Wrestling Match | Kyle Idleman | Full Service

Well, hey everybody. Welcome to Southeast. We  are so glad you chose to worship with us online   today. We know there's a lot of different  other things you could have been doing,   but we're glad you're here with us. But we are  not at our Blake Baker campus today. We are out at   our Nelson County campus. It's out in Marchtown,  Kentucky. This campus is near and dear to both of   us cuz this is where we grew up. My name is  Sarah. I am part of the SC online team. And   this is my friend Lauren. So Lauren is our kids  ministry leader here at Nelson County. Lauren,   it's always so fun to have you here. Listen,  we're so excited to welcome you all here,   welcome you to Nelson County. Um, we would love  to connect with you this morning. So, if you're   watching and want to connect with Southeast, just  send the word connect to 733733. We'd love to   talk to you about getting plugged into groups, um,  finding your crew or just whatever information you   need from here. Yeah, all the things. We would  love to get you connected. You know, Lauren,   it is the middle of June already, but we are right  in the middle of camp season. And I know it's   a busy season for you and your team. So, can you  share with us about what's been going on with kids   ministry here at Nelson County? Yeah, absolutely.  We actually just got back from our first camp here   last night. Last night, right? Yeah, we pulled in  last night. Um, so that was first and second grade   and we took them to Country Lake. We learned  that God is the author of truth, that we can   trust his word because it is true. Um, so that  was super sweet to get to spend time with those   kiddos. We also are taking our third through fifth  graders um on Thursday back to Country Lake. So,   we'll actually spend four days with them. Um same  type of a theme, but I'm just really excited. I'm  

a camp girl, so I love it. So, say you're spend a  lot of time at camp over last weekend this week.   Yes, several weeks. Um but if you all could join  us in praying and just continuing to pray through   June and July, we have camps all across Southeast  just about every week of those months. So,   we would love to have your prayers for that.  Um, the other thing that we've got going on is   Southeast Kids across all of our campuses have  a new curriculum that we're using. Awesome. So,   what's cool about this curriculum is it was  written specifically for Southeast kids. It's   a three-year scope and sequence. We go through  the Bible every single year chronologically.   Which means if your kid starts in programming  in kindergarten, stays through fifth grade,   they will have gone chronologically through the  Bible six times before they hit middle school   programming. That is amazing because, you know,  as I'm thinking about my childhood, I grew up in   church. I feel like I heard the same stories over  and over, but how cool that we're giving kids this   big Bible knowledge and equipping them as they  grow up in our church. I love that our church   is doing this. Yeah. I mean, we really believe  that to build a strong foundation, you have to   be in the word. We want them to be able to hide  the Bible in their hearts, hide the word of God,   so that as they continue through kids programming  and students and onto college or whatever career   they're in that they have a foundation that's  built on Jesus. Um, so I'm really excited about   it and I'm excited that all of our campuses get  to use that curriculum. For sure. Yeah, it's   something that our church is stepping into and  I love that we're just giving students just that  

really great equipping and just understanding the  Bible more. And like Lauren mentioned, we are in   the middle of camp season. And so, make sure you  stick around after service because Derek is going   to talk with one of our staff members about a  really special camp that Southeast is involved in   through our family advocacy ministry called Camp  Empower. But today, we are continuing on through   the book of Genesis. We've been walking through  the entire book over the last couple of months.   We've got senior pastor Kyle Idleman talking  about Genesis 32. And the sermon title today,   Lauren, is called Wrestling Match, which is kind  of an unusual title. It's very strange, right? But   we're going to be talking about Jacob's wrestling  with God. And I love this sermon because so many   times like we wrestle maybe internally with a  lot of different things like we're struggling   with our addictions or even like relationships  with other people. And I love through the sermon   that Kyle talks about God's in the midst of all of  it. He's not going to leave us alone. And so I'm   excited to hear from him about that. Absolutely.  I know that for me personally, I need to hear this   sermon. So I'm really excited to hear what Kyle  has to say. Um actually make sure you grab your   series guide. It's the blue Genesis book that  we're using right now. Um but in the meantime,   we're going to cut to Blank and Baker for  worship and we are going to see you all there.

When I look at my face, works your head. Who am I to you love me? Let alone  extend my praise. Creation tells a   story. The ashes back to praise. Every  breath is the beginning. So I'll return   with praise we say. Let all the earth  declare his name. Our great how great   is your way. No other name deserves our  praise. No other name but your way. Yah way strong. Every mountain like before the shin. Yeah. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Y we see is faithful strong all creation shout there's no one like   our God righteous but none more  deserving all creation shut it Faithful, strong. All creation shouts.  There's no one like righteous. No more   desert. All creation shouts. There's no one like strong and mighty. All creation  shouts. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. always on the earth. Heat. Heat. But your way. Let me give a shout of praise  this morning to the Lord. Amen.

Our God is great. and all of their view. I don't have to wonder in all your new. So why would I worry at all  when you're faithful to some everything I need? Everything  I need. My father has it. My   father has it. Every single time the Lord  will provide. My father has My father has he has it all and he'll provide you all the time.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, see first the kingom and its treasures and   everything else will be added. All  that I need and we believe I know we declare in faith. I know my God hand and I still believe. Oh, I know. I know the Lord  will provide. We sing this to see first the king.

I know my god. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you,  Lord. You are so good. You saw fit to care about   us. You did not have to. In your infinite power,  you could have left us here in our sin, in our   shame. But not only did you see us, you died for  us, Lord, giving us what we couldn't even take,   couldn't even dream to take, Lord, you descended  from heaven and humbled yourself into man. And   then you died on a cross for us, Lord. That's  all we need. Actually, that's every single  

thing we need is your blood poured out for us  and your resurrection from the grave. Lord,   your victory over death that we would be  with you for eternity. That's all we needed,   Lord. That's all we needed. And you gave it  to us in your infinite mercy, Lord. Let us   remember the sparrows and the flowers. Lord,  you care for them. And if you care for them,   how much more do you care for us, Lord? Remind  us of your faithfulness through the generations.   Lord, remind us how you've been faithful to us,  to our friends, to our families. The very fact   that we're standing here today worshiping you,  Lord, is proof of your faithfulness. Thank you,   Jesus. Thank you. It's in your name  we pray. Amen. Y'all can grab a seat. I want to start by asking you a question. When was  the last time that you wrestled with God? I'm not   asking about when you last prayed politely  or attended church or read a devotional,   maybe checked a spiritual box. Like, those things  matter. But that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking   when did you last wrestle with God? where you  were angry or maybe confused or scared or hurt   or uncertain or trapped or exhausted or maybe just  overwhelmed and you brought all of it to God and   you didn't let go until something moved. And for  some of you, it was this morning in the shower at  

6:00 a.m. You were wrestling or on the drive here.  Or maybe just a few moments ago when we stood and   we worshiped, you weren't worshiping as much as  you were wrestling because you're in the middle   of it right now. Or for some of you, it's been a  while, years, or maybe never. Not really. Because   every time life gets hard, you don't wrestle. You  run. You reach for the next solution, the next   distraction, the next relationship. You scroll,  you scheme, you fix, and you avoid God by running   to the next thing. Let me give you some indicators  that might mean you're running from God. Number   one, you're always busy. You are afraid to stop  because something's going to catch up with you.   So, silence is the enemy and you fill every moment  with noise. Another indicator that you might be   running is that you always think the solution  is something new or something different. And so   you just keep moving to the next city or the next  job, a new spouse, a new church, a new diet, a new   hobby, a new purchase. Or maybe you know you're a  runner because you made a mess that feels so big   that the only option feels like just move on. like  you didn't set out to make a mess, but somewhere   along the way, things got complicated enough that  facing it felt impossible and so you just, you   know, left it and you moved on to the next thing,  start fresh somewhere else with someone else. It's   like um knocking over a full glass of red wine on  white carpet. Your first instinct is not to clean  

it up. Your first instinct is to walk out of the  room and hope nobody notices. But I know people   who've been walking out of rooms for 40 years.  But what nobody tells you is that the mess doesn't   stay in that room. It follows you no matter how  fast you run. Like you can relocate and rebrand   and remarry and restart and reinvent, but you can  only run so far. One more way you know you might   be a runner is like this whole conversation is  going to make you uncomfortable and you just want   to get up and leave or at least mentally check  out like that is your spiritual strategy. It's   the runner's instinct in these types of moments.  Just get out of it. Don't stay in that space. What   I've learned about runners is that they usually  don't stop running because they decide to. They   stop running because eventually life corners them.  The road ends and you find yourself alone in the   dark and unsure of where else to go or what else  to try. And that is exactly where we find Jacob   in Genesis 32. Last week we saw Jacob working for  his father-in-law, Laban. But that relationship   starts to fall fall apart. Genesis 31:7 says that  Laban's Laban changed Jacob's wages 10 times,   essentially cheating Jacob out of what he had  earned. And so Jacob being Jacob doesn't confront   it directly. Instead, he finds ways to manipulate  the situation. He's passive aggressive and he   comes up with a scheme to take the best of Laban's  livestock for himself. And so he works the angles  

and he quietly builds wealth. And then when he  senses that it's all about to catch up with him,   it takes off. He runs in the middle of the night.  He loads up his wives and his children and his   livestock, his possessions, and he disappears. And  so this is the cycle of Jacob's life. Manipulate,   control, and fix. And then when that stops  working, disappear, withdraw, and run. And   my guess is that sounds really familiar to some of  you. Manipulate, control, fix, and then disappear,   withdraw, run. Like that is the cycle of your  life. And I'm not saying that this is just a   man thing, but look, this is a pattern for a lot  of men. A lot of men operate exactly like Jacob.   When they find themselves in a place where things  are going well, like they feel competent and in   control, like they can fix what's broken, then  they show up and they're present, they're engaged.   But the moment they feel like they're losing, like  the moment the situation gets too um emotionally   complex or too relationally demanding or  too outside of what they know how to fix,   they check out and they withdraw and they stick  to an area of life where they feel like they're   they have more control or they know how to win.  And I'll just say that like this is a tendency   I've had to confront in my own life where I  have to own this and I have to repent of it.   When we were in the thick of parenting and we had  had four teenagers in the house, there were times  

that I just felt like I was failing and I didn't  know how to help and I didn't know how to fix. My   tendency was to disappear. To disappear into my  work where I could see results and I knew what   to do and I felt more competent. And here's the  thing, ministry in some ways is a very convenient   place to hide because nobody really questions it.  Nobody calls it running. They just call it being   faithful. And so I have had to repent of that.  I I know I'll have to do it again. But look,   Jacob doesn't know how to be in a hard situation  without either controlling it or leaving it. Those   are his two modes as a man. I I either have to  fix it or flee it. But what happens when you can't   do either? And so maybe you're a man who has been  in fix it mode and you're good at it. like you're   good at solving problems, but somewhere along the  way, you came across something that you can't fix.   A marriage that needed something and you didn't  know how to give it. A child that needed presence,   but all you knew how to do is offer solutions or a  a grief that couldn't be managed or resolved. And   and what happened? You found an exit. You ran.  And that's what Jacob has done his whole life.   This time he runs from Laban. The problem is the  path he has to take to run from Laban is taking   him back home where he's already run away from  Esau, the brother he hasn't seen in 20 years,   the brother who wanted to kill him. And so Jacob  gets word that his brother Esau is coming after  

him with 400 men. And so Jacob can't go back  because of Laban and he can't go forward because   of Esau. And there is like uh nowhere left to  run. So here's what he does. He separates his   family and his servants into two different groups  and he sends them in separate directions. He's   thinking that if Esau attacks one group, then the  other group will survive. And you got to imagine   that he put some family and servants in a certain  group that he thought was maybe the most likely   to be attacked. And maybe they looked around and  they're like, I don't I know what group I'm in.   I'm in Leah's group. And if if you had to do this,  you'd probably have an A team and a B team. He's   trying to find a way out. He separates them. He  sends gifts ahead to Esau to try to soften them   up. And so he's just doing what he does. He's  scheming. He's hedging. He's trying to control,   working the angles, looking for a way out.  He's going to fix it. But then Jacob does   something that he almost never does.  And when I say he almost never does it,   this is the only time we have any record of him  doing what he's about to do. He prays. And it's   not a polished prayer and it's not a religious  prayer. It is an honest and a desperate prayer.   Genesis 32:11. Save me I pray for I am afraid.  That's it. That is the prayer. No negotiating,   no scheming, no angles. just this humble and  vulnerable prayer that God would help him because  

he's scared. And I would just tell you that this  seems to be the kind of prayer that God responds   to. And we see in verse 24 just the simple  description of what plays out next is Jacob,   it says, was left alone. He was left alone. Alone  is not something that Jacob seems to do. Well,   to be clear here, he is alone, but not because he  wanted to be. For us, what's interesting is like   we are the least alone generation in history,  but yet somehow we are the loneliest. Like we   have engineered our entire lives to make sure  that we are never truly by ourselves. Like the   average American checks their phone a few hundred  times a day. They touch it like thousands of times   a day. It's what we reflexively do the moment  there's nothing demanding our attention. It's   like our go-to. And I would just say some of you  are addicted to that kind of noise the way other   people are addicted to substances. And I'm  not saying that to be dramatic. I'm saying   it because the mechanism is identical. You use  it to not feel something. And when that feeling   starts to surface, you reach for the next hit, the  next scroll, the next episode, then that dopamine   hit that will keep the quiet from getting loud in  your life. MIT researcher Sheri Turkl spent years   studying our relationship with technology and she  found that we have u developed what she calls a   flight from conversation or flight from solitude.  It's this idea that we reach for our phones  

in moments not because we need information but  because we need to not be alone with our thoughts.   Just think about this. Like when is the last time  you were truly alone? Like no podcast, no music,   no scroll, no screen, just you and your thoughts  and silence because like we eat with the phone in   our hands and we exercise with our earbuds and we  lie in bed and we watch something until we fall   asleep because just lying there and just thinking  and just being quiet, it feels unbearable.   And what I want to say is that some of  you, some of us lack the courage to be   alone. Because being alone means that you might  hear something that you've been successfully   drowning out for years. A question you've been  avoiding, a conviction you've been out running,   or some grief you haven't let yourself feel, or  maybe a confession you've been suppressing, or a   decision that you've been postponing. And as long  as you stay busy, you don't have to deal with it.   And so we don't just run from God, but we have  built an entire economy around running from God.   A multi-billion dollar industry of distraction  where we medicate our souls with endless content   so we never have to be alone. And so noise for  a lot of us is more than a distraction. It is a  

spiritual strategy. Bla1 Pascal, the 17th century  philosopher, he wrote something in 1654 that feels   like it could have been written on Tuesday.  He said, "All of humanity's problems stem from   man's ability to sit quietly in a room alone."  And he was describing something in human nature   that predates smartphones and social media and  streaming services like we have always run from   stillness. We have always filled the silence. We  just have more ways to do it now than ever before.   But here is the thing. Silence is where God tends  to show up. And I don't even think the Bible is   subtle about this. Psalm 46:10, "Be still, be  silent, and know that I am God." I have heard that   verse my whole life. And I've always kind of read  it as this gentle invitation like God is saying,   "Hey buddy, you know, take a breath. Just relax a  little." But the Hebrew word here for be still is   not like gentle suggestion. It means stop. Stop  striving. Drop what you're holding. It's less of   an invitation and it's more of a command. And then  Isaiah 30:15, God says, "In repentance and rest is   your salvation. In quietness and trust is your  strength." You think, "Well, that's beautiful."   like that's what I want. But here's the next  phrase here. But you would have none of it. God  

offers quietness and rest. He offered the very  thing the running soul was so desperate for,   but you would have none of it. Israel says, "No  thanks. We'll keep the horses and the chariots and   the noise and the motion. We'll keep running." And  so God says, "In quietness and st trust, that's   your strength, but you would have none of it."  And so the spiritual reality for a lot of us that   we miss is that the external input in our lives  is often the enemy to internal reflection. Like   you cannot hear the still small voice of God when  that feed is always running. And so Jacob who has   been surrounded by wives and children and servants  and flocks and noise and motion for 20 years is   suddenly alone on the bank of a river in the dark.  And the moment he's alone with nowhere to go and   nothing to do and no control, God steps out of the  darkness and what happens next changes his life.   But look, this is one of the strangest stories in  the Bible. I I want to break this story up into   three different scenes. Here's the first scene.  The first scene is we'll call the fight where God   won't let you go. Genesis 32:22. That night,  Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two   female servants, and his 11 sons, and crossed the  ford of the Jabok. After he had sent them across   the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So,  Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him  

till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not  overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's   hip so that his hip was wrenched. as he wrestled  with the man. The man said, "Let me go for it is   daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I won't let you go  unless you bless me." I I told you it's a strange   story. Few questions. Number one, who who's he  wrestling with here? The text says he's wrestling   a man, which is kind of mysterious, but by the end  of the passage, Jacob names the place the face of   God. because he says, "I saw God face to face and  my life was spared." The prophet Hosea tells us   this story and gives us a few extra details. Hosea  says that Hosea was wrestling with an angel of the   Lord. It's a divine being. And so many scholars  would interpret this um uh from Hosea's account   that Jacob is wrestling with an angel of the Lord,  that this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ,   that he's wrestling with Jesus at the jab. But  also, why? Like, why wrestling? Lots of ways   that God could have gotten Jacob's attention. Why  wrestle with him in the dirt? And I don't know the   answer for sure. But I I wonder if otherwise  Jacob would have taken off running. Like,   if if God didn't grab a hold of him to wrestle  him, if he would have given him a vision, I   bet Jacob would have interpreted that vision in a  way that let him off the hook. If it was a voice,   like, Jacob would have tried to negotiate with  it. A burning bush, Jacob would have run away  

from it. He always seems to find a way around what  God is doing. But not this time. This time God God   grabs a hold of him. And I'm guessing that there  are at least a few people in here who understand   what this is. In fact, just by show of hands, how  many of you would say that that's your story? That   God grabbed a hold of you? Raise your hand if  that's kind of your experience. Yeah. I mean,   you understand this idea. And you know, there's  a lot of different ways that that story can go.   Like maybe you would say, I walked into church to  make my wife happy or because of my girlfriend's   ultimatum, but God grabbed a hold of me. Or maybe  you would say, I got fired from the job that I'd   made my entire identity and God got a hold of me.  In my addiction, I hit rock bottom. God grabbed a   hold of me. I was successful by every measure that  mattered to the world, but I was completely empty.   And in my emptiness, God grabbed a hold of me. I  got the diagnosis and God grabbed a hold of me.   And Jacob wrestles through the night. And then as  dawn comes closer, there's something that shifts   in him. Jacob stops trying to get away and instead  he refuses to let go. Really strange verse. Verse   25, it says, "When the man saw that he could  not overpower Jacob." Oh, this is the angel of   the Lord. He can't overpower Jacob. Like how is  that possible? Like this is God who with the word   created everything that exists out of nothing.  And and this is a God who with the touch would  

wrench his hip out of socket. So So how is it that  he can't get Jacob to tap out? The answer I think   is not that Jacob was surprisingly strong. Like we  know that as this story unfolds, but let me give   an illustration that might help. Uh, last week I  came home from work and my 2-year-old grandson was   running around the house like a wild man. I walk  in the house and my wife says he needs somebody   to wrestle with him. And so I get on the floor  and I wrestle with my 2-year-old grandson for   like 45 minutes now. He's he's like 30 lb and  I'm like uh 200 lb. And and so I'm wrestling   I'm wrestling with him, but I'm not wrestling to  win. I'm wrestling with him to wear him down. I'm   wrestling with him so he'll be worn out and he'll  stop running around and finally be still. I think   that's what's happening. God is holding back here.  Like he refuses to overpower Jacob into surrender.   He could have. Instead, he's going to wrestle  Jacob into it. And I just want to connect some   of these spiritual dots because I think this is  happening for some of you. Like forced surrender   produces compliance, but chosen surrender produces  transformation. God wanted more than Jacob's   compliance. He wanted Jacob's heart. He wanted his  life. And that requires someone to choose it. Like   Jacob had to choose surrender. And so maybe you're  sitting here and you're not even sure you'd call  

yourself a Christian because you never chose it.  Like you didn't have a dramatic conversion moment   and you didn't walk down an aisle or pray a  prayer. you weren't baptized or or or maybe   you did, but you felt forced. It didn't feel like  your choice. Felt like you got pressured into it. Maybe it feels like um you've just had some  bad luck in life, like um you tried to start   this business and it didn't make it or um a  relationship you thought for sure this is it,   wasn't it? The job you thought was going  to be the thing wasn't the thing. and and   you've never thought of it, but but maybe it's  more than bad luck. Like, maybe it's more than   bad timing. Maybe it's more than life just being  hard. What if it's more than that? What if what   you've been experiencing is the persistent and  frustrating and won't leave you alone resistance   of a God who loves you? Like, what if it's not  the universe working against you? What if it's   God at the jabic refusing to let you go? He's not  forcing you. He's not overpowering you. He's not   dragging you somewhere against your will, but he's  not letting go of you. And he's going to wrestle   with you. And he's going to stay in it with you  through the night, refusing to give up on you,   even when you wish he would. Because what we see  in Genesis is that God does not abandon Jacob,   but neither does he overwrite him. He doesn't  walk away, but neither does he force him into  

submission. Why? Again, it's because he's after  Jacob's heart. And the heart cannot be taken. It   can only be given. Which means the wrestling match  that you've been in, like this one that feels like   resistance, like nothing is going your way, it  might be the most loving and caring thing that   God is doing for you. Like I'm convinced that for  some of you, you're in a wrestling match with God   and you don't know it. Like you think you think  it's a health crisis, but it's a wrestling match.   Like you think it's financial collapse, but it's a  wrestling match. You think it's this exhaustion of   parenting through the toddler years, but it's  it's wrestling. You thought it was a marriage   falling apart or career derailing or friendship  ending and and all that's real and it was painful,   but something else was happening. There's a  wrestling match where God is inviting you to   choose surrender, an invit invitation for you to  finally submit. In our uh story, dawn is breaking   and the angel of the Lord says, "Let me go."  And Jacob's good at letting things go. Like,   "Let go and run away, Jacob. It's what you do."  But something has happened that shows you that   this wrestling match has changed him. Instead of  running away, he tightens his grip and he says,   "I will not let you go unless you bless me." So,  this is a different Jacob. Like, he's broken. He's   exhausted, but he is not running. And I think what  seems to change during this wrestling match is he  

stops trying to get away and he starts holding on.  He stops fighting and he starts clinging. And for   some of you, this is that moment. Like you have  been resisting God and you have been trying to get   away from him, but he keeps wrestling with you.  And my prayer is that you would stop trying to   get away and you would start holding on because  when you find yourself alone in the darkness,   you're going to have to decide, am I going to push  him away or am I going to hold on and draw close?   For the first time, Jacob stops running. And he  holds on. So Jacob fights through the night and   then with one touch, everything changes. Here's  scene two. We'll call it the limp. Surrender   always leaves a mark. 32:2 When the man saw that  he could not overpower him, he touched the socket   of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he  wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me   go for it daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will  not let you go unless you bless me." Then verse   31, the sun rose above him as he passed Pineal,  and he was limping because of his hip. The word   I want you to notice in verse 25 says God touched  the socket of his head. That word touched here is   not struck or punched or hit. It's light tap.  Light tap. And his hip is wrenched. Do you know  

what that injury makes it hard to do? Makes it  hard to run. Like if you're a runner, what keeps   you from running is a hip out of socket. That'll  do it. God says to Jacob, "It's time for you to   stop running." Verse 31 says he walks away with a  limp. And so every single day for the rest of his   life, like every morning when he swings his legs  out of bed, every step he takes across the field,   every time someone notices and says, "Why do you  walk that way?" Jacob remembers. He remembers   the night he wrestled with God. He remembers  the night at Jabbik. And he remembers what it   felt like to run out of his own strength in that  moment to stop fighting and start clinging. And   he remembers that God was there in the dark  holding on. I was thinking about the jabic. It's not a bad name for what happens down front  because really that's what this place is supposed   to be. Church is not a place where everything  is supposed to be polished and everything was   is fine and we pretend the night isn't real.  It's a place where you wrestle, where you show   up exhausted and limping but still hanging on and  the people around you, they're not surprised by   your struggle because they've been through their  own. CS Lewis famously wrote, "God whispers to us   in our pleasures, but he yells at us in our pain."  And I I think what he meant there is not that God   causes pain, but that pain has a way of stripping  away the noise that keeps us from hearing him.  

Like pain gets our full attention in a way that  comfort just never does. A number of years ago,   I was driving with the radio on and I caught an  interview with a man named Jerry Sitser. He was a   theology professor at Witworth College in Spokane.  And he shared his story on this interview.   He was driving with his family when a drunk driver  crossed the center line and hit their minivan. And   in a single moment, Jerry lost three generations  of women that he loved. He lost his mama,   his wife, and his young daughter. And he walked  away without a scratch. And he wrote a book about   trying to figure out how to live after something  like that. And the title alone is is worth the   price of the book. The title is a grace disguised.  And the idea is that grace came but it showed up   in the worst possible package. Like nothing about  it looked like grace at first. But in that book he   makes this observation. He says the quickest  way to reach the sun and the light of day is   not to run west chasing after the setting sun.  It is to head east to plunge into the darkness   until you come out on the other side at the  sunrise. Think about that. Everything in us   says run. Run from the dark. When the marriage  gets hard, when the consequences catch up,   our instinct is to run. Run from the darkness.  Run from confession. Run from repentance. Run  

from hard conversations. Run from the thing that  God is doing in you that you just don't seem to be   ready for. Just run. But what if you have been  running the wrong direction your whole life?   What if the fastest way to the light is to stop  running? To stop running from the darkness. See,   Jacob has been running west his whole life. He ran  from Esau. He ran from Isaac. He ran from Laban.   He ran from himself. He ran from God. He's always  chasing the light. Always trying to outrun the   dark. Always trying to control. Always trying to  fix. Always one step ahead. until now, this night   where he wrestles through the darkness with God.  Daybreak comes, the early morning sun is rising,   and we come to scene three of our story. We'll  call this scene the name change. What got you   here won't get you there. Genesis 32, God asks  Jacob a question. Verse 27, the man asked him,   "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then  the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob,   but Israel, because you have struggled with God  and with humans and have overcome." Before we talk   about his new name, can we just talk about his old  name for a moment? Because remember, Jacob is born   a few seconds after his older brother, Esau, and  he's grabbing his older brother's heel as they   come out of the womb. And in those days, being  born second meant like everything. The firstborn   son received the blessing. The firstborn son  received the inheritance. The firstborn son  

received the father's full attention. So, Esau got  all of it. And Jacob got the leftovers. Genesis 25   puts it pretty plainly. Says that Isaac the father  loved Esau. It says Isaac um loved the taste of   wild game and he loved Esau, but Rebecca loved  Jacob. And so what becomes clear in Jacob's life   is he grew up in a home where the affirmation  he desperately needed from his dad just wasn't   there. And that ends up shaping the identity  of a man. Researcher Dr. Kenneth Adams spent   decades studying what he calls the father hunger  in men. It is this specific ache that comes from   an absent or distant or critical or an emotionally  unavailable father. And his findings are striking.   He found that men who didn't receive that kind of  affirmation from their fathers are significantly   more likely to spend their adult lives in what he  calls compulsive achievement. Like driven but not   by a genuine desire but by this unconscious need  to finally earn approval that was never given. And   so they become the most productive person in the  room, the highest achiever, the high the hardest   workers, but also the emptiest and the angriest.  And this is Jacob. He's always running. And we   read that he is often angry. And if I'm just being  honest, that just sounds like a lot of men I know.   Your father's voice was never satisfied. He was  never impressed. Always critical. Or maybe his  

voice was absent and silent and you've been trying  to fill that silence with achievement or success.   What I think is happening in our story is that  Jacob is not just wrestling with the stranger   in the dark. Like Jacob is wrestling with every  unanswered question his father left him. And God,   his heavenly father, does the one thing in the  story that his earthly father never did. He looks   him in the face and says, "This is who you are."  And so as we approach Father's Day weekend next   weekend, and I just think God wants to do this for  some of you men, he wants to wrestle you down and   he wants to look you in the eye and he wants to  tell you who you are. Not because you've earned   it. Not because you've proven yourself, not  because of what you've built or because you   finally got it right, but because you are his.  Yeah. You are his son. You are his daughter.   So, I just want you to think for a moment what's  happening here. God asks him his name. But why?   It's not that God needs the information, but  think about the last time in scripture someone   asked Jacob his name. If you go back to Genesis  27, his blind father Isaac reaches out in the   dark and asks Jacob his name. Who are you? What's  your name? And Jacob lies and he says, "I'm Esau."   He lied about his name. He built his entire future  on a lie about his identity. And now God asks him   that same question. What's your name? And he says,  "Jacob," which in Hebrew means the heel grabber,  

the deceiver. And God says, "No, that's not your  name anymore. Your name will no longer be Jacob,   but it'll be Israel." So Jacob has spent his  life trying to get the blessing, trying to get   inheritance, trying to establish his identity.  But now when he is broken and desperate, the   blessing finally comes. And listen like this is  the gospel. The blessing comes to the humble. The   blessing comes to the broken and to the desperate.  When you stop striving and you start surrendering,   you start to find a new identity. God names him  Israel, which means the one who wrestles with   God. So God doesn't give him a name that erases  the struggle that he had. Instead, he gives him a   name that actually highlights the struggle. And  I love this because your struggle with God is   not the embarrassing part of your story that you  should try to leave out. It is what God wants to   weave into your identity. There's one more scene  in this story. Jacob lumps across the Jabic and   Esau's coming. 400 men. This is the confrontation  he's been running from for 20 years. and it's   right in front of him. And Genesis 33 says that  Jacob himself went ahead and he bowed down to the   ground seven times as he approached his brother.  So something has shifted. He's like not sending   out a group first. He's not running away. There's  not some scheme or manipulation. There's no exit  

strategy. Just a limping man limping towards the  thing he's been running from his entire life.   And then Genesis 33:4 tells us that Esau ran to  meet Jacob and embraced him and he threw his arms   around him and kissed him and the Bible says  they wept. 20 years of distance, 20 years of   betrayal and anger and unresolved hurt. 20 years  of dysfunction and a mess that seemed too big to   ever clean up. And they weep in each other's arms.  Notice the sequence here. It's not an accident.   Jacob wrestles with God and then he reconciles  with his brother. His pride is gone. He is humbled   because listen, you cannot limp and swagger at the  same time. You you cannot limp and swagger at the   same time. And Jacob's story can be your story.  Like I I believe today God wants to give some of   you a new identity. He wants to give you a new  name. Your name is not deceiver or manipulator.   It's not failure, adulterer. It's not too far  gone. Your name is not what your earthly father   called you. It's not the worst thing you've  ever done. He wants to give you a new name. 2   Corinthians 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ, he  is a new creation." The Bible says to take off the   old to put on the new. But you have to start stop  running and you have to start wrestling. And so we   want to have some time to wrestle together. Some  of you, you walked in here with a swagger. And the  

invitation is to leave here with a limp. A limp  that comes from finally surrendering and letting   go and letting God say who you are, finding your  identity in him. So, we're going to have a time   of worship. We're also going to have a time of uh  communion, some extended communion. And really,   this is a a time to wrestle with God. just a  time for some silence, a time to be alone in   a room full of people but alone. So, can I just  invite you to turn down the noise in your life,   the distractions that maybe you have on your mind,  the notifications, that urge, that runner's urge   that tells you, I got to get out of here. Would  you just sit in this moment and would you would   you wrestle? Let's pray. God, I thank you for your  grace that meets us here at the Jabic. meets us   where we are. Lord, I thank you that you have not  let us go. The fact that each person who's hearing   this is hearing this is evidence to me that you  have not let them go. That you are still wrestling   with them. And God, I know that all of us, no  matter how long we've been following you, we   have some things that maybe we've been clinging to  and holding on to. We have some things that we're   trying to control and fix and and we don't quite  know how to surrender. But God, you want us to   surrender them. And God, I would pray that these  next few minutes, it would be a time for some new   identity that we'd find it in you. We would  we would let you determine who we are. That we   would listen to you say who we are. It's in Jesus  name. Amen. Um, as we take communion, you know,  

this metaphor of Russell, if I could just extend  it a moment. We talk a lot about the old is gone,   the new has come. We talk a lot about this new  identity in Jesus. We celebrate that every time   someone's baptized. In baptism, we we talk about  like this a burial. Someone goes under the water,   the old is gone. They come up out of the water.  It's this new life in Jesus. And everything about   that process can sometimes feel like um I I don't  know, easy. And on one hand, it's simple like this   exchange that takes place and Jesus has done the  work on the cross and and yet it also requires   some wrestling because we've we've been taught  to just hold on with both hands. Like our grip   is tight. And so as we take communion together,  my prayer would be that you would let go of some   things. You'd stop fighting. You'd start clinging.  that this would be a time where you would let your   heavenly father look you in the eye and say, "This  is who you are. Let's take communion together.

Hallelujah. Heat. Heat.

Thousands of years ago, there was a  man named Jacob who wrestled with God.   And his entire life of running, his entire life of running was came down to  this single night, this moment where he has this   encounter with the God of the universe where he  has to stop running so that he can start clinging. And if your story is anything like my story,  then there might be some of you in the room   today that that you need to have that  moment. There was a moment in my life   where I had to stop running and I had to start  clinging. And if you haven't had that moment,   we've been praying that you would have that moment  today. That you would stop striving and you would   start surrendering. There's a verse in James,  James chapter 4, it says, "Draw close to God   and he will draw close to you." And so, all we  want to do today as we continue to worship is we   want to make some space for you to draw close  to God. We want to give you space so that you   can give God space to draw close to you. We want  you to stop running. And so, what that's going   to look like this morning is we want we want to  invite you, if you know that you've been running,   we want to invite you to come down front. We're  going to invite some pastors and elders and our  

prayer team. They're going to fill up the front  of the stage right here. And during these next   few songs of worship, if you need to stop striving  and start surrendering, we're going to invite you   to come on up and to receive some prayer. We don't  want you to wrestle alone. But here's something so   important you need to hear about all of the people  that are going to fill the front of this stage.   Every single one of them, me included, every  single one of us walks with a limp because I have   wrestled with God. They have wrestled with God.  And so if you are currently wrestling with God,   you are not alone, my friend. You are  in the right place. But please come and   receive some prayer. We want to wrestle  with you. We want to stand with you. Maybe we'd like to kneel with you. There  might be some of you in the room like you   you've been running for so long that  the posture you need to take when you   come to get prayer is actually not  standing, but it's to get on your   knees if you're physically able because  you can't run and kneel at the same time.

And so if you need some prayer,   please don't leave. Please come  forward and receive some prayer.   For this next worship set, I want to invite you  to take whatever posture you need to take to best   connect with the Lord. If that is remaining seated  in your seat while we sing some songs, please,   if that's standing and raising your hands, please,  if that's receiving prayer and coming forward,   please respond however it is that you need  to respond to connect with the God who sees   you and knows you and loves you. Let's continue  to sing. Come forward if you need some prayer. Can't go back to the beginning.

Can't control what tomorrow will bring. But I know here in the middle is the place where you promise to be. Thank you for your promise. I'm not enough  unless you come. Will you meet me here   again? This is our prayer. Cuz all I want  is all you are. Will you meet me here again? Right where we're scared, where anxiety, where fear seems to meet us here.  As I walk down through the valley,   let your love, let your love rise above  every fear. And like the shaving shadow in my we

not enough unless you come.  Will you meet me here again?   I'm coming through. Cuz all I want is all you  are. Is all you are. Will you meet me here? I'm not enough. I'm not enough unless you  come. Will you meet me here again? Cuz all I want is all you are.  Will you meet me here again? Would you miss us more?

In your presence, chains are broken. Let us see  how you break chains, how you're chasing for us.   We want to see your face. Remind us how you're  faithful, how you've brought us through. We're   standing here today because we weren't forsen.  Lord, you haven't forsaken us. We believe you're   here, God. We believe you're here, God. Oh, come  in power, Holy Spirit, over us. Not for our was   for. The Lord is in this place right here. The  Lord is in this place. So come holy spirit drive   to awake. The Lord is in this place. Thank you  God. Yes, he's here for a living. Was I for He came running to this place.  Yes, he did. So come Holy Spirit's

awake. The Lord is in this  place. The Lord is in this way. You haven't been for because he's faith. He's  so faith. Thank you, Lord, that you're free. So good. I'm not enough unless you come.  Will you meet me here again?

Cuz all I want is all you are. Will  you meet me here again? I'm not enough.   I'm not enough unless you come. Unless  you come. Will you meet me here again? Is all you are. Will you meet me here again? But you made us strong. You can transform because  you're whole. Make me whole.

There's nothing left to do. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is   no one. Only you Jesus. Who else is  worthy of praise? Who else is worthy? There is no one only Jesus. Who else is way? Who  else is who else could this Who else could dieus? Who else? Who else could make this king? Who  else is what blood could wash white as snow?   There is no one only Jesus. Who else  is worthy? Who else is worthy? There   is no one. Only you Jesus. Who else is  worthy? Who else is worthy? There's no one.   There is no one only Jesus. There is  no only Jesus. There is no only Jesus.

Only you Lord. Heat. Heat. In the crushing, in the pressing,  you are making new wine.

In the shore light now surrender. You are breaking new ground.  So I yield to you to carefully when I trust you all me to understand. So make me your offer. Make me whatever you  want me to be. I came here with   me. But all you have given me,  Jesus, bring new wine out of me. In the crushing you are pressing you are making in the story you are breaking You are breaking the ground. So make me a  make me an offering. Make me whatever you  

want me to be. Came here with nothing. with  all you have given me. Jesus bring new wine. Jesus bring me all Jesus bring me. Cuz  where there is no way, there is no power,   there is no freedom. The king is here. I lay  down my old flame to carry your new fire. Where there is no way, there is no power,   there is no freedom. The king is here. I laid  down my own to carry your new fire today.

So make me your vessel and make me an  offering. Make me whatever you want   to be. I came here with nothing but all  you have given me. Jesus bring new wine   out of me. And Jesus bring new wine out  of me. Jesus bring new wine out of me. Just come and have your way. Just come and have your way in my life.

And all to Jesus I surrender all to him I freely   give. I will never love and  trust in his presence daily. your heart all to Jesus. I surrender to him I feeling and I will never go and  trust in his presence daily. his presence daily.

So make me your vessel and make me an offering.  Make me whatever you want me to be. I came here   with nothing but all you have given me. Jesus,  bring new wine out of me this weekend. Oh Jesus,   bring new wine out of me like only you  can. Jesus, bring new wine around me. You're so worthy, God. Oh, I praise cast  my mind to calary. But Jesus paid and died   for me. I see his wounds, his hands and  feet. My savior on that curse is true.

His body bound and drenched in tears.   They laid him down and Joseph  stood the entrance se by heavy stor and all. Let it rise to the  only one who's worthy. Sing. Oh,   praise the name of the Lord our God.  Oh, praise his name forever more. We will see your praise, oh Lord. Oh Lord God. and break the sun again. Oh sh

God forever. Oh, God. He shall return in robes of  water that arise the pleasing. Then I will rise among the saints.  My kiss on Jesus face. Oh, you Yeah. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Sing your praise. Oh Lord. Oh God, what an honor just to be in your presence, God. that you would care to know us, to see us, to step into our mess, to shoulder the  weight of our brokenness and our burdens so much that you do it in the  form of a cross, a sinner's death.

How the story was to end for a criminal is  how the story ended for the spotless lamb,   savior of the world. Thank you, Jesus. God, in faith, we believe that the work you've  done here today, that you will continue to see   it through until completion because your  word tells us that that is true. So God,   as we wrestle, as we struggle, maybe  with doubt, with fear, with anxiety,   with something we know that lies ahead  or something that we can't even see yet. God, we're just thankful  that you're in it with us. Like the three men that stepped into the fire,   they weren't alone. There was a fourth and  they stepped out untouched, unburnt, unscathed.

Because you saw them, you  met them, you protected them,   and you walked out with them. That  is our story because of you, Jesus. So we honor you today. We honor you in  the wrestle. We honor you in sadness and   in grief. We honor you in joy and in victory  in every season and every circumstance. God,   we just honor you. We worship you. We praise you.  We adore you. Our attention and our affection is   yours. Where else could we give it knowing  what you've done? We just say thank you. Well, hey online family. We're so glad that you  chose to join us for worship today. And we know   that the past couple of weeks have been really  challenging as far as the sermon goes with this   dysfunction junction series we've been in. And we  want you to know if you are really wrestling or   struggling with a family situation or if you've  had trauma from a wound that you've experienced   from a family member or just wrestling with a big  decision and you're not sure how to really trust   God. We want you to know that you are not alone in  that. You can always reach out to our team. We are   here for you. This is not just a video. It really  is an online community and our team would love   to talk with you and pray with you through those  things. And so there's a really easy way for you   to connect with our team. You can text that word  connect to 733733 and myself or one of the team   members will reach out to you this week, pray with  you. We just want you to know that you're part of  

our family and we would love to just help and walk  you through whatever you're struggling with today.   You know, one of the things I love about Southeast  is that we really do lean in to a lot of that   family dysfunction that we see, not really only  in our church, but really in our surrounding   communities as well through a really awesome  ministry with our family advocacy ministry.   And so, we're in the middle of camp season. And  we just wrapped up a really special camp called   Camp Empower, which especially equips campers  to just really experience the love of God for   campers who are walking through foster care and  have been adopted. And so Dererick got to catch   up with one of our staff members, Vanessa, about  just why this ministry is so important to the life   of Southeast. Well, what's up y'all? Derek here at  our Blanket Baker campus with Vanessa who's part   of our family advocacy team. Uh, and our family  advocacy ministry, right, is an awesome ministry,   a part of our church, helps equip and care for  foster care and adoptive families, both uh fam,   both parents and for the kids that are a part  of that. And so Vanessa, this is a special week   though because this is Camp Empower week. Yes.  And so tell us about why that's important and   why that's impactful for us. So this camp empower  is specifically for those incoming second through   fifth graders who have personally experienced  being in foster care uh or actively fostered,   adopted, or even kinship care. And it's a week  dedicated to them and what they're walking through   and their stories. And so it's really sweet to  just watch them find community with one another   and make lifelong friends. That's awesome. So,  three or four days here at our Blank and Baker  

campus, those kids get to be a part of that,  which is so cool. But every camp that we have,   right, the theme is always so important, right?  It's always so important. So, tell us about the   theme of the camp and why that applies so  much to what's going on this week. Yeah,   so I'm really excited about the theme this year.  Uh, so we do not have weekday programming and so   wanted to be really intentional when we built our  theme that we did something that planted seeds   that could be watered as they walked into their  weekday programming outside of Camp Empower. So,   we chose the story of Moses. Moses was adopted. Uh  he struggled with split identity, anger, physical   disability. And so a lot of the things that our  kids are struggling with, Moses struggled with.   And so it's been really sweet for kids to find the  parallel in Moses story to their story and just   how God empowers them through that. That is so  good. And and I love that because I I never picked   up on that specifically in Moses's story, but that  absolutely applies to what is going on this week.   And I love that. And so, Vanessa, for you though,  you have a deeply personal story and connection to   this ministry and what's going on this week. Yeah.  So, I love this camp and just this ministry. Uh,   I was going into sixth grade, so I was 12. Um, and  I actually went into foster care and was adopted   my senior year of high school. Uh, and so just  getting to be a part of this, I didn't have access   to any of this as a kid. And so, I just know that  if I would have had access to resources like this,   it would have drastically impacted my middle  school, high school in no doubt adult years. Um,   and so it's just sweet to getting to be a part of  it and watching their little brains piece things   together for the first time and just encouraging  them. Um, and just watching them find the hope  

that our heavenly father gives us. That is so  good. And y'all, I guarantee you're like me.   You listen to Vanessa's story and all that's going  on. We're so grateful for our family advocacy team   that is awesome and is loving these uh parents  and kids that uh maybe don't have a lot of   people in their life to help them through these  things. So, I love that. Uh but Vanessa, what's   maybe one way that people at home watching this  right now can get involved? Yeah, so uh we have   a variety of ways to get involved, but I think  one of the simplest things that I can encourage,   uh people to do is just to text advocacy uh  to 733733. That'll take you to our landing   page online and that will list all the different  ways that you can be involved with our ministry.   But I always say like one of the easiest ways is  considering our foster care and adoption class. We   do it every month. It's online. You get to do it  from the comfort of your home. Uh, and it's not a   commitment to fostering or adopting a child. It's  just informational um to learn more and what we   do. I love that. Well, y'all, we are so grateful  that you've been praying for things like Camp   Empower for our family advocacy ministry and make  sure that you text that word advocacy to 733733.

I love that our church is a part of this  family advocacy ministry. And so again,   if you want more information about that or want  to take one of those classes, you can text that   word advocacy to 733733 to learn more. But online  family, we have something really special for you   launching today. Our brand new Bible study from  Eden to eternity for the next seven weeks. We   are walking through the entire book of the Bible,  much like we've done with our sermon series over   the last couple of months through the book of  Genesis. we sit down podcast style um and just   kind of walk through all of the stories of the  Bible to just see it's not really disjointed   stories. They all flow together and it's one  story of God's redemption for us. And so these   episodes are going to be released on our YouTube  channel. If you text SE online to 733733, you're   going to get a link to those and just a couple of  different resources for this specific study. And   so if you're wanting to be more equipped in your  Bible knowledge, this is a great way to do that.   And so over the next seven weeks, those episodes  are going to be dropping on our YouTube channel,   From Eden to Eternity. But just a quick reminder,  next week is Father's Day, and we're going to   be wrapping up the book of Genesis. Senior  Pastor Kyle Idleman is going to be kicking   off a new sermon series called Ment for Good,  talking through the story of Joseph. So, you're   not going to want to miss that. Well, we we'll  see you guys back next Sunday. Bye, everybody.

Thank you.