The Church of Eleven22 - Jacob Wrestles God - In The Arena: Wk 4

Episode Date: June 29, 2025

In Week 4 of In The Arena, Pastor Joby takes us into Genesis 25 and 32 to unpack the story of Jacob — the deceiver who spent his whole life wrestling for control, until one night he found himself wrestling God Himself. Through Jacob’s struggle, betrayal, and the wrestling match that changed his name to Israel, we see that real victory doesn’t come by fighting God, but by finally surrendering to Him. If you’ve been fighting in your own strength, it’s time to quit wrestling and truly win — by surrendering everything to the One who already wrestled death for you and won. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen and amen. Are you Marcy? You're a saint. You're an absolute saint. And I'm glad you got saved, bro. Hey, welcome. If you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do. Go Genesis chapter 32 is where we are going to be.

We're in this series called In the Arena. And I've been pretty pumped up about our time together tonight for a bunch of reasons, man. 722, you show up with great expectation. And I think that's a big reason, while we have experienced. the manifest presence of God in such a tangible way in the last few weeks. Amen? I mean, because we I hope you expect him, because you know, you know where the spirit of God likes to show up, where he is wanted, and he's wanted in this place. And our brothers at Marion Correctional are with us right now as they tune in every single week. And this past Tuesday, I made a trek over there,

and we baptized 76 men at Marion. And they gave me this T-shirt, which is cooking. And they gave me this T-shirt, I got a couple of shirts with 1122 on it, but every single one of the men signed this shirt. And these are our brothers in Christ that publicly renounce the sins of their past, the ways of this world, anything darker, demonic, and they pledge they're allegiance to Christ and Christ alone.

And so, fellows, we love you, and I think that's awesome, okay? It's better than anything else I've ever gotten from church, so there we go. All right, we're talking about fighting in the arena. Anybody like UFC? See? No, you're going to love this. If you don't like UFC, what's wrong with you?

Read your Bible. You're not going to like Genesis 32. We're talking about a fight because it's a fight. It's what this whole thing has been about. It's not the critic who counts. It's the man or woman that has the guts to get in the arena. Because we have an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Week one, we talked about the ultimate arena that Jesus conquered death.

That our greatest enemy, our greatest combatant, is death itself, but at us. I know a guy that picked a fight with death and he put death to death and he is alive and because he is alive, we are alive and because he has won, we can win when it comes to this battle that we face every single day. Then week two, we talked about the sons of Skiva. Remember them fighting without power? They said, I adjure you by the Jesus who Paul knows. They didn't even know them.

And remember they got beaten to the point where they were naked and wounded. And if you fight without power, you will be naked and wounded. Last week we talked about David and Goliath. What is like to fight with power. Now, today we're going to talk about fighting power itself. Now we've got to cover 11 chapters. Ah, so I hope you're all sleeping back. Here we go.

Genesis chapter 25 is where I'm going to start. You can pick it up in 32 is where we'll end up here in a minute. In Genesis chapter 25, a little recap of what's going on. Verse 19 says, these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham, Father Isaac, Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca. So the way this whole thing got started is in Genesis chapter 12, God looks about and he decides, because of his own grace and his own mercy, to pick a guy named Abram.

He's going to change his name to Abraham. And he says, here's what I want you do. I want you to pack up everything, and I want you to go to a land that I will tell you. And Abram goes home and says, Sarah, that's her name at that point. Her name's going to become Sarah. He's like, here's what we've got to do. We're going to pack up and we're moving. She said, where are we going?

He said, I don't know. The Lord said, he'll call me. when we get there. And you want to talk about who has faith, his wife, with no directions, just gets into truck and goes wherever he says. Can you believe that? I mean, that's a miracle in and of itself. I can't get my three to go to a restaurant if I don't give them the Yelp review.

But anyway, so they go. Abraham has this miraculous kid, Isaac. He was a kid of promise, the son of his love. This is that same Abraham and Isaac. And so when Isaac is 40 years old, he gets married. to Rebecca, and they pray, and she conceives. And then at one point, this is so funny, it says in verse 22, they struggle together within her, talking about the babies.

And so she goes to seek the Lord. She says, the Lord feels like there's a lot going on in there. And here's what the Lord says to her. Two nations are in your womb. Some of you mamas felt like you had a whole country in there sometimes, isn't it? And what's going on is she's got twins, and these twins are already battling in out in the womb. Part of the reason they're battling it out is because they're already people, because from the moment of conception, they were ordained by God as a human being, and life begins

in that very moment, okay? And they're having this wrestling match. And then on the day that they're born, the first one out, he pops out, and they look at him, and he's red, and he's hairy. And so they name him Harry. The Hebrew word for Harry is Esau. It was a tops up between Esau and Chabaca, but they didn't have Chabaca yet, so they'd go with Esau. Because they would just name you like what you are, okay? So like he's red and hairy, so we're going to call him Esau, so out pops Esau. And then what was kind of crazy about it, don't think about this too much. And then out of the birth canal is this little baby hand, grabbing on to his older brother's heel, because he's trying to pass him in the birth canal.

think Daytona going wide and turn four for the victory. That's what the second one's doing. And so they name him heel grabber. And so the Hebrew for heel grabber is Jacob. It also means liar. It also means deceitful one. If your name's Jacob, it's a great name. It ends up okay, all right?

But that's just what it means. Don't feel bad. My name's Joby. It means afflicted. So, thanks, Dad. All right. So they grow up. They pop out, here they are, you got Harry and heel grabber,

Esau and Jacob. And then in verse 27, it says, when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, played linebacker. Doesn't say that part, but think that. Drives a four-wheel drive truck, probably a GMC. You know what I'm saying? Hunts with a Matthews bow,

kind of guy I would like, that's him. While Jacob, the heel-grabber, was a quiet man dwelling in tents. With the girls, we'll find out that a little while later. Now this is terrible, verse 28. And Isaac, the dad, loved Esau because he ate of his game. But Rebecca, the mom loved Jacob. You know, it's hard to find a model family in the Bible, by the way.

If you feel like your family's jacked up, you're in really, really good company. Listen, I know you have a favorite child. Just don't make it, don't put it on the chalkboard at the house. You understand what I'm saying? Just keep that to yourself. Pray about that. And so it's going to go bad, man. It's going to go bad.

So then when you get to chapter 25, verse 29, the Bible says this. It says once when Jacob was cooking stew, because that's what he did, right? He was a big fan of real hells, wives of Beersheba, and he'd, you know, do cooking recipes with the ladies in the tents. And Esau came in from the field because that's what he did. He haunted his dad's favorite. He's out there killing and grilling and doing what you ought to do. and so, Esau was exhausted. Here's what I want you to pay very close attention to.

Pay very close attention to when you're tired, hungry, and isolated. Because bad things can happen. I mean, you are perfectly positioned to be targeted by the enemy when you're hungry, tired, and isolated. Do you ever go to the grocery store hungry? You make terrible decisions, do you not? You're like, ooh, Captain Crunch. That looks delicious.

I haven't had that since college. And then you better get some band-aids too because it'll make your mouth bleed. It hurts, all right? So he comes in from the field, and he says, I'm exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew. Turns out it's just basic lentil stew. It's another fancy about it.

Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted. Therefore, his name was Edom. He was called Edom. He is going to father the nation called the Edomites. Edom just means red. and these are going to be like generational rivals of the nation of Israel. It all starts back here. And so the older brother says to the younger brother, hey, let me get some of that stew.

And Jacob, the younger brother says, sell me your birth right now. Now that seems like the worst trade in the history of trades. He read the art of the deal. So you go for broke and then you can back it off a little bit, all right? And here's a part of what he's doing. Anybody got a younger brother, anybody, you're the older, and you have a younger. younger brother okay this is what younger brothers do because they're deceitful they're tricky because rarely does the older brother need the younger brother right but

when the when the when the older brother needs the younger brother then the younger brother thinks finally this is my chance to get everything I want I have a younger brother's name's Russ he's one of our deacons great guy when I'm like three and a half years older than him so when I was 15 16 and I'd go into his room, and, hey, dude, I need a pen. He was like, give me your truck. I'm not giving you my truck.

This is what Jacob's doing, okay? And so here's what Esau says. Esau said, I am about to die of what use is my birthright to me. A little dramatic, don't you think? Because seriously, you're like, no, no, no, hold on, Esau.

You're not about to die. 22 minutes ago, you were hunting Ibex in the hills of Israel. So it takes you about, days and days and days without food, to you actually starve to death. You see, what was beginning to happen in the life of Esau

is that his appetites became the loudest voice in his life. And appetites can be very, very loud. And there's nothing wrong with appetites. Appetites are given to us by God, but everything that God creates, the enemy tries to corrupt. So appetite's nothing wrong with appetites,

but the problem is, Because appetites are a good way to navigate life. They whisper us in the right context of things that we want and need. But when they become controller of your life, you're in big trouble. Because appetites have a very, very small vocabulary. Appetites say more and now. That's the only thing they can say. And there is nothing on this planet that will fully and finally satisfy the temporary appetites that we have.

And the problem is in that moment is that Esau does not have the long view in mind. Esau is just feeling all the fields, man. He begins to create a scenario in his mind where the greatest thing that he has been given, which is his birthright. This is a double portion of blessing from his dad. Then when his dad does pass away, he would inherit two-thirds of all the inheritance and all of the rest of the family would have to divide up the one-third among themselves. and if there was ever a fight about it, ever a discrepancy,

he would carry the family mantle and he would be in charge. But in this moment, he's looking at a little bowl of red stew, and he thinks this thing temporary right now that will feed my appetite is more important than the promises that are promised to me for decades and decades to come. And you're all, that sounds crazy. It is crazy. Sociologists have names for this. One of them is called impact bias. impact bias is when we overestimate the impact and the duration of an event and we think it will do more for us than it can do.

This is the moment that you begin to validate that thing that you want because you can tell yourself you need it so much. You know what I'm talking about, right? This is the thing like when you finally decide that you need a new car. You know that moment? Like today you're like, it's time for a new car. Yesterday my car was fine. but the moment I say, I think I need a new car, your car is trash. You ever notice that? And then the car that you want that you've never seen in your life is at every stoplight,

at every intersection on every trip you go on until you go get that car, right? And you're, and you, you are trying to evaluate this information. Lord, is this a sign? No, you're just a lord of your own life and you want you what you want. That's just true. That's what he's doing. It's called impact bias. This is why buyer's remorse is a thing, because it doesn't do for us what we thought it would do. The second thing that begins to happen is what sociologists called focalism. You know what focalism is? Focalism is when we want something and everything else gets blurry and all you can see is that thing you want.

And I've told you this before. This is how Taco Bell is in business. Nobody has ever planned to go to Taco Bell. Nobody's like put it on the calendar three weeks from now, 2.30 p.m. Taco Bell. No. It's 138. and you're on your way home and you see that sign and you hear dream weaver you're like that looks delicious and in that moment what you do is you substitute cognitive reality and past experience

for a picture of a chalupa and you think this is going to go good it don't go good now it's funny when it's you know Taco Bell or you need to do you think you want a new car but the moment you can't see future promises of God because of the desire for instant gratification is and that that's blurred your vision, you're in trouble. Like, when would that happen, pastor? Premarital sex. Some of you are dating right now and you're sleeping together. And the reason is because you're allowing your temporary appetites to be the Lord of your life

and you're not trusting what God's word says and what his promises are. And then you begin to like create this on sin. Well, we're married in our heart. You're not. There's no such thing. In the Bible or legally. Either one, you're not. It's just called sin.

It's what it is. It's what it is. Or when you're dishonest at work, you begin to lie to yourself and tell you, well, this, this corporation has plenty of money. They're not going to miss it. You're just lying to yourself and stealing. And the Bible says, just don't steal. But we all can do this. When we lie to people to try to impress them, it's because we're more concerned with the applause of man than the applause of God.

And what we do is we elevate the temporary applause of man and we de-emphasize what the king of the universe thinks about us. All you high school was on the front row. Let me tell you something. What's crazy, the people in your life right now, and their opinion of you matter so much, and one day you're going to go to a thing called a high school reunion. And I'm telling you, man, first thing you do, you walk in there, you're like,

what are these old people doing at my reunion? That's first off. And then the people that are the coolest person at your school, they're going to have to put the pictures with a name tag because you won't even be able to recognize these jokers. I'm serious. You're going to like, oh, my gosh, what happened to you? That's what you're going to think, okay?

And what's more sad is when 40-year-olds are like 14-year-olds. But we do it, man. We do it. Or if you drink too much, I'm like, I deserve this. Or you're in dumb debt. First and foremost, you're stealing from God, and then you talk yourself into why I should buy this thing that I don't have money for, and then worried while your life's a wreck.

So we have a tendency. to do this. And so Jacob says, swear to me now. And so Esau swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Now listen, God's got a plan and we're going to see his plan work out here over the next half hour or so. But if Esau, if I was on to Esau's mat carriers and I could get jump into that tent right now and Esau is about to sell his birthright for a little cup of stew, I would want to jump in there and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, do you realize what you realize? You're not actually starving to death. I promise. Just give it a minute, man. There's going to be leftovers here in a little while. You can eat somewhere else. Or you might not eat all night. No problem. Tomorrow we'll have plenty of balance here. Do you realize you're giving up two-thirds of the inheritance? You're giving up your future. You're giving up a double portion. And do you have any idea, Esau, what hangs in the balance? You see, because God gave a promise to your granddad. And then that promise passed on to your dad.

And then that promise from God is going to pass on to either you or your brother. And God is going to use one of you, whoever has the birthright, and out of it he's going to build a nation. And out of that nation is going to come the Messiah. The one that's going to come is going to crush the head of the serpent. written about in Genesis chapter 3 and one day a couple thousand years from now Esau there's going to be this dude, it's kind of weird

his name's Matthew, it's a tax collector, no way I liked him but Jesus liked him and he wrote the most famous literature of all time and it's the story of the son of God coming to rescue his people and he starts out the letter like this he says

we serve the God of Abraham and of Isaac and it could say Esau but if you sell your birthright it's going to be your brother's name and the rest of your life is going to be different and Esau looks at that and he's like eh give me some stew

and you look at that and think what an idiot who would sell their birthright for a cup of stew answer me and you every single day of our life me and you me and you. Sometimes we sell out on the promises of God for the lust of the y'is, you know,

just to make a little more money or to work some more. And then honestly, fellas, we're the worst. We work, work, work to make all this money and then actually blame our family when we neglect them and say that we're doing it for them and then neglect them to do it. It doesn't make any sense. Be really, really careful, man. Did you sell out your family for a little cup of red still? I don't care how much money you make.

one day you're going to look at it and it's going to be like lentil stew and you're like, that's what I did, that's what I spent all of my time on. For some of us, it's lust of the flesh. It's food and drugs and sex and comfort and infidelity and pornography. And God has blessed you like crazy and you're willing to walk away from it in an instant because you got an appetite, you had a feeling, you had a desire. And instead of focusing on the God of the universe, the only one that can meet our desire, you get focused on this red stew or for some people it's status, it's followers, its influence.

And just like Esau, who man, when you're reading his story, you think, what a dummy. And I'm telling you, everybody that loves you and is a little bit removed and can see what kind of decisions we're making, we look at people like me and you and say, what a dummy. How in the world would we be willing to trade so much for so little? And then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. And how long do you think he was satisfied? It wasn't long. He begins to think, what have I done?

Thus, Esau despised his birthright. I mean, this is like the ultimate buyer's remorse. And I'm sure he begins to think, what have I done? So then when you get to chapter 27, verse one says when isaac was old and his eyes were dim so they couldn't see he called isaul the older son and there was a tradition in ancient times that when the dad would hand over the inheritance to the son there would be this formality there would be this blessing so isa old he can't see good and he says he's all come here boy and he comes in there and he goes here's what i want you to do

i don't know how much longer i have left so i want one final meal of some good venison so why don't go out there and kill a good one and then cook it up good and bring it back here to me and I'm going to eat it and then I'm going to bless you and he's like aye dad and he heads out in the woods like a good son and then Rebecca the mom hears it and goes to her favorite kid bad news and says hey Jake come here buddy why don't you go get some goat out of the freezer and I'll thaw it out real quick we'll microwave it we'll put something good on it and then we'll go tricky daddy and Jacob's like are you sure if he finds out he's going to kill me she's like don't worry about it. I got you. And he's like, well, yeah, but I'm all smooth skin, you know,

because that's what I do. I get pedicures and manicures and facials. And, you know, he's tough and rough and hairy. And what if dad notices? And she's like, all right, so here's what we're going to do. You're going to put on some of his clothes so you'll smell like him. And then you're going to put goat hair. That's a hairy joker to put goat hair. We're going to strap some goat hair up on your neck and your arms. And you're going to go there and kind of get your best Esau voice of it. Hey, dad, what's up? Okay, that's what you're going to do. So that's what he does. He gets all dressed up like his brother, and he's got some food that his mama cooked.

And he comes in there, and it's like, Dad, I got two deer meat. And he's like, how did you kill it so quick? He's like, oh, the Lord is good. And his dad's like, are you sure because you sound like Jacob? And he's like, no, I'm Esau. Check it out. And he touches his arms. And he smells him.

The Bible says he smells like goat. That's what Esau smell like goat. That's a good smell, right? 60% of the time, it works every time, baby. that, you know, so he's tricked. And then Abraham blesses him. I mean, Isaac blesses him. And he gives him the exact same blessing

that had been passed out from God to Abraham, Abraham to Isaac, and now Isaac to Jacob. He blesses him. It says, you will rule over your brothers, you will rule over nations, and God will bless you, bless the whole world through you, and whoever blesses you is blessed, and whoever curses you is cursed.

That's what he does. And then Jacob's like, got him, and then runs off. A couple seconds later, big Harry Esau, Red, comes walking in the door. He's like, Dad, I got the meat. He's like, who is that? He's like, it's your son of Esau. He said, I just blessed Esau. And Esau's like, that wasn't Esau.

And so they figure it out, and they realize that Jacob has lived up to his name, that he's a liar. He's deceitful. Pretty much his whole life has defined. by trying to grab hold of a situation and manipulate it for his own benefit. And what's crazy is, and Esau sits down like every son of a father. And he says, well, do you have a blessing for me? I'm telling you, right, guys? There ain't nothing like your dad blessing you.

So is that, Dad, don't you have a blessing for me? And here's how powerful words are. Once they go out of your mouth, they don't go back in. You ever notice that? Words are like toothpaste. Once they have the tube, they out. try to put toothpaste back in the tube when you get home. It won't work, man.

And so here's what's crazy. Isaac's like, I can't. I can't undo what I've done. I've already said that he's going to be in charge of you. And so Issaul's like, do you have a word for me? And his word was not good. And so the Bible says that Esau kind of makes a pact.

He says, all right, I'm going to let my dad die. And I'm going to have like a little week of morning or whatever. But I hate Jacob. and I'm going to kill Jacob. And so now Jacob, the one who has stolen the birthright and stolen of the blessing, he flees from home. He goes running.

It's like over 20 years that he is on the run because he's afraid again, because he's like a, you know, he's a cook and his brother's a linebacker. He's like, he's going to kill me. And so while he's out, this cool thing happens. chapter 28 verse 10 pick it up it says so jacob left birshiba and he went towards haran and he came to a certain place and he stayed there that night because the sun had set and taking one of the stones of the place

he put it under his head doesn't sound very comfortable one of the things i read said they believed in territorial gods and oftentimes if they went to a new territory they would lay their head on a rock and they were believing that the god of that territory would reveal themselves i don't know if that's true if somebody made it up but they wrote it down so and so he put it the rock under the rock under his head and he laid down in that place to sleep and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder or if you you know kind of grew up in the 70s a stairway set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven that's right stairway to heaven that's where it comes from right here and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it and he said

I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, and the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your offspring. This is known as the promised land. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Let me tell you how that works, because out of this people, Jesus, the Christ, will come, and he will be the blessing to the ends of the earth.

what that is. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised. He gets the exact same blessing as his grandfather Abraham. And here's what I think is very, very important to see. What did he do to deserve that blessing? Nothing. See, I got some really good news for us. There is more grace than Jesus than sin in us. No matter what you've done or how long you did it or how hard you ran from God, you can't outrun him. You can't hide from him. The moment he wants to come and get you, get ready, because here he comes.

And there is no one, no one too far gone for God. In fact, the Bible says, are God's arms too short to save? And some of you think you're too far gone. And some of you will even tell, well, pastor, you don't know what I've done. Well, who do you think you are? You don't know what Christ has done for you on the cross. that when he stretched out his arms, it was for anyone who would believe

in that anyone includes you. And he's not even just satisfied to save you. He still wants to use you for the expansion of his kingdom. Every time I read that verse are the arms of God too short to save. I think a T-Rex. Like some people believe in a T-Rex God. Like he's got these little arms over here

and he can't read. Like you've been praying for you one more and the Lord's like, I'm trying to get him. My arms is short. And then he gets aggravated so he just bites their head off. That ain't the God we serve. The God of the universe relentlessly pursues his rebellious kids and you can't outrun him. Now that's not an excuse to keep running and sinning.

That's an invitation to stop and slow down. So he has this dream. And then what's crazy is even though he has this dream, the next thing he's going to do, even though he's encountered the living God, is he does religious things, but he has yet to surrender his life to the Lordship. of Christ. So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put it under his head and he set it up for a pillar and he poured oil on top of it so he worships. That's good. And he called the name of the place Bethel. That means the house of God. But the name of the city was Luz at the first and then Jacob made a vow. You know what this sounds like to me? It sounds like saturated. People come in here and get slammed with the presence of God, sing the song, make a promise. God. God. I promise. I'm going to change some stuff. All right. Here's this promise. If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,

that ain't a good way to start your prayer. Notice how that's not surrender. He's about to make a deal with God. All right, God, I got your stairway to heaven dream. So I see your stairway to heaven and I'm going to raise you if you do what I think you ought to do, then do I have good news for you. You get me. That's what he's doing. If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear

so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a full tent to you. So even before he's saved, he's still trying to do religious things. He's making promises to God. He's making a deal with God. He even tides.

Some of you are saved and don't even do that. He does. And here's a part of the way we know that he has not surrendered his life to Christ. Look at what he's doing. He is preeminent in his own life. God, I know you're real. I've encountered you on the stairway to heaven. But this is how this thing goes.

You see, every single one of us come to Jesus like, the two thieves on the cross. Remember those two guys? One guy rails at Jesus. Nobody thinks they're him, by the way. And they say, if you are who you say you are, then save yourself and save us with you. The number of people that will show up to church and be like, well, if God really is God, then if he don't answer my prayer, I ain't following him.

You are Lord of your own life. It ain't going to end good for you. The other option is the other thief on the cross who doesn't try to make a deal with God. He just asked for a favor. We are here because of what we are done. You have been punished unjustly. Jesus, will you do me your favor and remember me when you go before your father in heaven? This is not Jacob's posture at this point.

And a part of the way we know it's not is the next several chapters. Chapters 29 and following, he acts like somebody that is the Lord of their own life. He continues time and time again to be a deceiver, to make a mess of his life, even though he's having a moment with God. That makes me nervous. The big old church like ours and about to be 18 campuses and all the people, it's not enough to just come in here and feel a song and bring a little money at the end and have a feeling. Have you surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ? Is he the boss of you?

Are you a disciple following in his footsteps? Or you just kind of chasing a little entertainment because you like being yelled at every week or so? He marries sisters. It's a problem. He gets tricked. Goes this guy named Laban's house. See's Rachel. She's smoking.

He's like, ooh, that's my girl. He's like, all right, you got to work for seven years for her. He works seven years. The Bible says goes by quick. She must have been really pretty. And then Laban the dad tricks him, gives him Leah, not as pretty. It's just true. I can't help it.

That's just what it is. And he's like, oh, you got me. I'm still in on Rachel. It's like, all right, seven more years. But then Jacob comes up with a. plan to scam his father-in-law out of most of his herd because of this little trick about spotted cows and stuff you can read all about it by the end of it here's what he's done he slept with four different women he's got 12 kids one girl 11 boys with four different women and he's stolen most of the money

from his father-in-law and so he's got to leave in the middle of the night he's good at leaving in the middle of the night. He stole from his dad. He stole from his brother. He's ignored the call of God. He's stealing from his family. This just is who he is. He burns every bridge because he is a deceiver. That's just who he is. And then God's tired of him running. So by the time you get to chapter 32, Jacob gets word that his brother Esau has finally tracked him now. And Issa, He's, I remember big hairy linebacker. He's got 400 dudes with him. Linebackers like to hang out with linebackers, you know what I'm saying?

So everybody's yoked up in Esau's army. And Jacob's terrified. He's terrified. And so he's on the run. Chapter 32, verse 22. This is our primary text. All of that was just intro. Now I'm going to start preaching.

Ready? He's on the run. Financially, he's doing great. Socially, he's doing great. doing great. On the outside, everything's great and on the inside, everything is turmoil. Why? Because there is no temporary thing in this world that can fully and finally satisfy that God-shaped space in your soul, man. There are some of you right now, and you're living in your dream house, and your wife is way better looking than you, and you have relatively

okay kids, and a great job. I mean, you've got everything that you always thought you wanted, and yet you're sitting here right now and you're thinking, something missing. And the answer is yeah, the thing is missing. And so chapter 32, verse 22, that same night, Jacob Rose and he took his two wives, which is a, I mean, listen, if you've got a favorite wife, you're not doing it right. Okay, jot that down. And his two female servants, which he had some children with,

and his 11 children, this is how crappy you have a dad. He actually had 12 kids. One of them's a girl, he just doesn't even count her. This ain't good, man. And later he's going to have a 12th boy named Benjamin. all right so he takes them all and he crossed the ford at jobok and he took them and he sent them across the stream and everything else that he had and jacob was left alone sometimes god will do whatever it takes to quiet down the noise of this world so that you can be along with him so that

you've got to deal with him and so this is what he does jacob was left alone and a man it's not really a regular man we're going to see and a man wrestled with jacob until the breaking of day and when this man saw that he did not prevail against jacob he touched his hip socket this is the ufc part they're fighting all night long a championship ufc bout is five five minute rounds and those brothers look like they come out of the washing machine when they're done and they're well train. You understand? Jacob fights with. All right, it's Jesus. That's who he's going to fight with, all right? And they wrestle all night long. But when the man that he was wrestling with saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket. In the Hebrew, he lightly touched

his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint, pop as he wrestled with him. Got him. How does this happen? You see, what's going to happen? is that the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, and what theologians call a Christophony, is going to show up on the scene. Because God has a purpose and a playing for Jacob. And he's been running and running and running, and you just got to hear me, man.

You cannot outrun Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad he came and chased me down when I was running as hard as I could. And some of you're in a wrestling match right now, and you feel like you feel like you're in a tussle. And I'm telling you, it is just the mercy of God that he didn't just show up and say, Jacob, and slap his head off. This isn't a wrestling match like, it's not like this one that he's wrestling with

couldn't overtake him. It's sort of like when my kid was, when JP was lit, I can't do it anymore, but when he was little and we would wrestle, then, you know, I could whip him when he was six, you know, but you don't, what kind of dad does that? Come here, wham! You don't do that. You just kind of hold back, kind of let him stay in the game, you know what I mean? I mean, this is what the God of the universe is doing with Jacob, and this is what the God

of the universe is doing with you and me right now. Oh, man, it's his kindness that leads us to repentance. It's his mercy that overlooks sins so that the wages of sin is death. He doesn't enact a payment right now, and that we even make it to church tonight. So that's what he does. He chases him down. And at daybreak, he touched him on the hip, and his hip was put out of socket. Verse 26.

And then he said, Jacob says, let me go. For the day is broken. That's a clue right there. 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. Now, do you think that the Lord doesn't know his name? He's actually just saying, so who are you?

Like, who do you say that you are? And this is Jacob's testimony, Tom. He's like, well, my whole life I've been a liar. My whole life I've been a deceiver. My whole life I've been trying to grab on the situation. and be in control of them and trying to manipulate them for my own good. And honestly, it's worked, sort of, but it doesn't work for a long time. And eventually, I've got to leave and start over again because I've done it over and over and over.

And tonight's the first night of my whole life. I have not been able to grab onto a thing and manipulate the circumstances for my own benefit. My name is deceiver. And then look at this. And then he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob. But Israel, for you have striven or wrestled or fought with God and with men and have prevailed. So how do we know that this is a Christophany? He's going to say it in just a little while.

He came face to face with God and he was allowed to live. That the God of the universe stepped out of time and space, stepped into time and space out of eternity and grabbed onto this man because he pursued his heart like that. And he could have squished him in a second, but he didn't. He allowed him to fight and fight and fight. And here's what you have to understand. When you are broken by God, that's when you actually win. And he changes his identity.

He says, you used to be a deceiver, but now you are one who wrestles with God. And oftentimes the death of the old you is the beginning of who God has called you to be. And you'll never find your life until you lose that old dead life and give it over to Jesus. You see, here's what's crazy. The way we win is by losing to God. You think about that? You want to win, quit. You want to succeed?

Lay your life down. You want to be somebody? Surrender to Jesus. And then you'll be the you that he came up with when he came up with the idea of you. What will really mess your head up is that the way God wins is by losing. I mean, the one that he's wrestled with. with, it's like, hey man, I couldn't get you. Congratulations. You wrestled with God and you won. What? Does that mean God lost? Here's the way you have to see the Old Testament. I heard some other

preachers say this today, and I love it. He said, there's three postures that most people come to the Old Testament with, and two of them are wrong. One is we come to it like a museum. They're like, oh, that's interesting. And we just kind of look at it. Isn't that neat? Those are some facts. But I've never met the person that goes to a museum and has their life change. Okay? The other one is we come to the, this is the way most people come to the Old Testament. Some people come to the Old Testament like you go to the gym. You don't know what you're doing, so you just look at a buff person and be like, oh, that's how that machine works. I should do that.

And if you come to the Old Testament that way, be like, oh, I should be more like David. Or I should be more like Moses. Or I should be more like Solomon. Or I should be more like Jezebel. No, I say, you don't want to be like her. You don't actually want to be like Moses or David either. These are murderers and adulterers. And if you do that, what you'll begin to see is, I can't live up to the pressure of trying to just be a better version of me.

The way that we've got to come to the Old Testament, the best way to think of the Old Testament is the Old Testament is like the cradle in which Jesus was born in. Every single page of the scriptures carries the purpose. person and work of Jesus, it's just a foreshadowing of what will come. So when Jacob wrestles with God and God willingly decides to not flex all of his power but allows Jacob to stay in the fight, it is a foreshadowing of Jesus is coming back. He did come back and he, from our perspective, lost on the cross. The all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, all-loving, creator of of the universe allows himself to be arrested, to be beaten, to be flogged, to be nailed to a cross, and God made him, who was without sin, to be sin for us. And then he pushes up on his nail,

pierce feet. And he says, it is finished. And what was finished is he took the payment for our sin, in our place. But he didn't say he was finished because he wasn't finished. Three days later, he rolls the stone away and he comes walking out of the grave and puts death to death. and that's how we have victory. And he changes his name. Listen, man, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, your identity changes. I want you to know this, even though all of Jacob's track record is negative, and he is a liar and he is a deceiver, but when Christ changes his name, he goes,

that's not who you are anymore. Listen, the world doesn't get to tell us who we are. Only he gets to tell us who we are. Let me tell you how this plays out. your past does not tell you who you are. You're not your abortion or divorce or affair or bankruptcy or addiction or broken promises. You are not the thing that you're most ashamed of. That's not who you are.

Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. If you have surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, he gives you a new name. And his new name for you is beloved. You are more than a conqueror. You were adopted into the family of God. Legally, heavenly, your name changes and all of your future changes. changes and that's who you are. And so we should act like it. And so Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. And he said, why is it that you ask my name? And he's probably thinking, because you broke

my hip, man. I'm probably going to need to tell somebody about this. But he didn't tell him his name. He said, why you ask my name? And there he blessed him. And so Jacob called the name of this place Pennial, which means the face of God, saying, for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered. The son rose upon him as he passed Pinielle limping because of his hip. I've told you this a million times, man. When you get run over by the grace train, it changes everything about everything about everything. You don't get to wrestle with the almighty God and surrender your life and not walk away with a limp. And I mean the good kind of limp. You see, we live in a world right now that tells

you that you should hide your scars and scars are somehow bad. And we have an enemy that tries to define you by your scars. I got some really good news, man. God's not ashamed to your scars. Your scars and my scars are nothing but a testimony of the grace of God and what he has saved us from. In fact, I want you to think about this. If you were in Christ, the Bible says you're going to go to heaven. And Clapton was right. Ain't no tears in heaven. A lot of classic rock references today, okay? The Bible says that he didn't make it up. The Bible says that Jesus will wipe away every tear. I want you to think about this practically. I don't think that's poetry. I think that's like an actual event. You get to heaven. There's some sad stuff in our world. They don't doubt about it.

And the Bible says that Jesus will wipe away every tear. Well, how do you wipe tears away? Mamas, you know how to do this. You're going to do the two thumb from the middle, outside window washer. Whoop. Right? Well, when Jesus Christ, the lamb that was slain, comes face to face with you in heaven and says, well done, good and faithful servant. And he reaches out his hands to fully and finally wipe those tears away. What are you going to see? you're going to see scars in his hands. And so anytime the enemy tries to define you by your scars, you just remind him that we're defined by the scars of Jesus Christ.

And those scarred hands are we're going to wipe away our tears. So he's changed. He's changed forever, man. So let me ask you this. What are you wrestling with? Maybe a better question is, what is God wrestling with you with? What is that thing that you're holding on to?

What is that area of your life that you need to surrender? Maybe it's some secret sin, maybe it's control, maybe it's fear. Maybe you would come to the place tonight where you would realize that ultimate freedom is only found in surrender to the one that says he is the way the truth in the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. I've told you before you fight the devil in the dark, you can get your butt kicked. And if you really want to be free, you've got to be honest. And there are some believers in the room right now and the Lord wants to change something about it. you. Some addiction, some secret sin, some shame and guilt that is just pin up in you. And tonight is the night, I want you to just say, okay, here, Lord, take it, take it. Here's how we know this is

the moment that Jacob has actually changed from the inside out. Because from here on, his life changes. In the next verse, he goes to seek reconciliation from the brother that he burned the bridge with. He just falls before his brother and just says, I'm so sorry, will you forgive me? And then the next thing you read is Esau is overcome with grace, and they just hug and embrace. And then shortly after that, by the time you get to chapter 35, Jacob fills a call of God to check this out. Return to Bethel, the place where you first met God. And so Jacob goes back and he does three things. He worships.

He goes back to that altar that he built at first. and he worships. And on his way, he puts to death the little G gods that he has been collecting. The Bible says he buries them under a tree. You put dead people under trees in the Old Testament. And what he is saying to those things that are hindering his walk with the Lord, he's saying, I'm putting you to death. I'm not playing games with these things anymore.

And he makes an sacrificial offering to God. What's really interesting, I'm not trying to read 1122 back. into what Jacob was doing. But you know how we close every week? That's how we close. That the invitation of God is, you don't need information, man. You need an encounter with a living God. And so you know what we do? We worship. We worship. We declare his goodness. God, you are king of my heart. And I got to get in here every single week and remind me because I don't mean to, but I kind of go through my life. And before I know it, I got these little G-gods all kind of going along with me.

And I got to bury these things every week. And so we come and we pray and we get on our face as a sign of surrender to the Almighty King and say, God, I want to live in freedom. And my only way I can live in freedom is be a bond servant to you. And then we make sacrificial offerings to the Lord. In our words, in our attitudes, and in our resources, we bring our first and best. That's what we do. But for Jacob, it started with surrender.

And so have you ever gotten to the place where you've ever gotten to the place where you felt God wrestling you. You felt God calling you. And again, the enemy is going to whisper and be like, no, no, no, not you. Those good church people sitting down the row from you, the ones that knew the songs, those people. And I'm here to tell you that Jesus came for you. I mean it. No matter who you are or what you've done. And you say, well, what do I do? You do what Jacob did. you just tap out that's it that you realize

that the God of the universe has a hold of you and you can resist and resist and resist and you can keep trying to do life the way you've been doing life but how's that worked out for you? But maybe tonight you've come to the place where you're ready to admit it I need somebody to do for me what I can't do for me because my way ain't working

whether you're super successful or you find yourself in a ditch deep down in your soul, you realize the temporary things of this world just ain't cutting it. And then you believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. That when Jesus pushed up on his nail, pierced feet and says, it is finished, paid in full, that that payment counted for you. And if you do that, if you get to the place where you know you need a Savior and you believe or trust when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for you, then the Bible says,

pray this prayer and God will answer it 100% of the time for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And what it means to call on the name of the Lord, that's the word that matters. The Lord. What you're saying is, I give up. I'm not going to be the Lord of my life anymore. I'm turning the reins of my life over to you. And the Bible says 100% of the time God answers that prayer. One of the cool things about Genesis 35. When Jacob returns to Bethel, listen, nothing pleases the heart of the father more than his children coming back home. And some of you right now need to come home. You've been running and running and running.

And you know you just need to tap out. You just need to say, Jesus, I surrender. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? And if that's you, and you're tired of wrestling. The flesh and the devil and this world. world and you're finally at a place where you say all right Lord I give up I surrender I want you I believe somehow when Jesus died on the cross somehow that counted for me and tonight is the

night that you were ready to confess Jesus as your Lord and save me for the very first time I would invite you to lift your hand as high as you can and you just say in your heart or you can say it out loud Lord save me and the Bible says that he will right now and he will change your name he will change your eternity he will change your identity our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. God, I thank you that the stairway of heaven, you didn't just stay at the top of the stairs and invite us to get our act together and climb our way up to you. But God, you descended in the person and work of your son, Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life and died a sinner's death in our place. And if we

would just believe, then we would receive the right to be called your children. And the old us is dead. The lying us is dead. The prideful us is dead. The arrogant one of us is dead. And we have been resurrected into a newness of life through you, Jesus. Lord, I just pray that you would pour yourself out on us so that we, too, could walk with a limp, the kind of limp that looks like we have surrendered our life to Jesus. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? And as you know, in my opinion, this is the most important thing we do. And we're going to do what Jacob did when he returned to Bethel.

We're going to worship. We're going to declare that Jesus is the king of our heart, and we're going to pray. And there are some of us as a bunch of us, and you've just been wrestling and wrestling and wrestling, and I dare you to do your wrestling down here. We got some mats. We've got a ring up here. They're really just carpets and a kneeler thing, but you know what I'm talking about. I want you to come and do work.

And maybe you would invite somebody to come with you. And why don't we worship him sacrificial and bring our first. and best declaring Jesus you and you alone are the king of my heart let's sing let's bring let's pray let's go