Untitled Sermon

I'm scared. How often do we find ourselves in a place of fear? In a place where our muscles tense and the sweat begins to drip our breath quickens and we can't seem to hold on to a single thought I'm scared how often do we find ourselves in a place of fear where we find ourselves on the precipice of change in a season of uncontrol where all we want is to know what happens next I'm scared how often do we find ourselves in a place of fear where we feel like our life is on the line and the only choice that we have left to make is either run or to fight I'm scared

What do we do in a time that we are afraid?

Life gives us a multitude of different scenarios where we find ourselves gripped by immense fear in these moments we no longer can think straight we have difficulties recognizing the reality of what is going on around us and often we might find ourselves in a time of this hysteria And in these moments we're often left with some sort of choice we are left with our decision of how we are going to act Jacob finds himself second place to his brother esau like literally he finds himself coming out second to his twin brother but he's crafty he's sneaky and he likes to have control of the situations that are going on around him we've heard the story of how Jacob tricks esau into gaining his inheritance from Isaac over just a bowl of soup but Jacobs deceit and his ability to manipulate doesn't stop there with esau now esau gets furious and he's he's upset and he's mad and he's angry with Jacob like bro stole all of his money and there's no longer anything that esau can do about it unless if Jacob is no longer in the picture an esau threatens Jacob with his life like any good scaredy cat Jacob runs for the hills what do we do in a time of fear do we run away see Jacob runs away from this situation and he doesn't address it he's gotten what he wants and now it's time to move on eventually he finds himself with his uncle by the name of laban who lives in the area of haran now Jacob runs there in hopes to find some sort of refuge from the wrath of his older brother and he finds that he becomes a servant of levon and he works faithfully for him for a time eventually laban notices that that Jacob works very well and he tries his best and he lives in upright kind of lifestyle that is worthy of attention and worthy of reward bluebond strikes up a deal with David and says that after a certain amount of years in service that Jacob can marry his daughter but in this Jacob himself is disease deceived and finds himself in a position where he marries both daughters but it continues in his service to labon and eventually his offered another deal that as he continues to serve him he'll be gifted a portion of his cattle and Jacob takes up on the deal he serves faithfully to Lebanon and bears the losses that he encounters as his own and doesn't bother his master with it but then something happens and Jacob finds himself once again on the run he leaves Lebanon and he knows that he has been wronged by Lebanon the deceiver has been deceived when we run sometimes we find ourselves in a position or a place that is worse then what originally we were in Jacob ran from his brother and spent his life in servitude to someone who is not a man of his word and then they're all found fairness that doesn't sound like that bad of an option right like he could either stay with esau and potentially get killed or you know serve a few years and you know get a wife get some kids get some cows and you know sounds like a lot better of an option to me however in this Jacob ran away from his problems and didn't necessarily solve the issue that he was having with his brother he wasn't really solving the issue that he was having within himself so Jacob starts on the journey back home and he has a good conversation with lebahn that repairs their relationship and he sends a message out to his brother telling him that he's on his way and Jacob receives a startling message back esau is coming with 400 men and Jacob is terrified he he's worried about the warriors maybe esau is coming to kill him and so he splits up his people and he and he basically gets into this defensive position that maybe he can save some of his possessions by distracting esau with some of the other possessions however this isn't facing his problems he is still avoiding his problems what happens when we face our own problems well on the way back Jacob sends his family across the river of Jacob and with all of his other possessions and finds himself alone in the wilderness of the desert in the dead of night and we don't really know why he did this maybe he wanted some alone time to maybe potentially like get himself right before he faced his death his potential death or maybe he just wanted to be maybe you just needed to steal his mind or calm his nerves but that's not what happens Jacob finds himself wrestling with a man what happens when we find ourself in immense sphere this time Jacob however doesn't run away he fights back and he begins to wrestle with this man and he does well he's not losing he's not necessarily winning but the fight continues and continues and continues and continues and they kind of noticed that they're kind of at this weird stalemate and so the man search to fight a little dirty and he injuries and cripples Jacob to get the upper hand when we fight back we have the potential to get hurt we have the potential to put ourselves in a dangerous situation that doesn't even address the real problems that are going on we missed the point we miss what's happening around us and we can get severely hurt however it seems like a better option than to just stop and let ourselves get pummeled surely if we stop fighting back we'll get hurt even more we put ourselves at a bigger risk potentially the man tells Jacob let me go for the day is about to break and Jacob does not let the man go he holds on to him and he says I will not let you go until you bless me there's a pause in the fighting and the fighting kind of stops it's like they're holding on to each other but the control or the fight over power has seized and the man says let me go Jacob says not bro I want something and the man responds what is your name Jacob says well I'm Jacob obviously you know I'm pretty cool and the man says your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed Jacob has received his blessing Jacob has been granted and we see this later on in chapter 35 he's been granted the title of the father of the 12 tribes he sees the fulfillment of God and his covenant with Abraham consistent through him when Jacob stops fighting back he finds out the true intention of God and he discovers the problems that he's been carrying. Jacob is a man who deceived and was deceived he was a man who stole who was stolen from here's a man that had conflict after conflict and was able to weasel him what his self out but he wanted to be in control of his life and what was going on when we stop fighting back we start to gain control of the situation around us our mind becomes clear our purpose becomes clear the reality of the God our king our Lord our savior our creator starts to become real. what should we do in a time of immense fear.

How are you known? The majority of my life I have spent under the shadow of the identity as a triplet my life has been defined by two other people that I was born with I can instantly become one of the most interesting people in the room simply by mentioning the fact that I'm a triplet but that's not all that I am do you ever feel like you are categorized by one thing and you have to fight to keep that from becoming your identity? Why is it so important that we control the way people view us? Because we are constantly dealing with the fears of disapproval or being pushed away from people whom we seek the approval of. When God renames Jacob there is something special happing there in that moment. God is all about transformation. Jacob was being transformed through this narrative. From a deceiver into the name of the people that God will claim as his own. What is holding you back? What is something you are fearing from God or keeping you away from transformation. Transformation isn’t always an easy thing to journey through. You are made in the image of the creator of all. You are part of the story that is still happening today. God has named you his child. Don’t allow yourself to be afraid.