August 29, 2026 ”Jacob’s Limp” Pastor Jamey Houghton

Hello and welcome to the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church. I'm so glad that

you have chosen to worship with us today

and I hope that the worship is

meaningful and brings you closer to

[music] Jesus as you sing with us and

study the Bible with us. God bless each

one of you. So glad you're here. Happy

Sabbath song as well. It's uh it's fun

to be in a sermon series and I like this

one on prayer. This has been a a fun one

to go through and I hope that you've

been blessed in our studies as well.

This one

challenged me this week. My sermon title

this week is Jacob's limp.

There was a boy who's about 5 years old

and he had built a birdhouse in school

in his preschool there and real nice

birdhouse and he had it on the back

porch there and he was outside there

just kind of staring deeply at his at

his bird house there just pondering

things and his mom was watching from

inside the window and saw him and she

opened the sliding glass door and said,

"Hey buddy, what are you thinking

about?"

5-year-old took a big breath and [sighs]

kind of exhaled like he'd been carrying

the all the troubles of the world on his

back and he just big exhale and he says,

"Mom,

can I have a pet bat for my birdhouse?"

She wasn't expecting that. And she said,

"Sorry, little guy. I hate bats."

He thought for a moment and reached

down, picked up a stick and kind of

looked at his bird house again. And he

said, "Mom, you said God made

everything, right? All the stuff. God

made all that."

She nodded and said, "Yes."

He continued looking at his bird house

and spoke seriously and he said, "Well,

Mom, if God made all the stuff, then God

made bats.

You can't hate bats if God made the

bats. So, can I have a bat?"

She's like, "Well, maybe hate was too

strong of a word and maybe I shouldn't

have said I hate bats since God did make

the bats, but we're still not going to

have a pet bat."

And he was kind of disappointed,

but he tried a different angle. He was

negotiating with his mom in hopes that

maybe he could get a pet bat because it

would fit perfectly in his birdhouse.

Have you ever negotiated with God?

Have you ever had something on your mind

where you've you've prayed an if then

prayer? God, if you just do this, then I

promise I'll do that. We're good

negotiators. For those of you that are

parents and have kids, maybe you can

remember when your kids started

negotiating with you. They asked you for

something and you were like, "Not this

time." And they were like, "Well, how

about this?" Like, "Can we have ice

cream?" "Well, no." "Well, what if I pay

for it?

still no. And then they come, but it's

not that bad. How about just one scoop

instead of two scoops? See, they're

negotiating. Maybe you're a kid and

you're you're used to negotiating with

your parents. You know exactly what I'm

talking about. Your parents tell you no,

and you're like, "Well, what about if we

do it this way? We're good at

negotiating."

Have you ever negotiated or bargained

with God?

Those if then prayers are fairly

wellnown. There's a story about an

atheist who is stranded at sea and being

circled by sharks. He prays to God for

help and God freezes time and asks why

he should help an atheist.

The atheist replies, "Well, if you won't

help me, then how about making the shark

religious? He may show compassion and

not eat me."

God agrees to make the shark religious

and resumes time. The closest shark

that's circling comes up close, right

next to him, and pauses and bows his

head and says, "Thank you, God, for

providing this meal for me today."

>> Amen. We're used to the idea of a

negotiating type of prayer

and asking God. But if God says, "No,

well, we'll come at it from a little bit

of a different angle." We see some

different types of prayer, and we're

going to wrestle with that today in a

story about wrestling with God. Turn

with me in your Bibles to Genesis

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15. Genesis the 15th chapter.

And we're we're going to look at two

stories today. And both of the people in

these stories, by the end of the story,

they have a new name. God gives him a

brand new name. And the first one is a

man named Abram. And there's a couple of

chapters before this that talk about

Abram's journey. We're only four

chapters away from Babylon or Babel, the

Tower of Babel, where they changed all

of the different uh languages and

everything. And as I was reading through

this, I thought to myself, I wonder if

Abram spoke one of the new languages or

like he still had the original one

because all the languages got changed

four chapters ago. And here we have

Abram. His his journey comes through

this this early book of Genesis here.

And chapter 15 in my Bible is titled

God's covenant with Abram.

And this is how God starts it off. Verse

one. After these things, the word of the

Lord came to Abram in a vision,

saying,"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am

your shield, your exceedingly great

reward."

Verse two, the first word says, "But."

So, you can see right away as God

promises a great reward. He's going to

be his shield. We can anticipate just by

that first word in verse two that

there's going to be some sort of an an

opposition to this, some sort of a

challenge to God's blessing here. And

here's what it says. But Abram

said,"Lord God, what will you give me,

seeing I go childless, and the heir of

my house is Eleazar of Damascus?" Then

Abram said, "Look, you have given me no

offspring. Indeed, one born in my house

is my heir."

Abram counters this promise of blessing

with a complaint, almost insinuating

that he's cursed, not blessed.

interesting way to respond to God's

promise of a blessing. He's got some

things he's struggling with.

What are you going to bless me with?

God, you haven't even given me children.

Back then, that was a huge deal.

In Patriarchs and Prophets, it talks

about Abram and it says that his

household had around a thousand people

in it. None of them his children.

one a children by Hagar, but not his

child with his wife. That's a whole

sermon for another Sabbath.

But he and his wife childless and his

response to God's promise seems to be

complaining,

airing out some of his struggles, some

of the areas where he's not sure. He's

got insecurities here. God has promised

this stuff. And yet Abram's an old man.

His wife is an old woman.

How can these promises be when they're

old?

Verse four, and behold, the word of the

Lord came to him, saying, "This one

shall not be your heir." Talking about

the um the son with Hagar, he says, "But

one who will come from your own body

shall be your heir." And then I really

like this as he as he just reiterates

this promise to Abram. He says, "Okay, I

promise you're going to have a boy from

your body.

Step outside with me for just a moment,

Abram.

He brought him outside and said, "Look

towards the heaven and count the stars

if you are able to number them." And he

said to him, "So shall your descendants

be." I think this is a really cool part

of the story because it's a way that God

is encouraging Abram who's got some

doubts, who's been seriously struggling

with this. He says, "Step outside with

me for just a moment." Have you ever

been out in a really dark place and you

look up at the sky and you see just a

bazillion stars up there?

It's so incredible. And you look up and

it's amazing. And God says,"Abram, take

a look at the stars up in the sky right

now. Can you count them?" There's no

way.

He says, "I promise you this will be

like the number of your descendants."

He had to trust him.

He couldn't see how, but he had to trust

him. It says, "And he believed in the

Lord, and he accounted him for

righteousness." Let's turn over to

chapter 17.

We see this sign of this covenant again.

Covenant talk here between God and

Abram. And it says Abram was 99 years

old. Still no son with his wife.

Sarai is 90.

And the Lord appeared to Abram and said,

"I am Almighty God. Walk before me and

be blameless." He goes through,

refers again to Abram's descendants.

says he will bless his wife Sarai. Says

she will get a new name. Abram gets a

new name. Abraham.

And God goes through all of this through

about 16 verses. Here we see God sharing

this everlasting covenant, this promise

of children. Sarah's going to have a

baby.

I Abraham is 99 years old.

Sarah 90.

It's hard to wrap your head around God's

promises when you can't explain them.

But yet sometimes I think we

underestimate God and what he can do.

Abraham struggled with this. This was a

huge struggle for him at 99. Even though

there were promises from God,

Abraham struggled with this.

Even just a couple chapters ago, he

says, "You haven't given my you haven't

given me children, God."

When God goes through and shares this

again with Abraham, she's your wife's

going to have a son. Verse 17, Abraham

fell on his face. The Bible says, "And

he laughed

and he said in his heart, shall a child

be born to a man who's 100 years old,

and shall Sarah who is 90 years old bear

a child?" And then he negotiates with

God.

He says, "And Abraham said to God," oh,

that Ishmamail might live before you.

Ishmamail's right here, God.

He doubted that God could fulfill that

promise and allow him and his wife to

have their own child. God, just just use

Ishmael.

He's right here. And God says, "No,

Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son,

and you shall call his name Isaac." even

names him.

Therein is this promise. Abra Abraham

likes to negotiate with God. We see this

when he's bargaining for Sodom and

Gomorrah in chapter 18 verse 23. He

says, "God, you wouldn't destroy 50

righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah

just because of the sins of all the rest

of them, would you? You're a righteous

God. You're a good God. You wouldn't do

that." It's interesting how he talks to

God like this.

I know you, God. You wouldn't destroy

the 50 righteous, would you? And God

says, "No, I won't destroy 50." He says,

"How about 45?"

Nope. And he keeps on negotiating with

God down to a low number. And he, you

notice, he stops before God stops

granting mercy on these numbers. What if

he had kept on asking? What if we kept

on asking

when we're wrestling with God?

But the bargaining and the back and

forth in prayer escalates quite a bit

with his grandson Jacob. Turn with me in

your Bibles to Genesis 32:22.

Genesis 32:22

Genesis chapter 32.

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

And this,

I think, ramps up the the idea of of

deep

interactive prayer with God

in a way that I haven't seen really

anywhere else in the Bible.

And we see Jacob.

Jacob's story is a complex one.

He lied to his dad to try and steal the

birthright. His mom was the one egging

him on to this. Um, Jacob is the fair

skinned, non-hairy one. Esau was hairy

like an animal because Jacob put on

animal skins to deceive his dad and his

dad pets his arm and it's like goat

skin. He's like, "Oh yeah, that's Esau.

That's Esau." That's how hairy Esau was.

Jacob, not as hairy, the fair skin one,

deceived his father. His brother hates

him, wants to kill him. He's been on the

run for 20 years. He had to leave. It's

an embarrassment because people must

have asked him, "So why don't you live

with your family? Why are you living

over here with Laban?" And he had to

explain, "Well, family complications.

I lied to my dad." "You lied to your

dad,

the patriarch in your family. You

deceived him." Yeah, I know. I shouldn't

have. I mean, he has to live with this

shame, explaining this stuff in a land

where his family's not on the run from

his brother who wants to kill him. He's

known as a deceiver.

But then he himself gets deceived and

tricked into marrying Leah before he can

marry Rachel. Things go south with

Laban. God directs him to leave. He

can't go back towards Layman. He's

already left, but he's headed towards

where his brother Esau is. He sends

messengers ahead to try and mend things

with Esau. He sends his messengers and

the messengers he he tells them to call

him Esau's servant. The wording there is

very submissive that we see that Jacob

uses to address Esau through his

servants.

He's out traveling with his whole

family. The messengers returned. Chapter

32:6, it says, "The messengers returned

to Jacob saying, "We came to your

brother, Esau. He is also coming to meet

with you."

Okay, this is this is intense for Jacob.

He hasn't seen his brother in 20 years.

The last time he saw him, he wanted to

kill him. Has his brother forgiven him?

Is he over it? Is he not over it? Is he

going to come for revenge? As his as the

messenger says he's on his way, he's not

finished yet. And he says, "And by the

way, he's coming with 400 men.

They're not coming over for potluck.

He doesn't have 400 men to fight back

with. He's got a bunch of shepherds,

women, and children. Probably some men,

but it's not enough to fight off 400

men.

You don't go with 400 men just to go

hang out.

It's not a welcoming party.

And says in verse 7, Jacob was greatly

afraid and distressed.

And I'm sure he couldn't help but stop

and think, my whole family wouldn't be

in this much trouble if I had done the

right thing and I hadn't deceived my dad

and tricked my brother. All of this is

because of the stupid thing I did when I

was younger.

The Patriarchs and Prophets, the author,

says this on page 195. Though Jacob had

left Pat and Aram in obedience to the

divine direction, it was not without

many misgivings that he retraced the

road which he had trodden as a fugitive

20 years before. His sin in the

deception of his father was ever before

him. He knew that his long exile was a

direct result of that sin, and he

pondered over these things day and

night. The reproaches of an accusing

conscience making his journey very sad.

With the memory of his sin sin came also

the thought of God's favor towards him

and the promises of divine help and

guidance.

Again the Lord granted Jacob a sign of

the divine care as he traveled southward

from Mount Gilead. Two hosts of heavenly

angels seemed to encompass him behind

and before advancing with his company as

if for their protection. Isn't that

awesome? It's it seems to insinuate

there that he could see these angels

around him or he knew of their presence.

At least there was evidence somehow.

Have you ever thought that when you're

going through a valley, a dark time, a

struggle in your life that God might

send extra angels to be with your

family?

God doesn't love Jacob more than he

loves you. The Bible promises that you

have a guardian angel. Each one in your

family has a guardian angel. And when

you're facing struggles, no doubt God

sometimes sends extra angels to be with

you. Isn't that awesome?

>> That God cares that much about you and

what you're going through that he would

send extra angels to watch over you.

That makes me feel awfully loved when I

think about that.

And here comes Esau,

400 men.

Let's look at verse 22.

Jacob's afraid, but he sees evidence of

God. But his brother's coming here. Not

sure what's going to happen. In verse 22

it says, "And he arose that night and

took his two wives, his two female

servants, and his 11 sons, and crossed

over the fort of Jabbok. He took them

and sent them over to the brook and sent

over everything that he had." Then Jacob

was left alone. In this

tough and scary situation,

Jacob needs some time alone with God.

And I think over and over again we see

in scripture that when people's backs

are against the wall and they don't know

what to do, the best place you can go is

take it to God. And that's probably the

first place we should go before our

backs are up against the wall.

But here, Jacob says, "I need to be

alone with God tonight." He sends

everybody across the river, comes back,

and he's by himself. Now, we see in the

Bible that there are different

situations on these different roads

where there are thieves and and robbers,

but also there's bears and there's

African style big lions in this in this

part of the country at the time. And so,

being by yourself out in the mountains

in the wilderness is not the safest

place. Bad things can happen to you.

But he needs to be alone. He needs to

spend some time praying with God, asking

for help.

And when Jacob is alone, verse 24, it

says, "A man wrestled with him until the

breaking of day." And man, in my Bible

is capitalized with an M. And we see

later on that this man is none other

than Jesus who's wrestling with him.

Jesus meets him out there in the

desolate wilderness

where he's pouring his heart out, where

he doesn't know the answers to his

problems, where he feels trapped.

Jesus meets him there.

Friends,

whenever you're going through a struggle

in your life, whenever you're facing

something that feels insurmountable,

remember that Jesus will come and meet

you right where you're at and give you

help and listen and he's always

available no matter where you are.

Says a man wrestled with him until the

breaking of day. Now, this [sighs]

this is one of the most unique

interactions between Jesus and a human

being that I found anywhere in the

Bible. And I may spend years trying to

figure this all out. I I won't claim

that I know every intimate part of this

story and can explain every bit of it

because I'm still wrapping my head

around it.

Jacob and Jesus

wrestle wrestle.

They're not like just saying, "Hey, I'm

struggling with this." No, no. They're

physically wrestling.

It feels like to Jacob that he's being

attacked.

In Patriarchs and Prophets, page 196, it

says, "While he was thus battling for

his life,

the sense of his guilt pressed upon his

soul, his sins rose up before him to

shut him out from God. But in his

terrible extremity, he remembered God's

promises and his whole heart went out in

intreaty for his mercy." As he's

wrestling, thinking someone's trying to

kill him, in his mind, he's reminded of

this whole situation and why they're all

there. And all of these troubles seem to

be his fault. And he needs to reconcile

these sins and find forgiveness and

mercy at the feet of Jesus.

He's about to find out how close that

mercy is. In fact, he's reaching out and

touching it right then.

Sun is starting to come up.

And it says, "Now he saw that he did not

prevail against him. He touched the

socket of Jacob's hip, and the socket of

Jacob's hip was out of joint as he

wrestled with him." Okay, picture this

in your mind. The dirt all over the

place. And by the way, wrestling all

night long, that is exhausting. If

you've ever wrestled with somebody like

hard wrestled,

you're maybe in for 15, maybe 20 minutes

of hard wrestling before you're just

gassed. I've got an older brother. We

wrestled all the time. I had some good

buddies in college that wanted to rumble

from time to time. We wrestled hard. And

after after a little while, you're just

like, "All right, all right. I'm tired."

The last time I remember I wrestled with

my brother. We were too old to wrestle,

but we're still brothers. And and

finally, finally, there's we've come to

a point in this we came to this point

many years ago where we know how to push

each other's buttons. I know how to push

his buttons. and we just look at each

other like nah we're too old for this

now we're too tired there's no way we

could last 5 10 minutes of good old you

know younger style wrestling but to

wrestle for hours and hours and hours

and at the sunrise Jesus just reaches

down and touches Jacob's hip whole hip

comes out of socket

the wrestling match is over

and Jesus says to him there must have

been a look on his face like oh

and Jesus says let me go for the day

breaks.

Let me go before the day breaks.

Now, in this, we just talked about in

patriarchs and prophets where she says

that throughout this struggle,

he remembered God's promises and his

whole heart went out in in treaty for

his mercy,

a confession of sorts. God, I know this

situation is my fault. Lord, forgive me.

In Patriarchs and Prophets, page 202,

she says, the author says this, "Had not

Jacob previously repented of his sin in

obtaining the birthright by fraud, he

could not have heard his prayer and

mercifully mercifully preserved his

life." I paused when I read that quote

for a moment because it says, it

insinuates there that had Jacob not

repented of his sins that God well

straight up says that God could not have

heard his prayer.

Is there a connection between confession

of our sins and asking for big things

from God?

It seems that there is. I've done many,

many anointings as a pastor over the

years because the Bible when somebody is

sick, the Bible says in James chapter 5,

James 5 · chapter mention

it says, "Is anyone among you sick?

Gather the elders from the church and

anoint them with oil and pray for

healing for those people." It says, "And

God will hear your prayers and heal the

sick." But as a part of that those

instructions, there's also a part that

that instructs us to confess our sins,

make things right between us. If we've

harmed or or faulted anybody, there's

direction there before you pray for that

healing to confess your sins.

Is there a connection between us

repenting of our sins before we ask for

big things? Maybe there is.

So when I pray for things, if I've got

something on my heart,

I try to recognize that connection and

pause and and ask for forgiveness of

things that I need to ask forgiveness of

before I ask those big things because it

seems to matter to come to God with a

clean heart.

Jesus says, "Let me go.

for the day breaks

and Jacob says, "I will not let you go."

Kind of an intense thing to say back to

Jesus, isn't it? Jesus says, "Okay, let

me go." Jacob's hanging on to Jesus. I

will not let you go until you bless me.

Until I have the assurance

that you've forgiven me for my past

life, until I have obtained the mercy

from you, I can't let you go. Again, we

see in patriarchs and prophets, she says

this, "Had this been a boastful,

presumptuous confidence, Jacob would

have been instantly destroyed. If he had

actually been talking disrespectfully to

God, it would have been different."

But she says his was the assurance of

one who confesses his own unworthiness

yet trusts the faithfulness of a

covenantkeeping God.

He had to hang on to Jesus. I need to

know that I'm forgiven. That my past is

behind me. And as an evidence of this,

he's given a new name.

I won't let you go until you bless me.

So he says to him, he says, "What's your

name?"

He says, "My name is Jacob."

And he said, 'Your name shall no longer

be Jacob, but Israel, for you have

struggled with God, with men and have

prevailed.'

That's an interesting phrase there,

struggled with God, isn't it?

Why is it that we sometimes struggle

with God? Well, I think it's probably

because we don't understand what God is

doing. Sometimes

we can't see as far as God can see.

But when we're unsure of why things are

happening, sometimes we do struggle with

God.

I wonder why these things are happening

like they are. Says your n your name is

no longer Jacob. Your name is Israel

because you have struggled with God and

with men and have prevailed. And Jacob

then says, tell me your name, I pray.

And Jesus says, why is it you want to

ask my name? As if you know who I am.

And he blessed him there,

assured him of his mercy. And Jacob

called the name of the place pineal. For

I have seen God face to face and my life

is preserved. The naming of this place

as Jesus must have left. He must have

stopped and just been like, "What just

happened?

I was just with God." But here's an

interesting part of this story,

one that I'm still trying to wrap my

head around.

It says verse 31, "Just as he crossed

over Penuel, the sun rose on him and he

limped on his hip.

We can't forget about this hip.

Why? As Jesus assures him of his mercy

and forgiveness and his covenant with

him, why is he still limping?

We can't forget about that touch of the

hip.

Probably hurts. If he's limping, it

hurts.

Why is he still limping?

He's got this limp on his hip.

Maybe

he kept the limp as a reminder of the

forgiveness that God gave him. Maybe the

limp was a reminder of his need to lean

on God going forward.

Maybe it was a chance to testify. So,

what happened to your hip? You weren't

limping before.

Well, you're never going to believe

this.

Who did it?

You may not believe that either.

Here's what happened. how struggling

his chance to testify that God was a

covenant-keeping God, a forgiving God.

Each day as he limped, he remembered how

God came just to be with him and saved

him.

And maybe,

just maybe,

as God was in that struggle, God might

be in parts of your struggle as well

to remind you how he's been with you,

where you've wrestled in the past. and

he's helped you make it through.

It's a weird thing to think about

wrestling with God. It's a different

type of prayer than than we're used to

studying. There's an article by lady

named Katie Psky in Christian living and

the article was titled, "Blessed are

those that wrestle."

Here's a couple of key points from her

article on this topic of wrestling with

God. She says, 'Lan into the struggle,

not to prove your strength, but to

discover God's.

In the wrestling, we don't push God

away. We press into him more deeply than

we ever have before. Isn't that true,

though?

That as we face adversity in our lives

and and struggle, sometimes it causes us

to lean into God and to trust God a

little bit more. And and this is this

is, you know, something I've I've tried

to tackle and figure out because what's

the difference between us wrestling with

things that the devil throws at us

versus what the Bible says is a

refiner's fire where God refineses us in

the fire. You know, there's several

verses where it talks about that

where God is kind of chipping away at

the stuff so that it can purify us. And

it it refers to like purifying silver or

gold, referencing us as the silver or

gold that needs to be purified. And that

that God does that for us sometimes. And

that purification process

not the most comfortable, right?

So what's the difference? I don't know.

How do we wrap our heads around that?

She continues in this in this article.

She says, 'If you walk away with a limp,

take heart because that limp is the mark

of someone who has encountered God and

been forever changed.

Jacob's struggle reminds us that a deep

encounter with God often comes at a

cost. It's one thing to question God out

of bitterness, demanding answers from a

distance.

It's another entirely different thing to

wrestle with him, to bring our doubts,

fears, and frustrations into his

presence and refuse to walk away.

This kind of engagement isn't easy. She

says it requires vulnerability,

perseverance, and the willingness to be

changed. I think that's the kind of

thing that that Jacob did as he was

wrestling with God. And it takes a

vulnerability

and a perseverance

and the willingness to be changed.

That humility, I think, is huge as we

wrestle with God on different things,

to trust God in things that we can't

quite understand.

And maybe God grows us and strengthens

us for something later on that we'll

need that strength for.

when and I didn't get permission to tell

this story, but I'm going to tell a

story about my son Josh. Hope that's

okay, Josh. You're a pastor's kid. You

got to get used to it by now.

Look, he's nervous already. It's It's an

okay story. When my son Josh was

learning how to walk, he'd gone from

crawling and he was starting to take a

few steps. Maybe if you've had kids,

you've watched them learn how to walk,

too. It's a pretty cool experience. So

they go from crawling and then they pull

themselves up on like a couch or

something and then then they'll like

take a step and and you can see like

there's excitement in their eyes like,

"Hey, maybe I can do what you guys do

and walk on two legs instead of four."

And so they'll take a couple steps and

then oh, I got to get back over by the

couch. It's safe over here. And then and

then they get a little more brave. And

as a father, I'm right there because

this is new. And I realize now if he's

trying on two feet, he can hurt himself,

but he's got to learn, right? And as a

father, I've got to step back a little

bit and maybe allow him to fall

sometimes

to get stronger.

So I watch my son take two or three

steps. Boom, down he goes.

Good attitude about it. He popped right

back up and tried a few more steps. And

I'm sitting there. I'm like, "All right,

I'm watching making sure because there's

there's dogs that are bigger than him

running past him. It's a little bit of a

there's there's corners of coffee tables

and things like that that are that are

there. But as a father, I'm just kind of

watching him

and and when he falls,

he looks right at me, right? And I'm

right there. But he's got to learn and

deal with the struggle and grow a little

bit.

And he did great

when he was about three years old.

He could run, walk, all that stuff. But

he was still learning to navigate stuff.

If you look, he's got some scars of

still navigating things uh like corners

of of uh desks and things like that. But

one day when he was about three,

he was still learning proximity stuff

and he jammed his big toe on a door jam

and the big toenail started turning

color.

And he looked down at his toe and we

knew the inevitable was going to happen.

and the toenail was going to come off.

He's just he was just a little guy.

And eventually the toenail fell off. It

turned black. It fell off and he looked

and his big toe looked weird.

And I remember this very distinctly. He

said, "Dad, my toe is ruined. Let's just

cut it off.

[laughter]

It's just ruined. Get rid of it." And I

was like, "Ah, buddy. We you know that

it it it'll look weird for a little

while, but it's going to come back.

you're going to get another toenail. Oh,

it's just ruined. Just just cut it off.

And and from his perspective, that was

that was the solution that he could come

up with. But because I'm dad and I know

what's going to happen with this and

I've seen it happen before, I know that

he's getting his toenail back and it's

not going to look weird forever.

And that growth, it's going to have an

awkward stage, too. But the the nail's

going to come back.

I know that because I've seen it happen

before. I've got experience that he

didn't have at the time.

And he had to go through some of these

tough lessons. But guess what? He was a

whole lot more careful around door jambs

after that.

He grew a little bit.

Part of his struggle, he didn't struggle

with some of that stuff anymore because

what he went through made him a little

stronger.

Sometimes when we wrestle with God

because we don't understand why we're

going through tough pain,

it seems hard to trust God. A Abraham

went through that. It seemed hard to

trust that he was going to be a dad at

99 or 100.

But yet God made those promises. He just

struggled to trust God.

Jacob

saw the evidence all around, but he

struggled too, just like we do, to trust

God when there's tough situations and

tough times.

And I think it's okay to wrestle with

God sometimes and our vulnerability and

and and to ask why sometimes in a

respectful way because that's just real.

That's what we're going through. And God

cares about that stuff and he

understands

our struggle because we don't see

all the way to the end like he does.

There's a song that came out 15 16 years

ago and

the lyrics have always made me pause

and reflect.

And it's a song by a Christian artist

named Laura Story. And the song is

called Blessings. Anybody ever heard

that song before? Blessings.

It's a very moving song and the words

the words go like this because she went

through a very tough time with her

husband and some medical diagnosis and

it was just really a really tough

experience for them for her and her

husband and the whole family. And this

is her writing this afterwards. She

says, "We pray for blessings." This is

the lyrics of the song. We pray for

blessings. We pray for peace, comfort

for family, protection while we sleep.

We pray for healing and prosperity. We

pray for your mighty hand to ease our

suffering.

But all the while you hear each spoken

need, yet love is way too much to give

us lesser things. Cuz what if your

blessings come through raindrops?

What if your healing comes through

tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are

what it takes to know you're near?

What if my greatest disappointments or

the aching of this life is the revealing

of a greater thirst this world can't

satisfy?

What if trials of this life, the rain,

the storms, the hardest nights are your

mercies in disguise?

I've always just paused when I'm driving

down the road and that song comes on.

What if what if God is growing me in

some way that I just don't understand

right now?

And

I can't tell you today that I'm an

expert on understanding all this, that I

I can explain everything about how our

trials in life go and and where God is

and all this and and what they all mean,

but what I see each time

in the Bible when someone struggles with

God or wrestles with God or asks why and

all this all these different questions

that we have when we face these things

is that they seem to draw us closer to

Jesus and cause us to trust him just a

little bit more

as we press in, as we wrestle. When

you're wrestling, you're you're close to

somebody in close proximity. You're

hanging on to him. And I think as we

face struggles in life, if we hang on to

Jesus,

don't let him go

and trust him, no matter what it is we

face or the reason why,

we're going to make it through that

because we're with the one who can help

us.

Jesus doesn't have to take time to come

down and to to be with us and to to

listen to us and to listen to our

struggle. He doesn't have to do that,

but he does because he loves us

and he cares about what you're going

through.

He cares about your struggle.

And as I read this, I think it's okay

for us to even struggle with our own

faith sometimes say, "God, why why is

this happening?" And and and to air a

little bit of that out, but in the end

to trust God with it

and say, "All right, God. I'm hanging on

to your promises.

Just like Abraham, I can't understand

how a 90-year-old woman can have a baby,

but I'm hanging on to your promises.

Can't understand I can be a father at a

hundred, but I'm hanging on to your

promises. He had to wrestle with it a

little bit,

but God was patient with him. God will

be patient with us because we struggle

hard with things just like Jacob and

Abraham struggled hard with those

things. Thank God he comes down and

takes the time with us to work with us,

to be patient with us, to inspire us, to

remind us of his promises. And he does

all that

to save us because you are so valuable

to him in every way

that he will help you and be by your

side to make it through this life and

all the things we go through so that we

can make it to our home in heaven with

him.

So friends, whatever you face, whatever

challenges and trials, whatever

wrestling matches you've had with God

over things that that you've struggled

with in your life, in the end of the

day,

after you've spilled your guts to God,

remember to trust his promises.

He's always willing to listen, even to

broken hearts.

And he's promised

that he'll be with you.

and he'll give you the strength to make

it through whatever you're going

through.

No matter the reason why we're going

through things, whether it's because the

devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he

may devour and making life miserable, or

maybe because God is refining us in the

fire, whatever the reason is, when we

face tough times in life, may we press

in towards Jesus. May we cling to Jesus

and trust him with our life completely

and move forward with confidence knowing

that we have the creator and king of the

universe by our side and with his

strength we can make it through anything

that we face in this life. Let's pray.

Father in heaven,

Lord, thank you for being patient with

us when we cry out to you and go through

things like Abraham and Jacob did. There

are things in each one of our lives that

we've had struggles with and we've

wondered why and how and what's the

purpose in this and and it may not be

that we understand that till we get to

heaven.

But Lord, until then, help us to trust

you and to lean on you. Even when we're

struggling, even when our faith is

struggling, help us to turn towards you

and be reminded of the promises that no

matter what we face, you'll be with us

through that and help us make it

through.

Thank you for being a God we can lean on

and talk to. Thank you for the

encouragement of your promises and keep

us faithful to you through all of these

things we face. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

>> Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church

for worship. Each month we reach between

25 and 30,000 people with gospel content

online. We're looking to expand our

audiovisisual department this year and

looking to raise $30,000 in this

project. We would love for you to

partner with us on this and consider

making a donation to our audiovisisual

department as we look at expansion

[music] and reaching more people with

the gospel across the internet this next

year. You can go to mrcsda.org

to make a donation directly to our

audiovisisual department. Thank you so

much for considering making this

donation and the privilege is ours to

partner with you in making this a bigger

[music] and more effective ministry here

at the McDonald Road 7th Adventist

Church. God bless each one of you and

thanks again for joining us here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist [music]

Church.