Blessings | Find Your Way Home Week 4 | Anywhere Service

God wants to wrestle with you, and He might let you win. In the book of Genesis Jacob wrestles with God and God gives him a blessing. Brian takes a journey into the wilderness to explore Jacobs’ story and find out what the heck is going on.

  • 00:00:01
    - Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Hannah.
  • 00:00:02
    - And I'm Kyle.
  • 00:00:04
    - Today, our senior pastor, Brian, is going
  • 00:00:05
    to help us with the things that we wrestle with.
  • 00:00:07
    - That's exactly right.
  • 00:00:08
    I know we both wrestled with things like shame
  • 00:00:11
    and pride and maybe something more practical,
  • 00:00:13
    like money and giving, you know?
  • 00:00:15
    And I want to say, if that's you,
  • 00:00:16
    this message is here to help, and so are we.
  • 00:00:18
    - That's right. So with that, let's get started
  • 00:00:20
    and go to Brian and hear about the story of Jacob.
  • 00:00:27
    - We're all on a journey in life.
  • 00:00:28
    Some people know where they're going.
  • 00:00:30
    And some people don't.
  • 00:00:32
    The difference?
  • 00:00:33
    It's knowing your origin story
  • 00:00:36
    and finding your way home.
  • 00:00:39
    You have to know where you came from
  • 00:00:42
    if you're going to know where you're going.
  • 00:00:44
    We believe that there is a God,
  • 00:00:45
    and He made you for a journey, a life of adventure.
  • 00:00:50
    Crossroads exist to help you get there.
  • 00:00:52
    We're going all the way back to the beginning
  • 00:00:55
    of the story in Genesis
  • 00:00:56
    to find our way home to blessings.
  • 00:01:09
    - Hey, I'm Brian, Senior Pastor at Crossroads.
  • 00:01:12
    You know, if you follow God,
  • 00:01:14
    you're in the family, that's good news.
  • 00:01:16
    I'll give you even better news.
  • 00:01:17
    There's a blessing for being in the family.
  • 00:01:21
    The Genesis story unlocks for us
  • 00:01:23
    how you actually get that blessing.
  • 00:01:26
    And part of it is I'm going some place right now.
  • 00:01:30
    I'm actually in an anti friction machine.
  • 00:01:33
    Everything about this is designed to minimize friction.
  • 00:01:38
    Round wheels instead of square wheels,
  • 00:01:40
    ball bearings everywhere,
  • 00:01:41
    grease everywhere to minimize friction.
  • 00:01:44
    The thing about our life is that
  • 00:01:46
    our life is going to have friction,
  • 00:01:48
    specifically if you're moving some place,
  • 00:01:51
    if you're going some place,
  • 00:01:52
    this thing is about going some place.
  • 00:01:54
    And if you are going to try to go some place,
  • 00:01:56
    you're going to have friction.
  • 00:01:59
    Life is about movement, and the big word
  • 00:02:02
    for today really is life is about hustling.
  • 00:02:04
    It's about going some place.
  • 00:02:06
    We're going to look at Jacob today because
  • 00:02:08
    there's things in this ancient hero's story
  • 00:02:10
    that help us understand God
  • 00:02:12
    and help us understand our life.
  • 00:02:13
    And if you've been in church before,
  • 00:02:15
    you've heard sermons before,
  • 00:02:16
    you've heard anything about
  • 00:02:17
    this ancient character named Jacob,
  • 00:02:19
    you're going to be really confused about
  • 00:02:22
    what I'm going to talk about today
  • 00:02:23
    because Jacob is normally the bad guy.
  • 00:02:25
    He's normally seen as just a jerk.
  • 00:02:28
    He's a person who's selfish,
  • 00:02:29
    and that's really not the case at all.
  • 00:02:31
    We misunderstand somebody who's moving some place.
  • 00:02:35
    Now, Jacob is definitely not a pristine character.
  • 00:02:38
    The Bible's heroes, especially Jacob,
  • 00:02:41
    are not whitewashed.
  • 00:02:42
    There's no diplomacy about showing these people's faults.
  • 00:02:46
    And Jacob has a lot of faults, but he is used by God.
  • 00:02:51
    He is incredibly blessed,
  • 00:02:53
    and he should be a model for us.
  • 00:02:56
    Let's start back beginning,
  • 00:02:58
    the very beginning of his life.
  • 00:03:00
    He's in the womb with his twin brother, Esau.
  • 00:03:04
    His parents are named Isaac and Rebekah.
  • 00:03:07
    They're having twins.
  • 00:03:08
    And in the womb Jacob is trying to move some place.
  • 00:03:14
    He's trying to move out of the birth canal,
  • 00:03:16
    and he's actually trying to move out before Esau.
  • 00:03:20
    So, he comes out holding onto his--
  • 00:03:23
    holding on to his heel, grasping onto his heel.
  • 00:03:28
    Some people look at this and go,
  • 00:03:29
    "Look at Jacob, he's just trying to supplant
  • 00:03:33
    what Esau has coming to him as the eldest,
  • 00:03:37
    as the first born."
  • 00:03:39
    There's the thing with this ancient culture,
  • 00:03:41
    you had the the birthright.
  • 00:03:43
    The Birthright was something
  • 00:03:45
    that the oldest son would have.
  • 00:03:47
    This is their cultural context.
  • 00:03:48
    The older son had a birthright, which meant that
  • 00:03:52
    he was to be the one that got the lion's share
  • 00:03:54
    of the inheritance from dad and mom.
  • 00:03:57
    He was the one who is supposed to manage the family.
  • 00:04:00
    It was his birthright.
  • 00:04:01
    And Jacob, he wants that position.
  • 00:04:04
    He wants that birthright.
  • 00:04:06
    It's like in his birth he's he's trying
  • 00:04:08
    to beat his brother outside of the womb.
  • 00:04:11
    But he doesn't.
  • 00:04:12
    Some people who are misinformed would say that
  • 00:04:14
    Jacob means one who supplants.
  • 00:04:17
    He's not trying to supplant anything.
  • 00:04:19
    There's no deception going on here at all.
  • 00:04:22
    He's actually hustling. He's hustling.
  • 00:04:25
    Two points for today.
  • 00:04:26
    One is this: hustle, Jacob hustled.
  • 00:04:29
    His name, Jacob, doesn't mean one who supplants
  • 00:04:32
    or supplanter or deceiver.
  • 00:04:34
    His name means one who grasps.
  • 00:04:37
    He's grasping at the heel, he's grabbing the heel,
  • 00:04:40
    which is why they called him that,
  • 00:04:41
    trying to beat Esau getting out of the womb.
  • 00:04:46
    Hustle is not a negative term.
  • 00:04:49
    It can be, if you're hustling somebody,
  • 00:04:52
    you're not being honest with somebody.
  • 00:04:53
    That's not good.
  • 00:04:55
    But hustle, according to Webster, also means
  • 00:04:58
    obtaining by energetic activity.
  • 00:05:02
    That's what he does, his whole life
  • 00:05:03
    he's trying to obtain by energetic activity.
  • 00:05:07
    In Genesis 25:28, it says:
  • 00:05:18
    Part of the tension we're going to be seeing
  • 00:05:20
    here in this story is that there is
  • 00:05:22
    a lot of family dysfunction that's taking place.
  • 00:05:26
    This combat that Esau and Jacob have in the womb
  • 00:05:31
    is actually seen throughout the whole family
  • 00:05:33
    because Esau is the one his dad likes.
  • 00:05:38
    He's a manly man. He's the one who hunts.
  • 00:05:41
    Jacob is the one his mom, Rebekah likes.
  • 00:05:43
    He's the, you might say in today's vernacular for some,
  • 00:05:47
    he's the girly man. He's the one who's not hunting.
  • 00:05:50
    He's not doing the manly things.
  • 00:05:51
    He's doing the cooking.
  • 00:05:52
    Rebekah likes Jacob. Isaac likes Esau.
  • 00:05:57
    There's some family tension that's going on between them.
  • 00:06:00
    In the midst of this family tension
  • 00:06:02
    we see a seminal story take place in their family tree.
  • 00:06:06
    It goes like this in Genesis 25:29 and following:
  • 00:06:51
    There's nothing wrong here at all. Nothing wrong.
  • 00:06:54
    Christian-y, spiritual-y churchy types would say,
  • 00:06:57
    "Oh, shouldn't Jacob have just given it to Esau?
  • 00:07:00
    It's just be so much nicer to give, to give.
  • 00:07:01
    We should give."
  • 00:07:03
    I like giving, giving is
  • 00:07:04
    a very important spiritual discipline.
  • 00:07:06
    There's a time for giving, though,
  • 00:07:07
    and a time for hustling.
  • 00:07:09
    If you get a paycheck,
  • 00:07:11
    you're doing exactly what Jacob did.
  • 00:07:13
    It's a fair trade.
  • 00:07:15
    You're saying to your employer,
  • 00:07:16
    "I'm going to give you my time
  • 00:07:17
    and you're going to give me money."
  • 00:07:19
    Are you just giving your employer
  • 00:07:20
    your time all the time?
  • 00:07:21
    You might sometimes,
  • 00:07:22
    but you can't pay the bills that way.
  • 00:07:25
    If you own a business, are you just giving
  • 00:07:27
    your widgets away or whatever?
  • 00:07:29
    I don't even know the widget is.
  • 00:07:30
    We talked about that in business class.
  • 00:07:32
    Are you giving it away? No, you're trading it.
  • 00:07:34
    If you're a counselor, are you just giving away
  • 00:07:36
    your counsel to everybody?
  • 00:07:37
    No, you've got to put food on the table.
  • 00:07:39
    You're giving -- you're trading your counsel
  • 00:07:41
    for a fee of one hundred bucks an hour,
  • 00:07:43
    however good you are, based on how you can charge.
  • 00:07:48
    There's nothing wrong with what Jacob's doing.
  • 00:07:50
    He's just having a basic trade.
  • 00:07:52
    In fact, that verse said that it was Esau
  • 00:07:55
    who despised his birthright.
  • 00:07:57
    He undervalued his birthright.
  • 00:08:00
    And he's just a weak. He's weak.
  • 00:08:02
    He says, "Oh, I'm about to die."
  • 00:08:04
    You're not going to die.
  • 00:08:06
    You have raw meat with you.
  • 00:08:07
    You can eat raw meat if you're going to die.
  • 00:08:09
    You're not far from the village, you're going to be fine.
  • 00:08:12
    But man, Esau did not want to hustle.
  • 00:08:15
    Esau could not handle friction.
  • 00:08:17
    Esau could not handle difficulty.
  • 00:08:19
    He would take the easy trade any day
  • 00:08:21
    than hold out for something better.
  • 00:08:23
    That's not the way it is with Jacob,
  • 00:08:25
    and that can't be the way it is for you and I.
  • 00:08:26
    We've got to hold out for better things.
  • 00:08:28
    We've got to.
  • 00:08:29
    We've got to think through how to get ahead.
  • 00:08:31
    We've got to actually hustle.
  • 00:08:40
    Now, Jacob does have problems, in fact,
  • 00:08:41
    his whole family has problems.
  • 00:08:42
    He's not pristine, clean here.
  • 00:08:48
    This scenario goes down, years go by.
  • 00:08:51
    The official blessing hasn't been given yet.
  • 00:08:53
    The blessing as it goes to the person
  • 00:08:55
    who has the birthright.
  • 00:08:56
    The blessing happens --
  • 00:08:57
    The blessing, the blessing, the blessing --
  • 00:09:04
    Christmas vacation. Come on.
  • 00:09:05
    I can quote movies that are 30 years old, can't I?
  • 00:09:08
    The blessing.
  • 00:09:09
    The blessing is when the father would officially
  • 00:09:12
    bestow the birthright, put his hands on the eldest son
  • 00:09:15
    and say the blessing.
  • 00:09:17
    That hasn't happened yet.
  • 00:09:18
    In this scene it does happen.
  • 00:09:20
    Years and years have gone by,
  • 00:09:22
    and Esau wants to get this blessing,
  • 00:09:25
    even though he's fairly traded it to Jacob.
  • 00:09:30
    And the mother, Rebekah,
  • 00:09:32
    who again, Jacob is her favorite.
  • 00:09:35
    Jacob is a momma's boy. She hears about this.
  • 00:09:37
    She's like, "Hey, Jacob,
  • 00:09:38
    your brother's trying to pull a fast one on you.
  • 00:09:40
    Here's we're going to do.
  • 00:09:41
    Your dad's getting older in age,
  • 00:09:42
    that's why he's trying to do the blessing right now,
  • 00:09:44
    he's trying to pass it on.
  • 00:09:46
    He can't see very well.
  • 00:09:47
    So, your brother is like a hairy manly man guy,
  • 00:09:51
    hunter guy. He smells like wild game.
  • 00:09:53
    He's hairy all over the place. You're not.
  • 00:09:55
    We're going to have to get you smelling like a manly man,
  • 00:09:57
    and we have to go get some goat skins,
  • 00:09:59
    but some goat skins on you because your dad's losing it.
  • 00:10:02
    Reach out and feel you, and he'll feel hair
  • 00:10:04
    and he'll think he's your brother.
  • 00:10:06
    And then you can get the official prayer of blessing."
  • 00:10:08
    "Great. We'll do that."
  • 00:10:11
    They go and do that.
  • 00:10:12
    Isaac prays the blessing on him.
  • 00:10:14
    Not long after that, Esau comes in.
  • 00:10:17
    He wants the blessing, and he cries out in anguish.
  • 00:10:19
    "No, no bless me too. Give me the birthright."
  • 00:10:23
    He can be blessed,
  • 00:10:24
    but he can't have the birthright blessing.
  • 00:10:28
    Who's at fault here?
  • 00:10:30
    Everybody's at fault here. No one's clean here.
  • 00:10:33
    Jacob shouldn't have been lying the way it was.
  • 00:10:36
    It's just an out and out lie to deceive his dad.
  • 00:10:38
    Rebekah shouldn't have been trying to deceive
  • 00:10:41
    her husband and go behind his back.
  • 00:10:44
    Mom and dad have always got to be like this, right?
  • 00:10:47
    Esau, he already made a deal.
  • 00:10:50
    He shouldn't have been like this.
  • 00:10:51
    And on top of that, Isaac the father, him as well.
  • 00:10:54
    He's in the wrong. Why is he and the wrong?
  • 00:10:56
    He probably knew, he had to know
  • 00:10:58
    that this event went down, and if he didn't,
  • 00:11:01
    there were very clear instruction
  • 00:11:03
    that had come to him and Rebecca from God
  • 00:11:07
    that the older was to serve the younger.
  • 00:11:11
    The blame here is very clearly put on Esau
  • 00:11:14
    because it was him who despised his birthright,
  • 00:11:17
    but the parents were trying to
  • 00:11:19
    go against the plan of God.
  • 00:11:21
    Actually, here's what they initially heard from God
  • 00:11:23
    before all of this took place,
  • 00:11:24
    before the boys were actually born.
  • 00:11:27
    In Genesis 25:23, before this all happens,
  • 00:11:30
    God tells Isaac and Rebecca
  • 00:11:32
    the older will serve the younger.
  • 00:11:35
    The older, the one who should get the birthright,
  • 00:11:37
    is actually going to serve the younger.
  • 00:11:39
    That's the way I want it.
  • 00:11:40
    Some people look at that as God just predicting,
  • 00:11:43
    prophesying what's going to happen in the future.
  • 00:11:45
    It wasn't a prediction.
  • 00:11:47
    It was instruction from God that
  • 00:11:50
    this is the way I want it.
  • 00:11:51
    I want the younger one to get the blessing.
  • 00:11:54
    I want the younger one to get the birthright.
  • 00:11:56
    In fact, in Romans 9, that's in the New Testament,
  • 00:12:01
    looking back on this and makes it very, very clear.
  • 00:12:04
    It says there again that this was the plan of God.
  • 00:12:08
    The younger was to have the blessing and the birthright.
  • 00:12:12
    And Isaac didn't care.
  • 00:12:13
    He just wanted to go right by there.
  • 00:12:15
    This is dysfunction junction,
  • 00:12:16
    any way that you look at it.
  • 00:12:19
    Just so you can hear everything about Jacob,
  • 00:12:22
    we've got to appreciate him.
  • 00:12:23
    Too many people don't appreciate him.
  • 00:12:24
    I just wanted us to see that holistically here
  • 00:12:27
    Jacob is the innocent one.
  • 00:12:30
    The book of Hebrews in the New Testament.
  • 00:12:32
    Hebrews is written to? Hebrews.
  • 00:12:34
    Good. Very good job. Good. Good job.
  • 00:12:36
    The Jewish people trying to actually help people
  • 00:12:39
    of the Jewish faith understand
  • 00:12:41
    the Old Testament scriptures in light of Jesus.
  • 00:12:43
    That's what the Book of Hebrews is about.
  • 00:12:45
    In Hebrews 12:16-17 in talking about this story it says:
  • 00:13:08
    Who is immoral and unholy there? Esau, not Jacob.
  • 00:13:12
    And he regretted it.
  • 00:13:13
    He's crying to his dad, "I want it."
  • 00:13:15
    "Sorry, dude. You made a decision way back when
  • 00:13:19
    to take the easy path.
  • 00:13:20
    You made the decision way back when not to hustle."
  • 00:13:22
    And there's a certain blessing that comes to you
  • 00:13:25
    when you hustle.
  • 00:13:27
    You might not have hustled up to now,
  • 00:13:29
    but starting right now, if you want a blessing,
  • 00:13:32
    you've got to be up for some friction.
  • 00:13:35
    You've got to start to hustle.
  • 00:13:47
    Jacob hustles and Jacob wrestles.
  • 00:13:53
    I'm about to tell you about one of Jacob's traits
  • 00:13:57
    that inspires me maybe the most.
  • 00:13:58
    Before we get into that one, another thing inspires me
  • 00:14:02
    is that our church, Crossroads, hustles.
  • 00:14:05
    Thanks for being a part of our church.
  • 00:14:06
    Thanks for doing what you're doing.
  • 00:14:08
    And if you give around here, you're part of us
  • 00:14:12
    and you're going to be getting one of these in the mail.
  • 00:14:15
    This is an annual report, and I love this.
  • 00:14:18
    It is encouraging.
  • 00:14:19
    Who needs some encouragement?
  • 00:14:21
    Oh, I do. I do. I need encouragement.
  • 00:14:23
    If you're on our online church and you're a giver,
  • 00:14:25
    you're going to be getting one of these in the mail
  • 00:14:27
    and you're going to find out that your church
  • 00:14:30
    and you, we've been hustling for this whole last year.
  • 00:14:33
    There's a lot of good stuff that's been taking place.
  • 00:14:35
    Look for this.
  • 00:14:37
    Thank you for being generous and helping us bless people
  • 00:14:40
    and we trust that we're blessing you as well
  • 00:14:42
    as I'm trying to do right now by helping you
  • 00:14:44
    understand the life of Jacob.
  • 00:14:47
    Jacob hustles and Jacob wrestles.
  • 00:14:51
    Our world has always been fascinated by the idea
  • 00:14:56
    of some sort of physical contact,
  • 00:15:00
    some sort of wrestling, of grapping, of fighting.
  • 00:15:06
    Every single culture has some version of wrestling,
  • 00:15:10
    whether it is sumo wrestling, Greco-Roman,
  • 00:15:13
    Olympic freestyle, Brazilian, jiu jitsu, Judo, MMA,
  • 00:15:18
    WWE, I think that counts.
  • 00:15:23
    But that place exists and people go
  • 00:15:25
    because we are drawn to wrestling.
  • 00:15:28
    It's a good thing that we're drawn to it
  • 00:15:30
    because we're in a fight.
  • 00:15:32
    Fighting and wrestling, it never stops.
  • 00:15:36
    This annual report, it's a report of hard church work,
  • 00:15:41
    wrestling through ministry is a form of fighting.
  • 00:15:43
    It's wrestling.
  • 00:15:44
    If you're a parent, that is a fight,
  • 00:15:47
    it's a form of wrestling.
  • 00:15:49
    When you're a hard financial place,
  • 00:15:52
    it is a form of wrestling to get to a better place.
  • 00:15:55
    When you get a bad diagnosis, it's a form of wrestling.
  • 00:16:00
    We're never going to get away from
  • 00:16:02
    the fight inside of our life.
  • 00:16:04
    But Jacob learns that his fight
  • 00:16:07
    that he's been dealing with and is going to deal with
  • 00:16:09
    is going to actually lead him to a blessing.
  • 00:16:15
    Jacob has this attribute of hustling, of wrestling.
  • 00:16:19
    And I think that's actually part of why God uses him
  • 00:16:22
    and why God has a plan for him.
  • 00:16:27
    And also part of why maybe God was choosing
  • 00:16:31
    Jacob over Esau, because Esau was a bit lazy.
  • 00:16:35
    Esau was a bit passive.
  • 00:16:37
    You saw was, "Okay, take my birth. Take my birthright.
  • 00:16:40
    Take the stew. Okay, I'll do the easy thing."
  • 00:16:43
    He's hustling and he's wrestling.
  • 00:16:50
    Now when Jacob gets to his campsite
  • 00:16:53
    he thinks he's going to just be having some me time,
  • 00:16:57
    some time alone with him, but instead
  • 00:17:00
    he's going to realize he's going to be in for
  • 00:17:03
    the most significant wrestling match of his life.
  • 00:17:05
    He's actually going to wrestle God.
  • 00:17:09
    God is going to come to him in the form of a human,
  • 00:17:12
    and Jacob is going to wrestle God himself.
  • 00:17:17
    Let's read it in Genesis 32:24:
  • 00:17:46
    Jacob is going to be way outside of his weight class here.
  • 00:17:50
    I one time wrestled in a backyard
  • 00:17:52
    an older friend of my friend.
  • 00:17:55
    He was two years older than me
  • 00:17:56
    and it was the hardest wrestle I ever had.
  • 00:17:58
    And I can't remember why we were wrestling.
  • 00:18:00
    There was something that got us fighting.
  • 00:18:02
    We actually wrestled so long we tired each other out.
  • 00:18:06
    And I can still remember lying on wet grass
  • 00:18:11
    in a stalemate with Jim Waggoner
  • 00:18:14
    lying on my inner thigh.
  • 00:18:16
    And we ended up actually becoming friends because
  • 00:18:19
    we were just tired and trying to recover.
  • 00:18:21
    Neither one wanted to let go of the other.
  • 00:18:24
    This is kind of what happened with Jacob and God.
  • 00:18:27
    They're wrestling all night.
  • 00:18:29
    But Jacob, I think he probably knows
  • 00:18:33
    that he's our classed and he's wrestling against
  • 00:18:36
    someone or something that's just tamping down his power.
  • 00:18:40
    God's obviously not going full out,
  • 00:18:43
    but Jacob is like holding on.
  • 00:18:44
    He realizes something is going on here.
  • 00:18:46
    He's like, "Oh, bless me, bless me."
  • 00:18:48
    He's clinging on to him, despite the fact that God
  • 00:18:52
    has just touched his hip and knocked it out of socket.
  • 00:18:56
    And yet he's holding on.
  • 00:18:58
    This is part of the beauty of Jacob.
  • 00:19:01
    He not only hustles, he wrestles, and he just hangs on.
  • 00:19:07
    Sometimes that's the best you can do is just hang on.
  • 00:19:13
    I know some of us have had a great last couple of years,
  • 00:19:16
    but a lot of us have not.
  • 00:19:18
    And it's really difficult when you're wrestling
  • 00:19:22
    against things that you can't beat.
  • 00:19:24
    Whatever you think about COVID,
  • 00:19:27
    whatever you think about the government,
  • 00:19:28
    or whatever you think about our racial issues
  • 00:19:31
    in our country, whatever you think about vaccines,
  • 00:19:34
    whatever, just about everybody's upset.
  • 00:19:36
    Just about everybody is.
  • 00:19:38
    And there's nothing you can do about it.
  • 00:19:41
    There's nothing you can do to get people
  • 00:19:42
    to stop wearing masks or make you wear masks.
  • 00:19:44
    There's nothing you can do about getting people
  • 00:19:47
    to have a vaccine if you think they should,
  • 00:19:49
    or you not having a vaccine
  • 00:19:50
    if your employer requires you to.
  • 00:19:52
    I guess you can now, because the courts
  • 00:19:54
    have kind of ruled on that,
  • 00:19:55
    at least as of the taping.
  • 00:19:57
    But there are so many things that are just beyond it,
  • 00:20:00
    we can't win, we can't win. You can't win.
  • 00:20:02
    So the best thing we can do right now,
  • 00:20:04
    and maybe the best thing you can do,
  • 00:20:05
    is you just hang on.
  • 00:20:08
    You try not to lose your mind.
  • 00:20:12
    You try not to lose your character.
  • 00:20:15
    You try not to lose your heart.
  • 00:20:17
    Sometimes the best you can do is just hang on.
  • 00:20:21
    It's an honorable thing to hang on.
  • 00:20:26
    In Genesis 32:27, here's what God says to Jacob:
  • 00:21:13
    Jacob's holding on, holding on.
  • 00:21:16
    God says, "What's your name?"
  • 00:21:18
    And when he says his name, Jacob,
  • 00:21:20
    he's saying, "I'm the one who strives.
  • 00:21:24
    I'm the one who hustles.
  • 00:21:26
    That's why I'm not giving up.
  • 00:21:28
    That's why I'm still hanging on here."
  • 00:21:30
    And God uniquely blesses him.
  • 00:21:33
    He gives him a new name.
  • 00:21:34
    He gives him the name Israel.
  • 00:21:37
    It's arguably the greatest name
  • 00:21:39
    He could give a human being.
  • 00:21:41
    This is the name of His chosen people.
  • 00:21:44
    He names His chosen people after Jacob.
  • 00:21:49
    It's hard to say exactly what this means.
  • 00:21:51
    Some say, like, it's translated, like,
  • 00:21:53
    I just read with you one who strives with God.
  • 00:21:56
    Maybe.
  • 00:21:58
    I think a better idea is one who is God's fighter,
  • 00:22:02
    God's fighter.
  • 00:22:04
    This is a complimentary name, to be very, very clear,
  • 00:22:07
    complimentary, or else the nation of Israel
  • 00:22:09
    wouldn't be called this.
  • 00:22:12
    I like the idea of God's fighter, because both of us,
  • 00:22:17
    all of us, should be God's fighter.
  • 00:22:19
    God has put you in places where He wants you to fight.
  • 00:22:23
    Not physically beat somebody up,
  • 00:22:24
    not subvert and put your power and push people down.
  • 00:22:28
    But there are things that come across our radar
  • 00:22:31
    that we've got to grab, we've got to wrestle.
  • 00:22:34
    And these things normally are not fixed with one punch.
  • 00:22:41
    It's things that are arduous, backbreaking,
  • 00:22:45
    patient, long suffering, forbearing, just hanging on.
  • 00:22:51
    But I'm hanging on and I'm wrestling.
  • 00:22:56
    Sometimes that's it, it is wrestling with God.
  • 00:22:59
    God, why are you allowing this to happen to me?
  • 00:23:03
    God, why are you not allowing this to happen to me,
  • 00:23:07
    when I'm seeing it happen to other people
  • 00:23:08
    who seem to be less qualified for a blessing than I am?
  • 00:23:13
    God, why is it that you haven't given me this?
  • 00:23:16
    God, why is it that you've given me this?
  • 00:23:20
    There is the wrestling with God, the holding on.
  • 00:23:24
    Every great person that God uses
  • 00:23:27
    will go through wrestling matches with God.
  • 00:23:29
    And it's not just the one.
  • 00:23:31
    It's going to happen again and again and again in life.
  • 00:23:34
    These things qualify us for the real fights
  • 00:23:36
    that God wants us in,
  • 00:23:38
    and they strengthen us spiritually.
  • 00:23:41
    Jacob has more than his share of problems,
  • 00:23:44
    and has more of his share of outages.
  • 00:23:47
    We've talked about some of those today.
  • 00:23:50
    But he's used by God, he's loved by God
  • 00:23:53
    because he's a fighter and he will always remember
  • 00:23:56
    the day that he fought with God because he limps.
  • 00:24:00
    Some of us have a limp
  • 00:24:02
    and the limp might be an annoyance,
  • 00:24:04
    but the limp that you have, the pain that you have,
  • 00:24:08
    the remorse that you have over some certain loss,
  • 00:24:12
    every step that Jacob took, he was reminded
  • 00:24:17
    of how close he was with God
  • 00:24:18
    and how close he is with God.
  • 00:24:20
    Because not many people get to wrestle with God.
  • 00:24:23
    I try to think of that
  • 00:24:26
    when my joints are out of socket,
  • 00:24:29
    when I don't feel I can hang on anymore,
  • 00:24:32
    when I'm just tired of it.
  • 00:24:35
    I think, "I'm learning something about God right now
  • 00:24:39
    that I won't learn when I'm on a chair at the beach."
  • 00:24:45
    God has a special place in His heart
  • 00:24:48
    for people who wrestle with Him
  • 00:24:50
    and wrestle with the assignment that He gives us.
  • 00:24:56
    Because He's there,
  • 00:24:57
    because when you're wrestling with Him, He's there.
  • 00:25:01
    He's here with you right now. He is.
  • 00:25:05
    Jesus is here with you right now.
  • 00:25:07
    Actually, in all likelihood, this was
  • 00:25:10
    a prefiguration of Jesus Himself
  • 00:25:15
    who's actually wrestling with Jacob.
  • 00:25:18
    I believe Jesus was there.
  • 00:25:22
    And right now, as you wrestle,
  • 00:25:26
    as you feel like you can't hang on any longer,
  • 00:25:28
    as someone is lying on top of you on the moist ground,
  • 00:25:32
    as your muscles are cramping up
  • 00:25:33
    and you don't know you can do it any longer,
  • 00:25:37
    a blessing may be right around the corner
  • 00:25:41
    in the very next minute or the next hour,
  • 00:25:44
    the next day, the next week, or the next year.
  • 00:25:47
    God is with you and Jesus is here.
  • 00:25:50
    We're going to sing right now.
  • 00:25:52
    And I know for a lot of us,
  • 00:25:53
    singing is a wrestling match.
  • 00:25:54
    You don't like to do it.
  • 00:25:55
    Some of you just turn it off right now.
  • 00:25:57
    "Forgot it. I'm doing the singing thing."
  • 00:25:59
    I know a lot of people who are into that.
  • 00:26:01
    It's not a good call, because singing is a way
  • 00:26:03
    that we wrestle with God, especially for those of us
  • 00:26:06
    who don't like the sound of our voice
  • 00:26:07
    or don't like the process.
  • 00:26:09
    It's a difficult thing to sing out loud
  • 00:26:12
    and to participate,
  • 00:26:13
    just like it's difficult to wrestle with God.
  • 00:26:16
    And we're going to sing When Jesus is Here.
  • 00:28:48
    - I think the reason why Jacob is so misunderstood
  • 00:28:52
    is because in America, the culture of spirituality
  • 00:28:56
    or the culture of church-ianity
  • 00:29:00
    doesn't know what to make of Jacob.
  • 00:29:03
    It's like in church work we think
  • 00:29:05
    it's our responsibility to reprogram people to be nice,
  • 00:29:11
    like, whoever they are, whatever drive they have,
  • 00:29:13
    let's just tamp that down.
  • 00:29:14
    Let's just reprogram you to be nice.
  • 00:29:18
    Being timid and nice is not a godly combo.
  • 00:29:22
    Maybe nice is.
  • 00:29:23
    I mean, we need more of us being nice,
  • 00:29:25
    quite frankly in our culture,
  • 00:29:26
    more people need to be kind.
  • 00:29:27
    But I'm talking about the niceness
  • 00:29:29
    that's just, like, surface-y
  • 00:29:30
    and it's just like hoping and assuming
  • 00:29:33
    that things are going to go your way.
  • 00:29:35
    No, no, no, things are not just going to go your way.
  • 00:29:37
    No, no. We need to learn from Jacob.
  • 00:29:39
    We need to get back home to his life and say,
  • 00:29:42
    "What is it that God wants from me?"
  • 00:29:44
    And I've got to exert some energy
  • 00:29:46
    and some action, overcome some friction
  • 00:29:50
    to get that blessing.
  • 00:29:51
    We need more feisty followers who have a vision,
  • 00:29:53
    they're going after something.
  • 00:29:55
    Don't be lulled into complacency
  • 00:29:57
    like so many people are.
  • 00:29:58
    You're not entitled to have a blessing
  • 00:30:00
    just because you're alive and God loves you.
  • 00:30:02
    You're not entitled.
  • 00:30:04
    You'll get them, because God is incredibly generous.
  • 00:30:07
    But there's a level of living, a level of blessing
  • 00:30:09
    that only comes for those of us who go the way of Jacob.
  • 00:30:13
    Keep hustling, keep wrestling.
  • 00:30:17
    Blessing may just be coming your way.
  • 00:30:26
    - That was a super clear message, right?
  • 00:30:28
    God wants you to wrestle with Him
  • 00:30:29
    and God wants you to hustle.
  • 00:30:30
    - That's exactly right. It sounds crazy,
  • 00:30:32
    but there was something in Jacob
  • 00:30:33
    that I think we can all learn from.
  • 00:30:35
    - Absolutely. I want to just say
  • 00:30:37
    that Crossroads is donor funded.
  • 00:30:39
    We're able to put together episodes like these
  • 00:30:41
    and do this kind of thing
  • 00:30:42
    because of people just like you.
  • 00:30:44
    - And if giving is something that you're interested in,
  • 00:30:46
    you can go to the Crossroads app right now
  • 00:30:49
    or go to Crossroads.net/give.
  • 00:30:52
    We'll see you next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:30:55
    - How can the story of Noah and the Flood be true
  • 00:30:58
    and God be the loving Father
  • 00:31:00
    we'd actually want to come home to?
  • 00:31:03
    Well, to get the answer, we're going to tackle
  • 00:31:05
    the hardest questions surrounding the story head on.
  • 00:31:08
    And I believe, if you hang with us,
  • 00:31:10
    you'll see this story in a new light
  • 00:31:12
    that helps you find your way closer to home.
  • 00:31:24
    - Do you know where you're going?
  • 00:31:26
    To get different results in life
  • 00:31:28
    you're going to have to do some different things.
  • 00:31:32
    And if you're up for adventure this year,
  • 00:31:35
    do the Bible Challenge with me.
  • 00:31:37
    Read every day, get inspired,
  • 00:31:40
    and see what others are saying.
  • 00:31:42
    I believe the Bible is more than a book
  • 00:31:45
    that's meant to sit on a shelf and just collect dust.
  • 00:31:49
    It's meant to take you somewhere in life.
  • 00:31:52
    What about you? Where are you going?
  • 00:31:54
    Download the Crossroads App
  • 00:31:56
    and do the Bible Challenge today.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s the funniest or craziest or most intense fight you’ve ever been in?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Jacob was a complicated character. How can you relate to him, the good or the bad (or both)?

  4. Why do you think God valued Jacob’s determination and drive, despite the way he sometimes used it?

  5. Read Genesis 32:25. When have you been humbled like Jacob was here? How did that situation impact your life?

  6. Where, right now, do you feel you could be wrestling with God? Where do you want to see His blessing? What’s one way you can lean into that with God this week?

  7. End with prayer. You can say something like, “God, Thank you for investing in us, for wrestling through hardship with us. Help us lean into you and your promises. Give us the strength we need to persevere. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper!

  • Where in your life have you given up the fight?

  • Why do you think God chose to use a man like Jacob to have such an important role in His story? What does it say about God’s character?

  • If you keep hustling after God and wrestling with Him, how could it impact your relationship with God?

0 people are discussing these questions

(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Mar 14, 2022 32 mins 1 sec

Recent Series