WEBVTT 00:00:01.690 --> 00:00:06.389 Peniel, he wrestled with God, walked away limping, 00:00:06.469 --> 00:00:17.530 and that was mercy. Hey there, tonight we find 00:00:17.530 --> 00:00:20.929 ourselves standing by a river at midnight. No 00:00:20.929 --> 00:00:25.269 crowd, no music, no altar call. Warming up in 00:00:25.269 --> 00:00:28.500 the background, just a man named Jacob. a long 00:00:28.500 --> 00:00:31.739 memory, and a future he can't outrun anymore. 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:36.539 This is one of those Bible stories that refuses 00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:40.039 to stay polite. It's dark. It's physical. It's 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:44.399 strange. A man wrestles God or an angel or maybe 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:47.020 the last honest version of himself, and nobody 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:50.399 walks away the same. Jacob doesn't get answers. 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:54.280 He gets touched. He gets renamed. He gets a limp 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:58.079 and a blessing at the same time. Now, if you're 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:00.820 tuning in and thinking this doesn't sound like 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:04.480 a normal Sunday, you're right. Most weeks, this 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:06.859 is our Wednesday night midweek fellowship Bible 00:01:06.859 --> 00:01:10.079 study, or it's our Sunday sermon here at the 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.099 church. Oklahoma gave us a snowstorm. Roads still 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:16.239 say no thank you. And instead of the fellowship 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:19.060 hall, we're sitting here in the vestry recording 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:22.180 this so you can catch up with it later when it 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:25.329 gets uploaded. Same word, same honesty, just 00:01:25.329 --> 00:01:28.430 a little quieter room. And I'll see you on the 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:36.030 other side. Friend, to understand what happens 00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:38.489 at that river at midnight, you've got to remember, 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:42.069 Jacob didn't just wander into some spiritual, 00:01:42.150 --> 00:01:47.109 mysterious moment like a man stumbling onto a 00:01:47.109 --> 00:01:51.340 revival meeting by accident. Jacob is a thread 00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:54.140 in a tapestry that started long before his own 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:57.379 feet ever touched that dirt. The story begins 00:01:57.379 --> 00:02:01.019 with a voice calling Abram out of nowhere, out 00:02:01.019 --> 00:02:05.519 of Ur, out of the known world, out of the predictable 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.740 life, and God making a promise big enough to 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:12.259 make an old man laugh and tremble at the same 00:02:12.259 --> 00:02:17.080 time. I will bless you, and in you all the families 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:20.340 of the earth shall be blessed. The promise gets 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:24.000 carried around like a family heirloom. It's not 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.539 fragile, but it is contested. And it passes, 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.300 though a household with a line between faith 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:34.939 and fear keeps getting crossed up in both directions. 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:39.080 Abraham has Isaac. Isaac grows up, marries Rebekah, 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:41.680 and then they do what God's people always seem 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.310 to be doing in Genesis. They wait. They wait 00:02:45.310 --> 00:02:48.189 until waiting turns into a spiritual ache. And 00:02:48.189 --> 00:02:51.129 when the children finally come, they don't arrive 00:02:51.129 --> 00:02:53.669 peacefully. They arrive like a wrestling match 00:02:53.669 --> 00:02:57.550 in the womb. Rebecca feels it and asks the Lord 00:02:57.550 --> 00:03:00.789 what's going on. And she's told something already 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:03.650 sounds like trouble. There are two nations in 00:03:03.650 --> 00:03:07.770 her, two peoples. And the older will serve the 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:12.689 younger. So, Jacob is born into a story that 00:03:12.689 --> 00:03:16.370 already has tension in its bones. And then comes 00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:19.770 that famous scene you probably remember. Esau 00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:22.189 comes in hungry from the field, red and rough 00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:25.110 and immediate. And Jacob, quiet, calculating, 00:03:25.370 --> 00:03:28.409 always looking for the leverage, trades some 00:03:28.409 --> 00:03:34.030 stew for Esau's birthright. And later, with Rebecca's 00:03:34.030 --> 00:03:37.770 help, Jacob steals that blessing. that Isaac 00:03:37.770 --> 00:03:42.090 had meant to give Esau. Hey, that's no small 00:03:42.090 --> 00:03:45.949 family squabble. In that world, blessing is a 00:03:45.949 --> 00:03:49.650 future. Blessing is identity. Blessing is the 00:03:49.650 --> 00:03:52.229 name of God spoken over your life like prophecy 00:03:52.229 --> 00:03:57.069 with teeth. And Esau's rage is so hot, it becomes 00:03:57.069 --> 00:04:01.270 a plan. When dad's gone, I'm going to kill him. 00:04:01.849 --> 00:04:07.919 So Jacob runs. And if you want the honest Bible, 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:13.240 it gives you this. Jacob runs not as a hero on 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:17.879 a mission, but as a man escaping his own consequences. 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:23.139 That's how his story opens up into the long middle 00:04:23.139 --> 00:04:27.379 chapters of Genesis. Wandering, working, negotiating, 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:29.899 getting tricked, getting married, getting tricked 00:04:29.899 --> 00:04:34.540 again, building a household in exile. And Jacob 00:04:34.540 --> 00:04:38.180 goes to Laban's land and finds out what it feels 00:04:38.180 --> 00:04:40.579 like to be outplayed by somebody who's better 00:04:40.579 --> 00:04:44.079 at the same sin. The deceiver gets deceived. 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:48.639 The manipulator gets manipulated. The heel grabber 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:52.139 meets a man who will grab back. And 20 years 00:04:52.139 --> 00:04:56.160 pass just like that. Jacob becomes a wealthy 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:59.519 man, but wealth doesn't heal what guilt corrodes. 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:02.720 He becomes a husband, then two husbands worth 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:05.120 of a husband, then a father with more children 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.379 than he could count without sighing. But none 00:05:07.379 --> 00:05:13.639 of that changed one thing. Esau still exists. 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:20.860 And home is still behind him. An unfinished business 00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:25.819 has a smell, friends. It smells like fear at 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:29.769 bedtime. It smells like a name you don't want 00:05:29.769 --> 00:05:35.970 spoken out loud. So when Genesis 32 opens, Jacob 00:05:35.970 --> 00:05:39.689 is finally headed back. And you can feel the 00:05:39.689 --> 00:05:43.209 old dread rise up like weather. He sends out 00:05:43.209 --> 00:05:46.350 messengers and they come back with news. Oh, 00:05:46.410 --> 00:05:51.149 it sounds like thunder. Esau is coming to meet 00:05:51.149 --> 00:05:56.939 him and he has 400 men with him. That number 00:05:56.939 --> 00:06:00.720 doesn't sound quite like family reunion. That 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:05.180 number sounds like a reckoning. And Jacob does 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:08.079 what he always does. He strategizes. He splits 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:11.939 the camp. He sends gifts ahead. He tries to manage 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:14.560 the future like a man trying to hold a river 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:18.740 in his hands. And then, right when he had pushed 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.480 all the pieces around the board as far as he 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:25.569 could push them, night falls. And Jacob ends 00:06:25.569 --> 00:06:30.649 up alone by the river. And that's the moment 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:35.290 God chooses. Not when Jacob is surrounded by 00:06:35.290 --> 00:06:38.149 people who love him. Not when he's in control. 00:06:38.449 --> 00:06:43.149 Not when the path is clear. God chooses the hour 00:06:43.149 --> 00:06:46.470 when Jacob can't hide behind anything. When he 00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:49.329 can't hide behind his mother's plan, his own 00:06:49.329 --> 00:06:52.730 schemes, or his job. Or even the noise of the 00:06:52.730 --> 00:06:59.319 camp. Just Jacob. Just Ark. Just water moving 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:03.939 beside him like time. And here's what I want 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:06.040 to lay on the table tonight, plain as cornbread. 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:09.740 Most of us don't fear the devil half as much 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:14.620 as what we fear we can't outrun. There's a thing 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:17.860 behind you, maybe a person, a season. Maybe a 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:20.819 choice, maybe a version of yourself that you're 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:23.459 pretty sure is waiting on the other side of that 00:07:23.459 --> 00:07:26.399 river. You've done your planning. You've done 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:30.339 your coping. You've done your, I'm fine. You've 00:07:30.339 --> 00:07:32.779 sent the gifts. You've rehearsed the conversation. 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:35.319 You tried to buy peace with strategy and still 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:40.800 night comes. Genesis 32 is for the people who 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:43.579 are finally alone with what they've been carrying. 00:07:44.459 --> 00:07:47.819 And what makes it holy is that God doesn't meet 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:52.019 Jacob with a lecture. God meets him with contact. 00:07:53.079 --> 00:08:00.220 God meets him with a grip. So, my friend, attune 00:08:00.220 --> 00:08:03.399 your ears to the reading of Holy Scripture. Tonight's 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:07.500 reading comes to us from the first book of the 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:11.379 Torah, Bereshit, in Hebrew, or in the beginning. 00:08:12.569 --> 00:08:17.029 or as the Holy Bible calls it, Genesis. Chapter 00:08:17.029 --> 00:08:20.449 32 of that book, I'll begin reading with verse 00:08:20.449 --> 00:08:24.629 32. The same night he got up and he took his 00:08:24.629 --> 00:08:27.310 two wives, his two maids, and his 11 children 00:08:27.310 --> 00:08:31.290 and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them 00:08:31.290 --> 00:08:33.690 and sent them across the stream, and likewise 00:08:33.690 --> 00:08:37.169 everything that he had. And Jacob was left alone, 00:08:37.509 --> 00:08:42.860 and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When 00:08:42.860 --> 00:08:45.779 the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:48.639 he struck him on the hip socket and Jacob's hip 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.659 was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 00:08:52.179 --> 00:08:55.500 And then he said, let me go for the day is breaking. 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:59.980 But Jacob said, I will not let you go until you 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:03.399 bless me. So he said to him, what is your name? 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:07.340 And he said, Jacob. Then the man said, you will 00:09:07.340 --> 00:09:11.460 no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:14.059 have striven with God and with humans and have 00:09:14.059 --> 00:09:17.779 prevailed. Jacob asked him, Please tell me your 00:09:17.779 --> 00:09:21.759 name. But he said, Why is it that you ask for 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:26.039 my name? And then he blessed him. So Jacob called 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:29.139 the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God 00:09:29.139 --> 00:09:34.039 face to face, and yet my life is preserved. The 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:37.139 sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping 00:09:37.139 --> 00:09:41.289 because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the 00:09:41.289 --> 00:09:43.769 Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is 00:09:43.769 --> 00:09:46.309 on the hip socket because he struck Jacob on 00:09:46.309 --> 00:09:49.750 the hip socket at the thigh muscle. Lessons. 00:09:50.389 --> 00:09:55.230 Reading of Scripture this evening. The text says, 00:09:55.590 --> 00:10:00.169 A man wrestled with him until daybreak. And that 00:10:00.169 --> 00:10:04.070 sentence should bother us in the best way. The 00:10:04.070 --> 00:10:06.730 Bible is not embarrassed by how strange God can 00:10:06.730 --> 00:10:14.610 be. rush to smooth out all of the what? It doesn't 00:10:14.610 --> 00:10:17.929 say. Now, what this really means is Jacob had 00:10:17.929 --> 00:10:20.769 a metaphorical struggle in his prayer journal. 00:10:20.870 --> 00:10:26.070 No sir, no ma 'am. It says a man wrestled with 00:10:26.070 --> 00:10:32.860 him. So, put yourself there. You're Jacob. You 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:35.000 send everybody across the Ford, wives, children, 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:38.039 servants, livestock, all the noise, the movement 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:41.460 of your complicated household on the other side. 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:44.159 You've pushed them toward tomorrow while you 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:47.500 stayed on this side of the river. Maybe you told 00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:50.120 yourself you just needed a minute. Maybe you 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:52.139 told yourself you were guarding the rear. But 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:55.539 really, you're alone because you needed to be 00:10:55.539 --> 00:10:59.740 alone. Because the thing coming tomorrow. It's 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:04.279 too big to face with an audience. And the night 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:08.460 is dark in the way that city people don't know 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:12.720 night can really be. When there's no streetlights, 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:16.379 no porch lights, no glow from distant highways 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:20.259 or shopping malls, just stars and water and the 00:11:20.259 --> 00:11:23.659 kind of silence that makes your own breathing 00:11:23.659 --> 00:11:30.809 sound loud. Moving beside you, not loud, just 00:11:30.809 --> 00:11:34.409 persistent. The way time sounds when you're out 00:11:34.409 --> 00:11:37.509 of ways to stall it. You can smell the mud and 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:40.470 the green rot of river stones. And somewhere 00:11:40.470 --> 00:11:44.350 distant, smoke from your own camp drifting back 00:11:44.350 --> 00:11:48.529 across the water. And then there's someone there. 00:11:49.330 --> 00:11:53.289 Not walking up. Not announcing himself. Just 00:11:53.289 --> 00:11:56.629 there. Close enough that you can feel displacement 00:11:56.629 --> 00:11:59.610 of air. Close enough that your body knows before 00:11:59.610 --> 00:12:03.090 your mind does. You are not alone anymore. And 00:12:03.090 --> 00:12:08.100 he grabs you. No words, no introductions, no 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:11.980 thus saith the Lord. Just hands on you, pulling 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:14.879 you into motion, into struggle, into something 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:18.519 your body understands, even if your theology 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:22.080 doesn't. And you fight back because that's what 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:25.559 a man does when grabbing in the dark. You fight 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:27.679 back because you're Jacob and fighting is the 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:31.559 language you learn first. This isn't like fighting 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:34.740 Laban's shepherds over a well. This isn't negotiating 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:38.240 with the edge of threat. This is something entirely 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:41.779 different. This man is strong in a way that doesn't 00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:44.220 make sense. Not overpowering. If he wanted to 00:12:44.220 --> 00:12:46.919 overpower you, that would have been done in the 00:12:46.919 --> 00:12:50.759 first 30 seconds. No, he's strong the way a foundation 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:56.759 is strong. The way bedrock is strong. You push 00:12:56.759 --> 00:13:02.139 and he's... there. You pull and he's there. You 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:04.940 try to twist away and he moves with you like 00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:07.620 he knows what you're doing even before you do 00:13:07.620 --> 00:13:12.740 it. And it goes on and on and on. An hour, two, 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:16.740 and your muscles start to scream. Your lungs 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:19.580 are burning. Sweat is running into your eyes. 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:23.539 You can taste salt and fear and something else 00:13:23.539 --> 00:13:28.049 you can't quite name. You've fought before. You 00:13:28.049 --> 00:13:30.250 fought for Rachel, fought with Laban, fought 00:13:30.250 --> 00:13:33.789 your way through 20 years of exile. But you've 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:36.090 never fought like this because every other fight 00:13:36.090 --> 00:13:39.110 had an endgame. Every other fight had terms. 00:13:39.250 --> 00:13:42.090 Every other fight you knew what you were fighting 00:13:42.090 --> 00:13:45.649 for. But this, you don't even know what you're 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:53.129 fighting. You just know you can't stop. And the 00:13:53.129 --> 00:13:55.730 river keeps moving beside you like a witness. 00:13:55.830 --> 00:13:59.450 The stars wheel overhead. Your breath comes in 00:13:59.450 --> 00:14:02.830 ragged gasps. And still this man holds you, matches 00:14:02.830 --> 00:14:05.289 you, meets every desperate move with presence 00:14:05.289 --> 00:14:09.929 that won't break or retreat. And somewhere in 00:14:09.929 --> 00:14:12.649 the long, dark middle of it, you start to understand 00:14:12.649 --> 00:14:17.129 this isn't a fight you're going to win. But it's 00:14:17.129 --> 00:14:20.250 also not a fight you're going to survive by surrendering. 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:25.399 This is something else. This is endurance. This 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:29.419 is lasting. This is the kind of faith that doesn't 00:14:29.419 --> 00:14:33.679 triumph. It just refuses to let go. And then 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.360 comes that detail that's both terrifying and 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:39.860 almost funny in its simplicity. When the man 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:42.659 sees he does not prevail against Jacob, he touches 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:45.960 Jacob's hip socket, and Jacob's hip is put out 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:50.490 of joint, a touch. Stay in that for a moment 00:14:50.490 --> 00:14:54.570 because, pardon the pun, it's the hinge the whole 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:58.230 story swings on. You're Jacob. You're still in 00:14:58.230 --> 00:15:00.909 it, still grinding through this impossible night, 00:15:00.970 --> 00:15:03.230 still matching the stranger move for move, even 00:15:03.230 --> 00:15:05.629 though your body is past the point where it should 00:15:05.629 --> 00:15:07.529 have quit. You're running on something deeper 00:15:07.529 --> 00:15:10.639 than strength now. You're running on stubbornness, 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:13.960 on the muscle memory of a lifetime spent grasping, 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:16.919 of the old Jacob logic that says if you just 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:20.059 hold on long enough, if you just find an angle, 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.500 if you find the leverage point, you will find 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:25.500 the way through. He has been letting you believe 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:29.100 you were his equal, letting you have the illusion 00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:32.740 that you are matching his strength, but now you're 00:15:32.740 --> 00:15:35.980 ready for the truth, and he touches your hip. 00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:40.740 Not a blow. Not a strike, just a touch. Fingers 00:15:40.740 --> 00:15:43.139 finding the joint where your thigh meets your 00:15:43.139 --> 00:15:47.039 pelvis. That ball and socket architecture that's 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.700 held you up through every step of your very complicated 00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:54.460 life. A touch that's almost gentle, almost curious, 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:56.919 like a carpenter checking the soundness of a 00:15:56.919 --> 00:16:01.059 frame, and everything changes. And there's no 00:16:01.059 --> 00:16:04.000 pain at first, just a sensation, like physics 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:06.769 for getting out of work. Like the grammar of 00:16:06.769 --> 00:16:09.289 your own body suddenly speaking a language you 00:16:09.289 --> 00:16:13.330 don't understand. You feel the joints slip, shift, 00:16:13.549 --> 00:16:16.190 come apart in a way joints aren't supposed to 00:16:16.190 --> 00:16:20.169 come apart. Not breaking exactly, but dislocating, 00:16:20.210 --> 00:16:26.009 separating, failing. And then the pain hits. 00:16:27.190 --> 00:16:31.110 Deep, radiating pain that spreads up your spine 00:16:31.110 --> 00:16:34.330 and down your leg and into your belly. Your leg 00:16:34.330 --> 00:16:36.850 won't hold weight anymore, so you do the only 00:16:36.850 --> 00:16:41.889 thing left to do. You stop wrestling and you 00:16:41.889 --> 00:16:46.409 cling. Your arms go around him, not in attack, 00:16:46.750 --> 00:16:54.129 but in desperation. You're hanging on him, leaning 00:16:54.129 --> 00:16:57.889 your weight against him because your leg won't 00:16:57.889 --> 00:17:02.809 carry your weight anymore. You're no longer trying 00:17:02.809 --> 00:17:08.890 to defeat him. You're trying not to fall. You're 00:17:08.890 --> 00:17:12.109 trying not to be left alone in this darkness 00:17:12.109 --> 00:17:14.750 with your failure and your fear and the dawn 00:17:14.750 --> 00:17:18.210 coming whether you're ready or not. And here's 00:17:18.210 --> 00:17:23.109 the holiest part. He doesn't pull away. He doesn't 00:17:23.109 --> 00:17:25.569 shake you off, doesn't step back and let you 00:17:25.569 --> 00:17:28.730 collapse, doesn't say, that's what you get for 00:17:28.730 --> 00:17:32.789 thinking you could match me. He holds you up. 00:17:33.809 --> 00:17:37.809 That shift from wrestling to clinging, that's 00:17:37.809 --> 00:17:41.809 the whole gospel in body language. That's the 00:17:41.809 --> 00:17:44.549 moment when Jacob stops trying to take the blessing 00:17:44.549 --> 00:17:51.289 and starts asking for it. And when the grip changes 00:17:51.289 --> 00:17:55.619 from grasping to receiving, When the striving 00:17:55.619 --> 00:17:59.400 becomes surrender, and surrender becomes the 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:03.640 truest kind of strength you will ever know, some 00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:07.380 of the holiest faith on earth is not triumphant. 00:18:08.119 --> 00:18:11.579 It's just stubborn enough to stay close even 00:18:11.579 --> 00:18:16.460 when the leg gives out. Then the man asked Jacob 00:18:16.460 --> 00:18:19.829 a question. Question is not for God's information. 00:18:19.970 --> 00:18:23.549 God is not taking notes. God is pulling a confession 00:18:23.549 --> 00:18:27.049 out of a man's throat because in that world, 00:18:27.069 --> 00:18:31.069 in Jacob's world, in the world of Genesis and 00:18:31.069 --> 00:18:34.289 tent dwellers and altar builders, names aren't 00:18:34.289 --> 00:18:36.329 just convenient labels your parents pick out 00:18:36.329 --> 00:18:39.990 of a baby book. Names are prophecies. Names are 00:18:39.990 --> 00:18:43.390 identities. Names are the sound your destiny 00:18:43.390 --> 00:18:48.059 makes when it's spoken out loud. And when Abram 00:18:48.059 --> 00:18:51.619 becomes Abraham, it's not a clerical update. 00:18:51.779 --> 00:18:55.240 It's transformation. Father of one nation becoming 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.960 father of multitudes. The name itself carrying 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:02.759 the promise forward. When Sarai becomes Sarah. 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:06.720 When Simon becomes Peter. When Saul becomes Paul. 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:09.779 These aren't rebranding exercises. These are 00:19:09.779 --> 00:19:13.940 theological events. New names for new realities. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.769 New sounds. for new selves. And Jacob, Jacob 00:19:18.769 --> 00:19:22.809 is a name with teeth. And names have a sound, 00:19:22.849 --> 00:19:26.450 church. Jacob's name had been chasing him like 00:19:26.450 --> 00:19:28.950 footsteps in the dark, like his brother's voice 00:19:28.950 --> 00:19:31.910 20 years back saying, I am going to kill him. 00:19:32.829 --> 00:19:37.910 Because it means heel grabber, supplanter, the 00:19:37.910 --> 00:19:41.470 one who comes behind and takes what wasn't offered. 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:44.980 It's the name given to a baby boy clutching his 00:19:44.980 --> 00:19:47.539 twin brother's heel like destiny was something 00:19:47.539 --> 00:19:51.039 you could steal. It's the name that followed 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:53.400 him through every scheme, every manipulation, 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:57.519 every desperate grab at security. Jacob is the 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:01.019 man who traded stew for birthright. Jacob is 00:20:01.019 --> 00:20:03.319 the man who wore his brother's clothes and fur 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:06.920 on his arms to trick a blind father into blessing 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:11.700 the wrong son. Jacob is the man who ran because 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:15.859 his brother's rage had teeth of its own. So when 00:20:15.859 --> 00:20:19.960 this man asks, what is your name? When God asked 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:23.279 Jacob to say it out loud in the darkness beside 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:26.940 the river, that's not a simple question. It's 00:20:26.940 --> 00:20:31.700 an invitation to confession. That's God saying, 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:35.400 tell me the truth about who you've been and say 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:40.640 it out loud. Admit the pattern. Name the thing 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:46.240 you've been carrying. And Jacob does when he 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:54.019 says, Jacob. One word, but it costs him everything 00:20:54.019 --> 00:20:57.539 to say it. Because admitting your name when your 00:20:57.539 --> 00:21:01.079 name is shame, when your name is the summary 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:03.559 of all your grasping and scheming and running, 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:07.259 it's the kind of honesty that feels like dying. 00:21:08.180 --> 00:21:11.079 It's the kind of truth you can't dress up or 00:21:11.079 --> 00:21:13.460 manage or spin into something more palatable. 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:20.559 Just Jacob. I'm a heel grabber. I'm the one who 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:24.000 takes. I'm the one who couldn't trust the blessing 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:27.660 would come for me, so I had to grab it. I'm the 00:21:27.660 --> 00:21:31.200 one standing here because I have spent a lifetime 00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:35.079 trying to outrun the consequences of who I am. 00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:40.380 And here's the grace that will wreck you if you 00:21:40.380 --> 00:21:45.180 let it, friend. He doesn't get destroyed by telling 00:21:45.180 --> 00:21:51.559 the truth. He gets renamed. You shall no longer 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:57.599 be called Jacob, but Israel. Israel, the name 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:00.539 that will become a people, a nation, a covenant, 00:22:00.660 --> 00:22:04.079 a whole multi -generational argument with God 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:07.460 that runs through the rest of Scripture. It starts 00:22:07.460 --> 00:22:10.660 right here with one limping man beside a river 00:22:10.660 --> 00:22:14.519 at dawn being given a new sound to carry into 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:18.329 the future. The text ties it to striving, for 00:22:18.329 --> 00:22:21.210 you have striven with God and with humans and 00:22:21.210 --> 00:22:25.109 prevailed. But don't hear prevail like a victory 00:22:25.109 --> 00:22:29.289 lap. Jacob is wounded. Jacob is the one clinging. 00:22:29.750 --> 00:22:34.789 Jacob is about to limp into the sunrise. This 00:22:34.789 --> 00:22:37.349 isn't prevailing through dominance or superior 00:22:37.349 --> 00:22:39.930 strategy. This is prevailing through endurance, 00:22:40.349 --> 00:22:42.890 through lasting, through being stubborn enough 00:22:42.890 --> 00:22:46.529 to hold on when every muscle said quit. Through 00:22:46.529 --> 00:22:48.650 being honest enough to say his real name when 00:22:48.650 --> 00:22:51.369 the lie would have just been easy enough. And 00:22:51.369 --> 00:22:54.109 that's the kind of prevailing God honors. Not 00:22:54.109 --> 00:22:57.109 strength that overpowers, strength that stays. 00:22:57.490 --> 00:23:00.670 And that's the heart of it, friend. Not that 00:23:00.670 --> 00:23:03.390 Jacob figured it out. Not that Jacob did better. 00:23:03.869 --> 00:23:06.930 Not that Jacob suddenly matured into a wholesome 00:23:06.930 --> 00:23:10.869 Sunday school mascot. God renames him while he 00:23:10.869 --> 00:23:14.200 is still in the struggle. This is grace -first 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:17.960 theology in living color. Then Jacob asks the 00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:20.200 man's name. He wants clarity. He wants to pin 00:23:20.200 --> 00:23:23.980 this down. That's such a Jacob move. Names are 00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:26.299 power. If you can name it, you can manage it. 00:23:26.339 --> 00:23:30.140 But the man refuses. The man gives blessing instead. 00:23:31.389 --> 00:23:34.470 Sometimes, God will not satisfy your curiosity 00:23:34.470 --> 00:23:37.670 because curiosity can be a subtler form of control. 00:23:37.950 --> 00:23:41.170 You want the label so you can put it on the shelf. 00:23:41.410 --> 00:23:45.710 God wants you to live with the encounter. So, 00:23:45.869 --> 00:23:50.910 the sun comes up. Don't rush past that. Don't 00:23:50.910 --> 00:23:54.410 treat it like stage direction, like the lighting 00:23:54.410 --> 00:23:57.589 guy finally showed up to work. You're still Jacob 00:23:57.589 --> 00:24:02.319 or Israel now. Though the name is still too new 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:06.240 to you to feel like yours. You're still held 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:08.240 up by the presence you've been wrestling and 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:11.299 clinging to all night. And your hip, it's screaming. 00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:14.859 Your body is past exhausted into that strange 00:24:14.859 --> 00:24:17.500 country where exhaustion becomes something else. 00:24:17.539 --> 00:24:23.180 Clarity, maybe. Or surrender. Or the beginning 00:24:23.180 --> 00:24:28.299 of acceptance. And the darkness begins to thin. 00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:32.319 And it doesn't happen all at once. It's gradual, 00:24:32.500 --> 00:24:38.099 the way truth usually is. First, there's just 00:24:38.099 --> 00:24:41.059 a sense that the black isn't quite as absolute 00:24:41.059 --> 00:24:44.720 as it once was. Then you can start to make out 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:47.980 shapes, the line of the river, the rocks on the 00:24:47.980 --> 00:24:53.339 far banks, the trees. Color starts to leap back 00:24:53.339 --> 00:24:58.410 into the world. Sky goes from black to deep blue 00:24:58.410 --> 00:25:02.210 to that particular shade of hope that lives right 00:25:02.210 --> 00:25:06.589 before the sun shows itself. And you can see 00:25:06.589 --> 00:25:10.049 his face now. This man you've been fighting. 00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:15.150 This presence you've been held by. You can see 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:17.529 his eyes. And they're looking at you as something 00:25:17.529 --> 00:25:21.970 that isn't anger and it isn't pity. Something 00:25:21.970 --> 00:25:25.279 that knows you, really knows you. past the name 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.440 you just confessed, past the schemes, past the 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:31.339 running, all the way down to the thing God saw 00:25:31.339 --> 00:25:34.259 when God first called your grandfather out of 00:25:34.259 --> 00:25:40.059 Ur. You have been seen, not evaluated, not judged 00:25:40.059 --> 00:25:45.200 and found wanting, seen, known, held in the gaze 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:51.859 of the Holy One, not destroyed by it. Jacob names 00:25:51.859 --> 00:25:54.559 the place Pidiel because he says he has seen 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:57.500 God face to face and yet his life is preserved. 00:25:58.299 --> 00:26:01.339 That line carries weight that should make most 00:26:01.339 --> 00:26:05.319 of us stop and tremble. Because people in scripture 00:26:05.319 --> 00:26:08.900 understand something we've forgotten in our modern 00:26:08.900 --> 00:26:11.519 casual Christianity. You don't casually bump 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:15.470 into the Holy One like a lamp in the dark. God 00:26:15.470 --> 00:26:18.970 is a presence. Jacob expected would kill him 00:26:18.970 --> 00:26:21.589 for the schemes, for the lies, for saying his 00:26:21.589 --> 00:26:24.150 real name out loud in the darkness. And Jacob, 00:26:24.230 --> 00:26:27.029 limping, exhausted, honest for maybe the first 00:26:27.029 --> 00:26:30.549 time in his whole life, Jacob has been face to 00:26:30.549 --> 00:26:34.650 face with the presence all night. And he's alive. 00:26:36.150 --> 00:26:38.509 The sun that's rising now isn't just marking 00:26:38.509 --> 00:26:41.839 time, it's marking mercy. It's the visual proof 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:44.579 that the night didn't kill him, that the encounter 00:26:44.579 --> 00:26:48.099 didn't consume him, that God can touch you in 00:26:48.099 --> 00:26:50.680 your deepest truth and the morning still comes. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:55.599 And that is no small thing, friend. That's the 00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:57.480 kind of grace that doesn't flatter you into feeling 00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:00.859 good about yourself. That's the kind of grace 00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:05.279 that wounds you and holds you and renames you 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:10.789 and then, then lets the light come back. Because 00:27:10.789 --> 00:27:14.970 here's what's also true. Sun is rising on a new 00:27:14.970 --> 00:27:20.609 day. And that new day has Esau in it. 400 men. 00:27:20.789 --> 00:27:23.769 The brother he wronged. The reckoning he's been 00:27:23.769 --> 00:27:26.730 running from for 20 years. All of that is still 00:27:26.730 --> 00:27:29.589 coming. The sunrise didn't erase the future. 00:27:29.789 --> 00:27:34.450 It doesn't make tomorrow easy. Jacob crosses 00:27:34.450 --> 00:27:39.680 into that sunrise as Israel now. Crosses. with 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:42.359 a limp that will never fully heal. He crosses 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:45.279 his man, been touched by God and survived it. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:49.259 He crosses, knowing his real name and carrying 00:27:49.259 --> 00:27:52.660 his new one. And that changes everything about 00:27:52.660 --> 00:27:57.099 how he'll walk into what's coming next. Light 00:27:57.099 --> 00:28:00.579 didn't remove the difficulty. Confirmed the blessing. 00:28:02.019 --> 00:28:04.140 Confirmed that after a night like that, after 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:06.880 wrestling and breaking and clinging and confession 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:13.900 and renaming, The world doesn't end. No, but 00:28:13.900 --> 00:28:17.740 it does begin again. And when God meets you in 00:28:17.740 --> 00:28:20.920 the dark and does the hard work of making you 00:28:20.920 --> 00:28:26.880 honest, mourning is still possible. The sun still 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:31.779 comes up, and Jacob, Israel, limps forward into 00:28:31.779 --> 00:28:35.200 it. Limp is not a punishment. It's a testimony. 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:38.960 A reminder in the body that this blessing was 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:42.960 not a product. It was an encounter. So tonight, 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:47.119 I don't want anybody leaving with a tidy moral. 00:28:47.380 --> 00:28:52.440 This story refuses tidy. This story is older 00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:55.680 than our desire for clean conclusions. This is 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:58.299 not a lesson about how to try harder. This is 00:28:58.299 --> 00:29:00.619 a revelation about what God does when the future 00:29:00.619 --> 00:29:03.799 is closing in and you are straight out of tricks. 00:29:05.230 --> 00:29:08.049 Some folks have been living as Jacob for a long 00:29:08.049 --> 00:29:11.609 time. Not because you're evil. You've had to 00:29:11.609 --> 00:29:14.289 survive. You've learned to read rooms. You've 00:29:14.289 --> 00:29:16.309 learned to stay three moves ahead. You've learned 00:29:16.309 --> 00:29:18.829 to grab when you couldn't trust what was going 00:29:18.829 --> 00:29:21.029 to be offered. You learned how to protect yourself 00:29:21.029 --> 00:29:24.369 with a smile. You learned how to make it through. 00:29:24.529 --> 00:29:27.890 And the tragedy is survival skills can harden 00:29:27.890 --> 00:29:32.450 into identities. Jacob's whole life had been 00:29:32.450 --> 00:29:36.430 a long rehearsal of grasping. God beats him in 00:29:36.430 --> 00:29:39.630 the moment when grasping is not going to work 00:29:39.630 --> 00:29:44.609 anymore. Esau is coming. The river is now behind 00:29:44.609 --> 00:29:49.609 him and tomorrow is unavoidable. And that's when 00:29:49.609 --> 00:29:53.470 God puts hands on him. Not to break him for sport, 00:29:53.630 --> 00:29:57.430 to stop him from crossing the river still pretending. 00:29:58.349 --> 00:30:01.789 Because here's what's coming next in the narrative. 00:30:02.670 --> 00:30:06.950 Jacob is about to meet Esau. He's about to face 00:30:06.950 --> 00:30:09.809 the brother he's wronged, and that meeting is 00:30:09.809 --> 00:30:13.910 not going to be managed by trickery. That meeting 00:30:13.910 --> 00:30:18.789 is going to require a man who can bow, a man 00:30:18.789 --> 00:30:21.869 who can speak honestly, a man who can receive 00:30:21.869 --> 00:30:25.730 mercy without manipulating it. So God makes him 00:30:25.730 --> 00:30:29.589 Israel before he meets Esau. God gives him a 00:30:29.589 --> 00:30:34.269 new name before he walks into the old fear. And 00:30:34.269 --> 00:30:38.970 that is the order of grace. And the limp? The 00:30:38.970 --> 00:30:41.910 limp means Jacob is going to approach that reunion 00:30:41.910 --> 00:30:45.730 not as a swaggering winner, but as a humbled 00:30:45.730 --> 00:30:51.470 man. Can't run if things go bad. He can't fight 00:30:51.470 --> 00:30:55.049 like he used to. He has to walk forward carefully, 00:30:55.390 --> 00:31:01.779 dependent. aware, and honest. Sometimes the thing 00:31:01.779 --> 00:31:04.700 God heals you in is not your circumstance. It's 00:31:04.700 --> 00:31:09.500 the way you're entering the circumstance. That's 00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:12.259 why this passage belongs in the bigger biblical 00:31:12.259 --> 00:31:16.490 narrative too. Israel, the people, We'll spend 00:31:16.490 --> 00:31:19.170 generations wrestling with God, wrestling with 00:31:19.170 --> 00:31:22.309 neighbor nations, wrestling with their own idolatry, 00:31:22.349 --> 00:31:25.369 wrestling with their own fear. Prophets will 00:31:25.369 --> 00:31:29.049 look back at Jacob and say, there it is. There's 00:31:29.049 --> 00:31:35.230 our origin story. We are the people who cling. 00:31:36.589 --> 00:31:39.170 Jacob's midnight fight becomes a kind of spiritual 00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:43.869 family photograph. It's not flattering, but it's 00:31:43.869 --> 00:31:46.710 true. And if you're listening tonight and you've 00:31:46.710 --> 00:31:49.289 been afraid that the faith you have isn't strong 00:31:49.289 --> 00:31:51.769 enough, the text says something steady. God is 00:31:51.769 --> 00:31:54.769 not looking for your polish. God is willing to 00:31:54.769 --> 00:31:56.890 meet you in the dark and hold you until morning. 00:31:57.849 --> 00:32:02.190 And that's not an excuse to stay the same. It's 00:32:02.190 --> 00:32:05.250 the power to change without pretending. So maybe 00:32:05.250 --> 00:32:07.349 the prayer tonight isn't fancy. Maybe it's just 00:32:07.349 --> 00:32:10.890 this, Lord, I'm tired of being a type of Jacob. 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:15.519 And maybe the answer isn't immediate comfort. 00:32:15.700 --> 00:32:17.940 Maybe it's a night where God insists you tell 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:20.559 the truth, gives you a new name to carry into 00:32:20.559 --> 00:32:24.859 tomorrow. And may the God of Abraham, Isaac, 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:28.559 and Jacob, yes, Jacob, the complicated one, meet 00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:31.839 you where you're most honest. May the Lord meet 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:34.059 you at the river where all of your strategies 00:32:34.059 --> 00:32:36.980 run out. May you have the courage to say your 00:32:36.980 --> 00:32:40.589 real name without flinching. And... May the mercy 00:32:40.589 --> 00:32:44.670 of God rename you, not as a reward for performance, 00:32:44.910 --> 00:32:48.809 but as a gift for the weary. May you walk into 00:32:48.809 --> 00:32:51.410 what's coming with a limp if you must, but with 00:32:51.410 --> 00:32:55.789 a blessing you did not earn. And may you find 00:32:55.789 --> 00:32:59.289 that the sunrise is still possible, even after 00:32:59.289 --> 00:33:09.000 a night like that. Amen. As we come out of this 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:11.279 story, I don't want to rush you past what might 00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:14.319 still be stirring. Jacob didn't leave the river 00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:17.819 fixed, and he didn't leave it finished. But he 00:33:17.819 --> 00:33:21.619 left it changed. And some of us tonight might 00:33:21.619 --> 00:33:24.220 feel the comfort of knowing we're not abandoned 00:33:24.220 --> 00:33:28.059 in the dark. God will meet us even when we're 00:33:28.059 --> 00:33:30.960 exhausted, even when our best strategies have 00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:34.759 failed. Some of us... might feel the quiet conviction 00:33:34.759 --> 00:33:37.140 that there is a name we've been avoiding saying 00:33:37.140 --> 00:33:40.880 out loud. Truth we've been circling for years. 00:33:43.140 --> 00:33:47.359 Both of those responses belong here. Comfort 00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:50.380 and conviction are not enemies. They're often 00:33:50.380 --> 00:33:52.660 the same grace just coming at us from different 00:33:52.660 --> 00:33:57.500 directions. So, if something in tonight's story 00:33:57.500 --> 00:34:03.660 touched you, If you felt seen, unsettled, steadied, 00:34:03.660 --> 00:34:08.340 or gently comforted, consider this your invitation 00:34:08.340 --> 00:34:11.340 to respond. Not with performance, but with witness. 00:34:12.179 --> 00:34:15.199 Drop that old like the way you might drop something 00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:17.860 in the offering plate. Not to earn anything, 00:34:17.960 --> 00:34:21.139 not to prove anything. Just to say, I was here. 00:34:21.659 --> 00:34:25.400 I heard it, and it mattered. And... If you'd 00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:27.860 like to keep walking with us into the new year, 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:30.420 go ahead and tithe your subscribe. That way, 00:34:30.539 --> 00:34:33.820 when this snow finally clears and we're all back 00:34:33.820 --> 00:34:36.820 in the sanctuary together, you'll know when church 00:34:36.820 --> 00:34:41.159 is meeting again. Same people, same God, same 00:34:41.159 --> 00:34:46.179 Honest Wrestling. Until then, friend, be blessed.