God's People Birthed: Jacob's Wrestling Match

Hello and welcome to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast.

Thank you so much for listening.

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We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together.

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We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today.

So we're going to, we're going to be, uh, well here, we'll get, we'll get there in a second.

So last week you talked about Jacob and Esau.

We're going to follow, we'll follow Jacob again, this, this upcoming this Sunday, this morning, we're going to look at him wrestling with, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, have to get away.

And then he says, what we're going to do now, we'll pick up and read.

He's trying to create every opportunity to leave himself a way out.

And he's using, what we've figured out, he's using a lot of his worldly sense, earthly knowledge in order to do that.

But it says in verse 22, that night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 sons and crossed the fort of the Jabba.

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 him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hips, that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

And the man said, let me go, for it is daybreak.

But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

The man asked him, what is your name?

Jacob.

He answered, we'll pause here.

Now this passage, there's more questions than there are, we don't have time for the answers.

And we're not going to know many of the answers until we get to heaven.

Like you get, if you just, if you showed somebody this passage, it just doesn't make sense.

Like it seems, where did this man come from?

Who is this man at all?

How did Jacob, did Jacob understand that there's like, this is spiritual?

Or did he think there's just some dude that, like, where did this guy come from?

He's just, he's just fighting me?

How can you possibly wrestle all night?

How could you fight all night?

Like somebody would have had to punch the other strong enough or like wrestle or like break something.

Like there has to be something.

And we learned Jacob's, we figured out Jacob's even pretty old here.

So what is, okay, I'm getting way too many questions.

We're not going to know a lot of them until we get to heaven.

But I hope to, hope to, maybe we can put some meat around this, this skeleton right here this morning.

There are some things that we do know.

What happens and what we do know is that Jacob says that I am going to set all my possessions ahead of you.

And I'm going to stay back here by myself.

And he, he would, he decided to do this.

And I have to imagine all of his heart is that maybe I could get away.

Maybe I could, is it time to get away?

And then there's something inside of him that says, no, I have to interact with my brother.

So I'm going to put all of these possessions and all of the things that I hold dearest ahead across the stream so that there's no going back.

If his men come and overtake me, we're not getting past the stream.

We're all, we're all, we're all done.

It is his choice.

But there has to be this interaction that occurs.

And then Jacob is left by himself.

There's no opportunity for him to, it's, it's, it's him and God.

There's no chance for him to say, well, I've got to tend to the animals.

I've got to be with my family.

No, it's just him and God.

And there's this wrestling that, that occurs.

And so as I, as I thought about it and you, as you read it the first time, it sounds like, how could, where did this man come from?

But I think Jacob removed everything from his life because he knew that there's something spiritual that took birth.

And he's like, so whatever happens now, I'm sending them, whatever happens now is from God.

It's not, I'm not used to how God is going to interact with, in this way to bring up a physical person to, you know, wrestling.

I'm not used to it.

But whatever happens, I'm looking for God to act and I'm looking for God to move.

So even if it doesn't make sense, even if it's outside of the way that God is acting in, at least what we have reported and how God acted, I still trust God.

Whatever happens now, God is moving and God is acting.

And I have to imagine that was the source.

I think from the beginning, Jacob realized that the image that I get is he's alone by himself.

He's praying.

He looks up and there's a man.

It's just like, it's like, why?

What does that even mean?

Why is it on?

Why not talk to the man?

Why not interact with him?

Maybe he goes up to say hi to the guy and the guy just smacks him.

We don't know.

But I have to imagine that from the time that Jacob, I imagine he's on his knees and he's calling out to God.

He's praying.

And he looks up and he sees this man.

And I have to imagine he realizes something spiritual is happening right now.

I've never seen God become a man before.

But there's something that's going on.

Maybe he sent a message or whatever.

This is, this is, this is what I have to interact with.

I'm going to show God through my wrestling with this man that I have the same fervor that I had when I asked for the blessing.

And when I received, I have that same fervor and I have that same passion that has not wavered.

And then, you know, this wrestling.

So it's, it's, it just seems like a fact.

But, but, but there's some, some, some imagery behind it.

This board of the Jabba and right by a stream.

So there's, it's probably pretty money.

And like, there's, I have to imagine there's like, there's a bar fight scene, perhaps.

But then there's also like some kind of like hand-to-hand combat wrestling.

And then there's probably some dialogue that occurs.

Like, who are you?

And maybe the guy doesn't say anything back.

But there's, there's, it's a mess.

It doesn't look pretty.

It's not like, you know, they're not wearing singlets.

Like, you know, that's not good in general.

But there's, there's not a, there's no rules of engagement, even.

It seems like.

And this is the image that we get for the whole night.

It's a great deal of exhaustion.

And then what happens?

Like, you know, I wonder if Jacob at some point is like, what is it?

When is this going to be over?

Touches the guy's, or the guy touches his hip.

And he's like, man, I'm done.

Like, I, I got it.

What if he still do?

He's still, he's still holding on to the guy.

So now it's at the end of this battle.

Jacob knows he lost.

There's no, there's no hope.

And he's still holding on.

It's, it's wrenched out of place.

I don't even know what it would look like or how it could feel.

But he's in trouble.

He can't wrestle anymore.

He's still holding on, trying to get this blessing.

What, how audacious could he possibly be?

You know, you lost him.

And you're still asking like, just give it, give me the blessing, please.

The guy says, he says, what's your name?

Well, my name is Jacob.

And by asking, what's your name?

You would have been saying, hey, with a name like Jacob, I can't give you the blessing.

With a name like, to be as deceitful as you are, and you know what you've done.

I'm not able to bless you.

How do you want to be blessed?

What does this, what does this mean for us?

You know, Jacob, he, he put himself in the best possible situation to interact most closely with God.

He removed the other stuff.

He removed all of the mess.

And he decided, I'm organizing an opportunity for me to interact closely with God.

I, there's no distractions anymore.

It's, I can't even see very much of what's going on.

It's, it's just me and it's God.

You know, in our day-to-day lives, we've been so busy with so many good things that, that we can, we can just, I'm good.

I'll get with God later.

I'm good with God later.

I'm, I'm walking with God, but I've got something else that I'm, that's really on my mind.

And I would, I would challenge us this summer.

Make, make opportunities.

If you have to create, uh, you know, there, there's many ways to do them.

Make an opportunity for you to just be with you and God, not you and God and the kids, not you and your roommates and God, and not you and your spouse and God.

Just you and God.

However, whatever that looks like.

It might not look like an all night, uh, wrestling match, but it ought to look like, hopefully it doesn't look like a physical all night wrestling match.

But I have to go.

Nevermind.

Uh, but it, but it should be something where you, you're interacting.

It's you and God.

Whatever God, whatever you want to say.

I don't think you're going to interact with me, interact with me.

I'm something that doesn't make sense.

I, you're going to show yourself to me in a way that I'm comfortable with.

Jacob, maybe he pursues, he pursues this interaction.

I imagine he's talking to God rather than man.

And he doesn't realize is he's got, he's wrestling with them.

But what he's not is he's not a bystander to the spirituality.

And that's the thing about there has to be this active pursuit of spirituality.

Just because God is acting in a way that you're not comfortable with, does not mean that he's not acting.

Right.

Right.

Everything that's occurring in your life has the ability to deepen your relationship with God.

Everything.

Right.

There's a, there's a struggle that's going on.

And Jacob should have said, get out of my way.

And perhaps that he would have been blessed with this.

And I'm going to, this is spiritual.

And so I'm going to make it spiritual.

And so I'm going to wrestle with this guy.

And then I'm going to ask that he blesses me.

Every challenge that God has given you, every interaction that you've had, hear me, I don't want to, I don't want to step outside of, uh, I don't want to wade in territory and just sort of read in way too deep.

I'll make a path.

Yeah.

But even every form of trauma that you've experienced, that has the opportunity to drive you nearer to God.

Now, God didn't, like my children, just like God, and some of those children, we don't want trauma to occur, but we understand that there has to be things that they have to go through, in order for them to be strong on the other side.

So for us, I imagine the same is true.

That every form of trauma that you've experienced, it has the opportunity to draw you closer to God.

It also has the opportunity to draw you further away from God.

You can look at, uh, survivors, and you would be able to say that there are many of them that points to a specific moment as being, but I knew God did not exist.

You could find so many others in the same sphere, who experienced similar trauma that would point to, this is the moment that I knew that there has to be something to draw us forward.

Everything that occurs on a day-to-day basis has the opportunity to draw you closer to God.

Ask a man like this.

It says, 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.

Jacob said, please tell me your name.

And he replied, why didn't you ask my name?

And he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Camille, saying it is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.

The sun rose above him as he passed Camille, and he was limping because of his hip.

Therefore, to this day, the Israelites have got the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

So we learn explicitly that Jacob's, now he interacted with God.

Imagine how you could have felt, that perhaps for a moment, God, could this be God?

No way, God doesn't act like that.

God doesn't become human.

That wouldn't make any sense.

That can't be God.

Why would he interact with me in the way that he's interacting with you?

No, I could not imagine God.

I wouldn't have said what I said to that guy if I knew that that was God in the flesh.

How did he allow me to even wrestle and interact with him?

Is that wrestling with an angel?

Is that wrestling with some kind of strongman who's wrestling with God?

He could have ended with Jacob at any point.

He could have been in our long wrestling match.

That's a long wrestling match.

A normal one is about six minutes.

I think in college it goes three, two, two, so I think it's seven minutes.

I don't know how long WWE wrestling matches go.

Even collegiate wrestling matches, they go about seven minutes.

If it was an hour-long wrestling match, you'd say, man, they were fighting.

They were going after it.

It was intense.

Again, this is the whole night.

At any point, God could have just said, I'm done.

Boom, I touched your socket.

Man, man, I just smacked you.

You're on the ground.

You have no hope.

You're not going anywhere.

What could it possibly mean?

The man realized he couldn't hold a powerbomb.

This is me.

How could that be true?

But then also he's able to touch his socket.

I think he realized, God realized I'm not going to overpower this man's will.

He really wants me to bless him.

He really wants something amazing to happen.

He can't beat the man.

He's going to fight.

He's going to claw.

Even when I wrench his hip, he's still holding on tight because he wants the blessing.

We serve a God.

Think about how amazing this is.

We serve a God who is not insecure.

This is what I mean.

We serve a God who is not insecure enough to say, you should just know who I am.

Don't fight.

Don't wrestle.

I am.

That's all you have to know.

We don't serve a God like that.

Certainly, he says, I am who I am.

He's okay with us wrestling.

He's okay with us fighting.

Is this true?

Is this real?

How could you do this?

He's okay with that.

Actually, he welcomes it.

He's excited.

He's not insecure.

I can't have followers if they don't wrestle with me.

No, no.

On the contrary, if they're going to be real followers, then they have to wrestle.

In what way are you wrestling with God this morning?

Is there a passage that doesn't make sense?

Is there a doctrine that you're unsure about?

Or probably more relevant, where are your character in wrestling with God?

Where are your character?

Do you know the Bible is saying this?

I just can't make myself follow him.

I want to.

I'm sure.

I just can't do it.

God says, you can wrestle with me.

We can struggle through this together, and I'm going to struggle right alongside you.

I'm going to be right alongside you during your struggle, I should say.

I know who I am.

God said, I know who I am.

I know that I'm big.

I know I can do whatever.

And so, anything that you learn, if you're looking for, I'm going to show myself.

If you're looking for me, I'm going to show myself.

We can rest secure in that.

If our God is so secure, then we can be secure in him.

Amen?

Right.

So, his name is changed.

This deceiver is changed to one who struggles with God.

Think about that.

Even the Lord, he couldn't name them all.

You're the great follower of God.

Instead, he says, no, you're all this whole group of people.

The people that are going to come after you, the Israelites, they're going to be known as strugglers with God.

Even in the name, he accepts.

He accepts, and he understands, and he desires.

There's this interaction that you'll have with me at every point, all the time.

If you're not struggling with God, then it's worth asking, are you following me?

From here on out, he says, you're going to be a struggler with God.

From here on out, we learn that Jacob is no longer called Jacob, but is called Israel.

Everywhere else in the Bible, he's called Israel.

That's not true.

This is the cool thing for us, because Jacob actually, even after he's renamed, he's still called, after he's renamed Israel, he's still, the man is still referred to as Jacob twice as much as he's referred to as Israel.

What does that mean?

How is that an archetype for us, as we struggle, and as we try to overcome, and as we work alongside God?

I think it means some things for us that are for the external, and then internally, too.

I think it means that if you're going to come to Jesus, it's more that you are in the process of continuing to lose your identity, that your identity is totally different right away.

What I mean is this.

It's similar to how anybody would get married.

When Bianca decided to, me and Bianca, when she decided to marry me, her name was changed.

Her name was Bianca before, but instead of Fuentes, it became same.

On the ID part, it changes right away.

It's different right away.

Objectively different.

She's a different, you could say she's a different person.

She's renamed.

She went from a Fuentes to June 14, 2014, she became Singh.

Legally, I don't know how that stuff works.

I really don't know, but at least on her ID, it said Singh right away.

The process of going from somebody who's one way to someone who's a different way, that's ongoing.

The process of deciding I'm going to be, I know that I'm married, but I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to act.

I'm going to act.

I'm not going to, and she would tell you, and I don't mean to, there's nothing bad, so if I overstep, whatever, but even the process of who I go to when things aren't going well.

Do I go to mom, or do I go to Jared?

Who do I go to for financial questions?

Do I go to mom, or do I go to Jared, or the Singhs?

What does that process look like?

It's ongoing, and it takes some time, and it changes right away, and yet over the course of time is when it continues to be pulled, and I think the same is true for us spiritually, is that our identity, at some point or another, anybody goes from lost to saved.

There's a point in which you do, but the process of how do I continue to work towards becoming someone who's like Jesus, that's going to take forever and ever and ever, and there's external pressures of people who will still call you by your old name.

They'll be confused by how you act and how you live, and they'll assume that you're going to still operate in this way, and yet we realize that that's not, that'd be different, so there's an external pressure from somebody calling you by your old name.

People aren't calling you by your old name then maybe your name hasn't changed yet.

You don't feel that tension, as you said.

Then there's the internal one, right?

This internal, we're a new creation.

Our identity's different.

We should be walking with God again.

Why do I still not always want to do that?

Why is reading my Bible something that feels like a chore?

It doesn't feel like a great blessing.

Why is deciding to love people, to act like Jesus, and to deny myself, why is that something that is still occupying so much of my energy?

I shouldn't want to act like Jesus.

I shouldn't want to deny myself.

He lived the best life.

We all know that.

I agree.

He lived the best life, so I should want to walk with him again.

There's an internal struggle that my identity is different on my ID card, and yet there's an internal, there's an internal.

I'm continuing to work my identity out to be just like a great follower of Christ.

We're gonna bring it in for a landing here.

Then we're gonna talk about what we've learned from this stuff.

In Genesis 33, this is really, it's a cool passage.

It's encouraging and discouraging all at the same time.

Because we know that, what does that mean?

What does it mean to be a cruelly ill prophet?

I want to talk about that just a little bit.

The prophecy, God says through Isaac, the guilt of your brother, you're gonna throw it off the table.

Jacob, he's gonna eradicate you.

He's gonna bring you down.

I will be a servant of his or even worse, bring him down.

Today, the brothers are gonna meet.

There's this interaction that occurs with how we can say this out.

Jacob, in verse one, and you can see on the screen here, there's maybe a little bit of a summary.

Jacob looked up and there was Esau coming with his 400 men.

He divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

He put the female servants, he had children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.

He himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him.

He threw his arms around his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Esau looked and saw the women and children.

Who are these with you?

He asked.

Jacob answered, these are the children God has graciously given your servant.

The female servants and their children approached and bowed down.

Next, Leah and her children came and bowed down.

Last of all came Joseph and Rachel and they, too, bowed down.

Esau asked, what's the meaning of all these rocks and the earth I'm in?

To find favor in your eyes, my lord, he said.

Esau said, I already have plenty, my brother, keep what you have for yourself.

No, please, said Jacob, if I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me, for to see your face is like seeing the face of God.

Now that you have received me favorably, please accept the present that I brought to you, for God has been gracious to me, and I have all I need.

And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.

Then Esau said, let us be on our way, I'll accompany you.

I'll see you.

If this was a Disney movie, then what would happen next is that they would go hand in hand and they would reunite, totally reconcile, and they would become a powerful nation, put people together, and all would be well.

And yet we learn that that's not what happens, actually.

We're not going to read about it, but what happens is Jacob insists, no, we're not going to go together, I'm going to stay behind.

So Esau goes ahead after some convincing, and then Jacob and Esau, we don't really learn what happens in their relationship.

Esau totally forgives them, and yet there's not this reconciliation that occurs.

There's not the reconciliation because Jacob perhaps is still scared.

There's still a little bit of a deceiver inside of him.

He's like, I just can't trust you.

I don't know.

At whatever point you decide that you're going to fight back, I don't want to be that guy.

Theologians, they're split.

They're split if Jacob was deceiving and if he was justified in his deceit, that Esau was really playing a fool, oh yeah, we're all good, and then he's actually going to fight them, or some say that he just still kind of lived in his old, he got a little bit of favor and he lost himself again.

However you feel, what does it look like?

What I put before you is that this guilt that's talked about, that people throw out, is this guilt of competitiveness that Esau is able to pull off this election.

It's this guilt that I'm so, I can't get this out of my head that somebody's better, that I deserve what they have.

They don't deserve, they wouldn't do anything for it.

They're not even very spiritual.

They messed with me and now they're in a better spot than I am.

They don't deserve it.

How could they possibly get to this spot?

Why has God decided to bless them?

Why did they grow up in this family?

How could they get that blessing?

It's just arbitrary.

There's no sense to it.

We don't see any of that with Esau.

As we can, perhaps, perhaps he really was trying to kill Jacob, but that's not what we're told in Scripture.

That's just not how we're taught.

That's not how it's taught.

Please, Esau has got it.

As messed up as you've treated me, as messed up as I am, God has given me enough.

There's a couple of concepts, a couple of mentalities in business that I think work itself here.

There's one, it's kind of a scarcity mindset versus the abundance mindset.

A scarcity mindset says that we're all in competition, that there's a limited amount of money to go around.

There's a limited amount of opportunities.

If we're going to actually become, we can't be friends, we can't work together, we have to be competitive with one another because that's the only way.

If we work together and we talk about our ideas, you're going to take my ideas and then you're going to take my business and you're going to take my money as well.

That's the scarcity mindset.

Abundance mindset says there's a wealth of opportunities.

There are so many opportunities and so let's work together to achieve the best possible opportunities for all of us.

We're going to share resources, we're going to share ideas, and it's the idea that a rising tide raises all ships.

Let's do everything we can to increase this value that we can create together.

I think Esau is like, this is how I'm interacting.

God is good to me.

Maybe God's been better to you.

God's good to me.

I think as we interact with others, as you interact with people day to day, we need to learn from Jacob and we'll talk about, we've got to learn from Esau as well.

We should interact like, God, maybe he's blessed me a little bit more than he's blessed me, it's fine.

But he's blessed me.

There's many opportunities to go around.

There's no competition like this.

It's something that we need to work to guide you.

Because only when we remove ourselves from this competition is when we'll be at real peace, when this boat will be taken from us.

We're going to bring it in for a communion here in a moment.

What are we going to learn?

We've read some scripture.

We have more questions than answers.

If you want to continue to read through and share what you've learned, wrestling with God is necessary to live a fruitful life.

Our God is secure.

You're not going to, if you're actively seeking God, you're not going to be offended.

If you're actively seeking to walk with, talk with, interact with, even wrestle with God, he's not going to be offended by you.

He wants those to come closer.

Jacob, he can learn that there's a grit that even in his old age and his young age, it's valuable.

There's passion and grit.

Passion is like, I'm going to go after something because I really want it.

And then the grit is when the rubber hits the road and it's very difficult, I'm still going to pursue it.

We can grow in our walk with God if we decide that when I'm passionate, when I really want to focus on God, let me focus 100%.

And when it's tough, I still need to be grateful.

I still need to go after God.

Our identities, they're continually being shaped by Christ.

It's not a one-time thing that I check the box and then I'm all done, that there needs to be a continual walk with God.

And then lastly, that throwing off this guilt of competition will lead to an internal peace that is a better way to live, but then it's more attractive to everybody around us.

Amen.

As we get ready to take communion, just a couple thoughts that I have and the relevance to this passage, the passage of scripture that we looked at.

I want to ask you guys to pray to God and talk to God about what you're wrestling with in this world.

Is it something big?

Is it something small?

Maybe it's something you know right away.

Perhaps it's something you have to work through.

One of the amazing things, this is what many theologians will say, is that we understand God as a man, like when he did that, right?

This is one of the interactions that people say is the pre-incarnate, that Jesus actually was the one who was wrestling with Jacob at this time.

As we take communion, we remember Jesus' death and his burial and then his resurrection.

Communicate with him, where are you wrestling and where do you fully believe and where we can help you or help you out.

Let's pray.

Dear God, Lord, Father, we love you.

I just want to call out to you, Lord.

I want to pray for all of us this morning.

Lord, there are areas that are obvious that we're wrestling with, Father.

We're wrestling as a community, but we're wrestling individually, Lord.

I realize that so many of these wrestling matches have to occur, you know, us first, one-on-one, and then bring everybody else in afterwards.

Absolutely, but so many, there's this internal thing that we just have to wrestle.

We have to relinquish control.

We have to desperately cling to you, us desiring your blessing and not us working based on our own interpretation and way of understanding this world.

Lord, we come before you, Jesus, and we're so grateful that you decided to become man, not just in your wrestling with Jacob, but at every point, even after you rose again, but then during your life, especially, that you walked on this earth, that you decided to, Lord, that you decided to have all of the constraints that we feel, that you decided to feel them.

You decided to feel hunger.

You decided to feel exhausted.

You decided to feel the little aches and the pains because you love us.

You wanted to show us that that's gonna do it, Jesus.

We're so grateful that you went on the cross for us, that you gave us the opportunity, that we have a hope that's not just, it's not just tied to what we do, but it's tied to who you are, Lord.

We wanna pray that we will grow in our identity as Christians or as followers, that we'll work towards the process of becoming Christians or followers, that we'll work towards it, absolutely, but only because you've done it first and you already see us as king.

Lord, we love you.

Thank you for your sacrifice, Jesus.

This is the world we pray for.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast.

If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected.

Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on.

In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.