal entry from me.
It was the end of 2023 and I was writing the just the lessons
that I had learned in my life, just like for that year.
And I remember writing this down.
Word for word, and it says this Sometimes faith is just holding
on to Jesus. I used to think having faith is
marching up a mountain, but sometimes it's just holding on
to Jesus as you're about to fall down.
And I don't know what's going on in your life that's causing you
to fall. But I do know a solution.
And his name is Jesus. Sometimes success in this
Christian life is not doing all the things, but holding on to
the one that can and just pressing in and saying.
Lord, no matter what happens, I don't know that I don't see an
end insight. I don't see a solution.
I'm not growing in this season. Nothing makes.
Sense. But what does make sense is
this. I'm a hold on to you.
We must be willing to hold on to God.
When Jacob was broken, when he was bruised, when he was
exhausted and he wanted to quit, his only solution was to hold on
to God. So what happens in verse 27?
It says, what is your name? The man asked Jacob.
He replied, Your name will no longer be Jacob, he said.
It will be Israel because you have struggled with God.
And with men and have prevailed. And then Jacob asked him, Please
tell me your name. But he answered.
Why do you ask my name? And he blesses in there.
This is a moment that's very similar to the Garden of Eden.
If you remember in Genesis chapter 3, right after Adam
sins, God is walking. Through Eden in the cool of the
day. And if you remember, he asked
Jacob, or he asked Adam, where are you Now this is important
because God very much knew where Adam was.
But we know that the reason that God asked Adam this question is
because Adam needed to confess where he was.
And here's what I want to say. Does God know Jacob's name?
Yes, he created it, but he wanted Jacob to admit it.
And no, this is so important because earlier in the Bible, in
Genesis chapter 3027 and verse 36, there's this contention with
Esau after he had been cheated from his birthright and his
blessing. And this is what Esau says to
Jacob. He makes a declaration to Jacob
of his identity. And so he said, isn't he rightly
named Jacob? Esau says you have the right
name, for he has cheated me twice now.
He took my birthright and now he has.
Taken my blessing. And then he asked, Haven't you
saved a blessing for me? He was talking to Isaac in that
moment. This is so unique and so
interesting because Jacob's name was a definition of who he was.
And so Jacob's confession of his identity created space for God
to change it. This is so important, this
moment of confession. When he was finally honest, like
all of the mess in his life, he said, You know what, that is my
name. That is who I am.
In a moment of confession, Jacob goes from Jacob to Israel.
Jacob goes from heel grabber to the one who wrestles with God.
Jacob goes from the name that defined his past to a name that
declared his future. Jacob went from being marked by
deception to being marked by surrender, being marked by the
encounter. Jacob went from shaped by
striving for everything to being an identity shaped by God, and
what he's been called to do is to follow him, and that's the
God who calls is. Jacob is no longer defined by
what other people say or even by what he says about himself.
Jacob is now defined as to who. God calls him to be, and Jacob
realized that this truth, that the end of yourself is the
beginning of God. This is so cool.
It was only when Jacob was at the end of Jacob did God give
birth to what was the beginning of Israel.
And by the way, that Israel is the same line, the same seed
that gave birth thousands of years later to this man named
Jesus who would save us from the sins of the world.
All from a moment of confession, all from a moment of God
changing his identity. So why must we be willing to get
alone with God? Why must we be willing to
wrestle with God? Why must we be willing to hold
on to God? Because when our lives are
touched by God, we are forever changed and forever saved.
Just that one moment. Those moments I referenced
earlier and baptism in those dark moments and and so many
others moments. Because those moments carry.
With us for the rest of our life and I'm forever changed by those
moments and the promise of that change is the promise for my
salvation. Yes, I believe in Philippians
1/6 that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion of the day of Jesus Christ, That if God started the
work, I believe because of his character, he will finish it.
I'm so grateful that. That I don't have to constantly
worry about my performance and I can just rest.
And know that it's in God's hands because He has touched my
life, He has changed my life, and He is and will always save
my life. So how does this story?
Conclude with Jacob what happens at the end in verse 30.
Jacob then named the place Pineal, for I have seen God.
Face to face and he said this is so interesting.
He says my life has been spared. My life has been spared.
Now this is so cool because earlier God.
Said that you prevailed, but last time I checked he just
lost. Like Jacob does not respond to
his experience saying I almost won, you know, like I was right
there. Like I almost made it.
Like that's not how he responds. He responds by recognizing he
literally almost died because he was face to face with the living
God. Now, this is more, this is so
important because we know this man is identified as God, but
also the Father tells Moses that if you see my face, you will
die. So what's going on here?
How is this possible? There's this character in the
Old Testament called the Angel of the Lord.
And, and this is what most theologians believe
Christophanies or pictures of Christ in the Old Testament,
because if God says you can't see my face or you'll die and
they're seeing his face, that means there's a different
person. Jesus is declared to be the
image of the invisible God. And so here's what happens in
this moment is Jacob does not even realize it, but he's
looking the face in the eyes of his future Savior.
Jacob was looking into the eyes of pure grace.
And when he says my life has been spared, it literally means
in Hebrew my life has been. Saved all of this his whole
story face to face with God and he says my life has been saved
and God saved Jacob not just for his sake, but for yours, not
just for him, but for you, because God made a promise to
Abraham that one day the whole world will be blessed through
this seed. And we have the same opportunity
to receive that blessing and the sit in the man of the eyes that
he looked in God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.
And Jacob was broken and bruised and burdened by sin.
And if you live long enough, you will be as well.
And we can look into the eyes of the same one that Jacob looked
into. And so it's easy to think that
Jacob's success. Jacob's strength in Jacob's
salvation was because of his skill set.
Because of his gifting, because of his endurance, because of his
faith, because of all these things.
But Jacob knew my last point, that his blessing was tied to
his encounter which led to his surrender.
He knew it, this encounter with God.
All of this led to a place of surrender in which God changed
his life. And so we said, success is no
longer my way. Strength is no longer my way.
Salvation is no longer my plan. My success is my surrender.
Jacob was successful as soon as he surrenders.
Jacob was strengthened as soon as he surrendered.
Jacob was saved as soon as he was, as soon as he surrendered.
And for you, it's time to make a decision to mark it on the
calendar to add a reminder. To start walking in the woods to
pitch a tent, to get a get a babysitter, whatever it means to
meet with him. And you say, Lord, I'm not
leaving until you bless me like I'm I'm not going to leave.
I'm not going to leave until you meet with me.
I'm not going to do I'm going to sit here in this room.
And here's the thing and whether that's an answer to prayer.
It could be a new revelation. It could be a change in heart.
It could be a removal of the burden of sin.
It could be deliverance for something.
Or here's the thing. It could just be more of Him and
the question I have is that enough?
And for those of you that really know God, it is enough.
He is enough. I wasn't planning on telling the
story. It was a few months ago.
I remember the moment so clearly.
My wife and I. I'll say a couple years ago my
wife and I bought a house. We just moved to Lakeland, FL
and it was an old house and, and I saw like the vision for our
family. I saw like this is where I have
a little son. This is where my my son Joshua
was going to grow up. And while my wife and I are
going to raise our kids and this is going to be our home.
And so we, we spent 10s of thousands of dollars to renovate
this house. It was old, it was raggedy.
And we said this is going to be our forever home.
And three months ago I remember the Lord said, I want you to
sell it and move closer to the church.
You know what I said? Absolutely not.
I am not doing that. Lord, you don't understand.
We invested all this time, all of this energy, we invested 10s
of thousands of dollars. Like it is a terrible financial
situation. And so for the course of the
next few months, God and I literally wrestle this out.
I would walk, I would pray, and I would say God.
Well, This is why it's a bad reason.
And This is why it's a bad reason.
And we don't know about our finances.
And he's like, what do you trust me?
I'm like, well, God, yeah, I trust you and I love you.
But like so like we just made this place and and this was
this. Was, you know, this was a
blessing. From you and why would I give up
my blessing Yeah, but but do you trust me?
And I remember saying well, God, you know all this money that's
going to be wasted if if we move is that who gave you the money
wrestling with God. It doesn't work out well for me
and SO. We had this back and forth for
literally months until I said, you know what?
We're just going to do it. I'm going to sell the house.
We're going to trust God. And there was a house that was
literally on the block 2 houses that had been sitting for six
months and eight months. So just sitting.
And so you know what I said in my pride?
Well, God if. You want us to move, you got to
find a buyer. And so I sat there and my
pompous, my pompous self just saying, well, God, you got to
show up. One person saw the house.
It was under contract in 13 days.
And, and, and here, here is the result of it.
I remember that week I had a group of people, one of them is
right here, Mr. Nordby, and a group of other friends that
helped me move. And I remember moving into the
new house and being in that room and surrounded people that loved
me, that cared for me and that I loved.
And I remember asking God, how could I do anything else but
surrender to your will? The joy of obedience is the
greatest treasure because on the other hand of that obedience is
so many blessings. And the on the other end of that
is him. It's just more of him.
And I would say this is if you give the Lord access, he won't
just change some of your life, He'll change all of it.
You'll begin to hear and believe what God says about you when he
calls you son, when he calls you daughter, when he calls you
free, when he calls you redeemed, when he calls you
chosen, when he calls you found when he calls you forgiven, when
he calls you accepted. And there might be some scars
and some wounds. Jacob left with a limp for the
rest of his life. He was permanently partially
disabled. But he left saying that I was
blessed because his limp was a testimony of the God who saves
and if I know my God. He can save you too.
He can save you too.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father.
I thank you, Lord, for the wrestling of hearts that are in
this room right now. There's the back and forth
between the ways of this world and what you're calling them to.
The wrestling was sin of brokenness, of broken identity,
Lord, and you're saying? Come home, you're saying.
Come home. This is an.
Opportunity for you to give your life to the Lord, to surrender
to him as Lord and Savior. In Romans 10/9 it says if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
That the eyes of mercy is the Son of Jesus Christ, living a
perfect life, dying on the cross for your sins being and bruised
for your sins put in the grave, rose again on the third day so
he can give you new life. So he can set you free, so he
can change your name to not an enemy of God, but my son, but my
daughter and the Lord is giving you an opportunity this morning
and so on the count of. Three, if you believe.
The Lord is calling you to surrender your life to Him.
I want you to raise your hand 123 Be bold.
Keep the hands raised. Our ushers have a gift to give
you. Once you receive that gift, you
can put your hands down, keep them raised.
It's an act of faith of saying, Lord, I surrender to you.
Thank you Jesus. Rest in this moment, Church.
The Lord is saving people in this moment.
Thank you Jesus. Keep those hands raised.
Once you have that, you can put your hand down.
We're coming to you. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus.
And if we can say this as a church and for you, those of you
that raise your hand, say this in faith, say Heavenly Father, I
recognize that I am a Sinner and needing of saving.
I confess that I've been living my own life.
Apart from you and I believe that Jesus died and rose again
the third day, conquering sin and death, and I confess that.
Jesus is Lord and Jesus as my Savior and I commit myself to
following him for the rest of my life.
In Jesus name, Amen. Thanks for joining us today.
We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.
If you'd like to connect with us, you can text Connect to 4:07
588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot Church.
Have a great week.