Great. Good morning, everyone. That's good. It's been a hard week for me. A very sad night
last night. We're talking about being broken and blessed today, so I feel like a broken
man this morning. Let me just pray for us, actually, before we start. Father, we want
your word not to just go in our ears and out the other ear, but we want it to go in our
ears and down into our hearts and to change and transform our lives. So I pray that you
would do that this morning. Take my words. Lord, remove anything that's not from you,
but, Lord, bring your power into our hearts so that we would actually see you this morning.
Let us encounter you, I pray, through your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I don't know how many of you come from a dysfunctional family. In fact, I do. All of us come from
dysfunctional families. It doesn't matter how good your parents were, how amazing your siblings
were. There is something about family life that sin enters into it in different ways and causes
different levels of dysfunction. Sometimes brothers don't get on because of money. Sometimes parents
and children are distant because they never knew how to show affection. And we're going to look at a
story today which is very much about family dynamics. But the whole of the Bible story can be told in
this idea of a family relationship with God as the head of the family and us as his children
together, supposed to be living under his wise, loving, gracious counsel, provision, and rule.
And yet sin comes in and brings dysfunction. So Adam and Eve, they start fighting each other. They blame
each other. They start having a go at each other in different ways. And the cycle just kind of continues
throughout generation and generation and generation. And what happens is the Bible story shows we're like
the Thai boys who have an amazing story just this week. But we wander into caves of our own selfishness,
doing our own thing, and we get trapped in sin. And no matter how strong we think we are,
no matter how great a leader we think we are, we could have Abraham, we could have Jacob,
we could have David, we could have Solomon. It doesn't matter where you go through the whole story,
not one leader, not one person is able to swim out against the tide of God's anger and judgment at
our sin. And instead, the Old Testament story leaves us like those boys trapped in a cave,
scared and waiting for rescue to come. Who is going to rescue us? That is the question the whole of the
Old Testament is leading towards. And the New Testament comes with the answer and it says,
the diver who comes to carry us out is Christ. That's the one who's going to rescue us.
And so we're going through this series looking at Christ in the Old Testament because we want us
to see that the Bible is one big story. Some of us kind of, we camp out, we read the New Testament,
it's like the Old Testament seems like scary, angry God. New Testament seems like lovey-dovey God.
But actually, the whole of the Bible is actually saying, God, the Old Testament is providing signposts
to show you and to reveal you who this rescuer, who Christ truly is. And so that's what we're doing
in this series. And last week, we looked at Abraham and showed how Abraham prayed for a righteous
one to come, pointing us to see that only Jesus Christ was the only one who is righteous and who
could make us righteous. And so today, we're going to look at what I think is an amazing story in the
life of Jacob, who is Abraham's grandson. Okay? And what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell the story
and just walk us through it and give a bit of background to Jacob's life. And then I'm going to
go through just three points, which I think the story shows us. Okay? You with us?
Good. One person. That's great. Let's go. So Jacob's story. It's nighttime. And Jacob has just told
his family and everything he owns to go over a river ahead of him because his brother Esau is coming.
And Jacob stays on this bank of the river alone. It's pitch black. And running through his mind
are the events of his life. From the moment he was born, he's been fighting, competing, trying to get
ahead in life. In fact, when his mom gave birth, he was grabbing onto the heel of his older twin brother,
Esau. His father doted and loved Esau, the older brother, more than him. And he craved to be noticed by
his father. Jacob just wanted to hear his father say, I love you. But he never did. And like a streetwise
kid, he learned how to hustle and cheat his way through life to survive. To get ahead, he cheats his
brother Esau out of two things. Out of his birthright, that is the right of an older son to inherit all the
father's possessions. And he also cheats him out of his blessing, which is basically he dresses up,
pretends to be Esau, tricks his father, his blind father to bless him instead of Esau. And how do you
think Esau feels about this? He's not happy. In fact, he's so furious, he threatens, he wants to kill him.
And he even says, isn't, he's deceived me, this Jacob. Isn't he rightfully called Jacob? That's what he says.
Which actually means, the word Jacob means, he grabs the heel, he cheats, he deceives. That's what his name meant.
And so the story continues. Jacob runs off for his life, goes to his uncle, sees a beautiful daughter there
called Rachel, wants to marry her. But he gets tricked into working for her for 14 years to get her.
But Jacob is smart. He's a smart guy. And what he basically does, he cheats his uncle out of his
best possessions, his cattle and sheep, and he runs away again. You know, in Hong Kong, we would think
Jacob, like Jacob would get serious street cred, because he knows how to get ahead. He gets respect,
because he can get wealth whichever way he wants to.
But with all the physical blessing he has, all the wealth, the women, beautiful wife, kids,
Jacob's missing something. He's had 20 years of a broken family.
Parents who haven't seen him, a brother who hates him and wants him dead.
And he sends a message to Esau saying, hey, let's forget about the past. Let's kind of, let's just kind of meet up again.
And then he hears, Esau is coming with 400 men. Does that sound like good news to you?
That's like saying, Esau's coming with four tanks and machine guns. And Jacob is terrified.
And so he goes into the only mode he knows, which is kind of this hustle mode, okay?
And he hopes to try and buy him off with providing lots of gifts for him.
So the time he comes, he's not going to be so angry, because he's so many gifts that he doesn't know what to do with them.
And for the first time in the story, Jacob prays.
And then he sends his family off ahead of him, knowing this could be his last night.
And that's where the story we read picks up.
He could lose everything he has cheated and hustled for all of his life, including his own life.
And then suddenly, out of the blue, he gets knocked to the ground, into the dust of the ground,
by a man who starts wrestling with him, like WWE style.
It's pitch black.
He can't see who this guy is.
Is it Esau?
Come to get revenge?
This guy's strong.
And they're wrestling on the ground.
But Jacob is also strong.
And they wrestle all night.
Have you ever seen two people wrestling, like two kids wrestling?
Like, after ten minutes, they're just exhausted.
Right?
So for the wrestle all night, just think how much determination, just think how much strength
you've got to have to do that.
And then it says this, when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched
his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Do you know how much force it takes to dislocate a hip?
Now, I'm not a doctor, but I looked up on Wikipedia, which is very reliable.
And it said, okay, I'm just quoting, it said, hip dislocations are typically due to a significant
trauma, such as a car collision or a fall from height.
But this man dislocates his hip with just a touch.
Do you see how powerful this man is?
How strong he is?
And it, but it's kind of weird.
Why does he wake all night wrestling with him?
He could have done that right at the beginning and saved a whole lot of time.
But he doesn't.
And actually, it gets even weirder, because then the guy who's got the advantage now says,
let me go, for the day is broken.
And you go, but I thought you were winning.
There's something going on in this story.
And then Jacob says, this is even weirder.
He goes, I will not let you go unless you bless me.
The guy has just smashed your hip.
He's just been wrestling.
That's agony.
You've just exhausted.
And the guy wants to let you go.
And you won't.
And instead, you're asking him to bless you.
Do you see there's something going on in this story?
Because somewhere in the wrestling, Jacob realizes he's not wrestling with an ordinary man.
He's wrestling with God himself.
Because this is God himself.
God is seeking to protect Jacob from seeing his face with the dawn coming.
Because you can die if you see God's face.
But Jacob is stripped of everything.
He's alone.
And he's desperate.
And he realizes God is the only place I can run to for blessing.
And he says, I'll not let you go unless you bless me.
I'm willing to be broken more.
I'm willing even to die to find the blessing that I've been looking all my life for.
Now, what is he asking for when he's asking for blessing?
You know, when we ask for blessing, we're asking for what we think will make us happy and fulfilled and live a flourishing life.
That's what we're asking for, right?
And Jacob had spent all his life looking for that blessing in his father's approval, in women, in wealth, in family, in intelligence, his own smarts.
But now he's at the end of himself.
And he's looking to the only true source of blessing, which is God himself.
And it's interesting, as the story goes on.
God doesn't say, okay, I'll bless you.
I'll make your life work great.
Promotion, new Lamborghini, kids all in the best universities.
He doesn't say that.
God asks him a question.
He says, what's your name?
And that's kind of nice after a whole night's wrestling to just kind of, hey, and by the way, what's your name?
But, you know, when God asks you a question, he's never asking for information.
What he's doing, he's exposing and revealing your heart.
Do you know, like, when God asks Adam in the Garden of Eden, where are you?
It's not because he couldn't find him.
It wasn't a game of hide and seek.
It's because when he asked, he wanted to open Adam's eyes to see the reality of his own sin and his own situation.
That's why God asks the question.
And when God asks Jacob, what's your name?
It's a very personal question.
Because in Hebrew thought, your name is your character.
It's who you really are.
And so what he's doing, he's exposing his heart.
And Jacob's reply is actually his confession.
He says, my name is Jacob.
What does Jacob mean?
It means he grabs the heel.
He cheats.
He'll do anything he can to get his own way in life.
You see what he's doing?
You know, I remember watching the confession of a New Zealand cricketer.
Now, Bernard's not here today.
But there was a guy who'd been caught match fixing, which is basically receiving money to lose matches.
And he posted a video after being caught of his confession.
And you can go and Google it.
It's an extraordinary confession.
This is how he started.
He started, my name is Lou Vincent, and I am a cheat.
That's how it starts.
Now, how many of us, if we tell a lie to our family member or a friend and we get exposed,
do we go, yeah, I'm sorry I lied.
It's because I'm a liar.
How many of you say that?
Don't we normally go, no, I'm sorry, I was only exaggerating.
No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean you to take it like that.
Isn't that what we do?
But what happens here is that is not biblical confession.
Jacob is actually confessing.
He's facing up to the painful reality of who he is and what his behavior shows him about him.
He says, my name's Jacob and I'm a cheat.
I'm dysfunctional, just like my father and my father and his father and his father, all the way back to Adam.
Just like you and me, all the way back, my father, his father, his father.
And biblical confession, when you encounter God, is not just saying sorry.
It's recognizing what your sin reveals about who you really are and owning it and saying, my name's Chris and I'm a liar.
Painful, to be honest.
And you will never encounter, truly encounter God until he exposes you with that question.
What's your name?
But do you see how God replies to that confession?
And I love this bit.
He doesn't say to Jacob's confession, finally, you've seen what I've been trying to tell you all along.
He doesn't say that.
He says, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.
For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.
Now, do you see what he's just done?
He said, Jacob is who you were.
But because you've confessed and been real about who you are before me, that's no longer who you are.
I give you a new identity.
I give you a new name.
You are now Israel.
All you have been, all the dysfunction of your family, all of your own decisions which were so self-centered, all the ambition that you had for yourself, all the craving you had for love and blessing in your life,
no longer defines you, no longer binds you, no longer holds you.
You're a new person.
You know, there's a guy called Chuck Colson, Charles Colson.
He was one of the most brilliant political strategists in the 1970s.
In fact, it was he who got the American president, President Nixon, elected.
And he had this reputation for being a dirty tricks artist.
He built lists of political opponents just to be able to discredit them and find ways to break them down.
But he got arrested for his involvement with the Watergate scandal, if any of you remember that or know what that is, which actually brought down the president.
And during this time where he was in such turmoil, where he had been exposed, he met God.
And at his trial, he acted against all the advice of everyone who he'd ever associated with.
And he pleaded guilty to the obstruction of justice.
And this is what he said.
He said, pleading guilty was a price I had to pay to complete the shedding of my old life and to be free to live the new.
Do you see what he's doing there?
He's owning up to his sin, whatever the cost.
But in that so doing, he is able to receive the new identity that God had for him.
That is what is going on with Jacob here.
In fact, Chuck Colson became one of the leading activists for prison reform.
Thousands became Christians through him.
But that was a defining moment for him.
And this is a defining moment for Jacob.
Confession and repentance leads to freedom.
And the story just continues.
Jacob asked God for his name.
He thought, well, you ask mine, I'll ask yours.
But he knows you can't dictate terms with God.
And God doesn't tell him his name.
But he blesses him.
And this was the first blessing Jacob had ever received in his life, which he didn't have to cheat for.
He didn't have to deceive.
He didn't have to try and manipulate to get what he wanted.
It was a pure gift of grace.
Because he had met with God.
And he calls the name of the place where he encounters God, Peniel.
Which means the face of God.
Or the presence of God.
And as the sun rises, Jacob has met with God.
And he crosses over the river to meet his family, Esau, with a new name.
But he's walking with a limp.
That's the story.
It's an incredible story.
I want to just draw out three things from this story.
First thing.
God wants you to wrestle with him.
Okay.
Throughout the story of Jacob, Jacob actually has experiences of God.
He's actually a religious guy.
He even builds a little pillar to God saying, oh, this is a pillar to God.
God.
But he knows that there is this God.
And he calls this God in his prayer before this incident.
He calls him, you're the God of my father, Abraham.
And you're the God of my father, Isaac.
But he wasn't fully his God.
He didn't truly know him personally for himself.
For him, God was a bit like, do you know there's pest control?
Or, you know, you bring them in when you have cockroaches in your flat.
And then, you know, when life's not working for you, when you've got problems, you just bring in help.
And then when it's fine, you just forget about him.
That's what Jacob's God was for him.
And, you know, I've chatted with many students and many people actually over the years,
many of whom have even been brought up in Christian homes.
You've been in church for a long time.
You know the ritual.
You know the answer is always supposed to be Jesus,
even if the question is, what's the capital of France?
You know it.
And yet, when I talk to some of you,
you tell me honestly, if I'm really honest,
I'm wrestling whether
this is really true or not.
It seems distant to me.
I understand it here,
but there is something missing.
I can never truly say I've really encountered God.
That's some of us here this morning.
And some of us
have said to me in the past,
actually,
doing what my friends do,
doing what my peers do,
actually, if I'm really honest,
seems more attractive to me than Christianity.
If I'm really honest.
It's more attractive for me
just to chase my career,
have sex,
get drunk,
get a reputation,
get respect,
whatever it is that my peers are trying to do.
That seems more attractive
than really Jesus,
even though I know I'm supposed to love Jesus.
And do you know what?
Often,
our faith can be based
on somebody else's faith.
It can be based,
you know,
somebody once said,
come into church.
Driving into McDonald's
doesn't make you a burger.
Going into church
doesn't make you a Christian.
Because a Christian is defined
by having
the encounter with God.
And so what happens
if we haven't encountered God,
we actually start looking for blessing
in all other places,
even though we may be very religious.
And I want to challenge each one of us
are we like that?
Are we actually like Jacob
looking for blessing everywhere else?
Or are we coming to wrestle with God?
Do you know how you wrestle with God?
I had a friend
who really liked this girl.
He really liked her.
In fact,
he asked her out,
I think about 20 times.
Now,
he wasn't a kind of creepy guy.
So like,
let's add that,
otherwise he'll shoot me.
But,
and so every time she said,
no,
for one reason
or another reason
or another reason.
And most guys
would have gotten the hint
after the first time.
but not my friend.
And he pursued her
and pursued her
wisely,
not unwisely,
because he knew that he,
he saw all the other options
and he's like,
no,
I want her
because that is what I think
is right before God.
And after three or four years,
that's persistence,
right?
Yeah.
She finally said yes.
And you know,
actually now they're happily married
with kids.
Three kids,
I think.
But you see,
that is somebody
who is willing to wrestle
with a determination
because he knows
what is important to him.
Sometimes God
will wrestle with you
because he wants you to see,
are you really serious about me?
Or are you just fooling around with me?
And if you're a Christian,
I wonder
how many of us
actually wrestle with God
in that kind of determined way.
God,
I've got to have you.
I need you.
Because sometimes
we read the Bible
and we're like,
yeah,
I didn't get much out
of reading the Bible.
So we just kind of give up,
right?
Anyone do that?
Or sometimes we like,
we pray a prayer,
maybe we pray like
for a week,
two weeks,
and then God doesn't seem
to answer
and then we kind of give up,
well,
it didn't work.
Let me just go to something else.
But this passage
is shouting to us,
God wants you
not just to read the Bible,
not just to pray prayers,
but he wants you
to encounter him.
Did you get that?
He wants you
to encounter him.
How much do you want that?
How much of us
are willing to pray
when we read the Bible
or when we pray,
saying,
God,
unless you bless me,
unless you reveal yourself
to me,
unless you take the words
off of this page
and reveal yourself
to me,
I'm just going to find delight
and look for blessing
in all kinds of other ways
because I need to see
that you are the one
who satisfies.
I need you.
I wonder what would happen
in our church,
and I've been praying this
for myself
because I'm convicted,
but how much of us
would we change
the way we view God
if we actually started
wrestling with him,
not just kind of doing
a little thumb war with him.
And maybe we are serving a lot,
maybe we're doing
a hundred things for God,
but God is actually
after your heart
and saying,
will you come to me
and wrestle with me
until you see me,
until you realize
that I am the place
which can give you blessing
more than anything else.
God wants you
to wrestle with him.
Second thing,
God breaks us
to bless us.
God breaks us
to bless us.
This is challenging.
Jacob was strong.
He was smart.
And it says,
as he wrestles,
it says,
the man realized
he could not prevail
over him
and so he touched his hip
and dislocated it.
Why does the man
touch his hip?
Why didn't he touch his nose
or his ear?
Why does he touch his hip?
Because the hip,
when you're wrestling,
is the base
of your strength
in wrestling.
You cut the hip,
man,
you've got no way
to hold yourself.
And I'm told
the hip is one
of the strongest parts
of the human body.
Because many of us
think that
what holds us back
from knowing God
is our weaknesses.
You know,
the times you fail,
the things you mess up in.
I don't think
that's true.
The thing that holds you
back from really
knowing God
is actually your strength.
It's your strengths.
Because that's what
we tend to rely on.
That's where we tend
to feel good
about ourselves.
That's where we base
our security
and our identity
on what we think
we can do.
You know,
and it's actually
that which often
ends up devastating
relationships.
You know,
you're smart.
You know how
to get ahead.
You're educated.
You're experienced.
You're talented.
You can speak well.
You've got money.
You're disciplined.
Whatever it is,
I don't know
what your strength is.
That was Jacob.
He had his strengths.
But you see
how afraid
Jacob gets
when Esau is coming.
When you're in a situation
when your client,
when your friend,
when your kids
and you don't know
how to handle it.
And if that's the base
of your strength,
you realize
it's actually
a very shaky foundation
when Esau starts
coming into your life.
And right there,
you know,
sometimes the most
gracious thing
God can do to us
is to dislocate
our hip,
is to break
our strengths,
to show us
that we need God
for everything in life.
You know,
I had another friend.
Let's call him Frank.
He was a top executive,
well known
for his expertise
in his field.
He was highly respected,
highly experienced,
highly driven.
He was a good guy.
And yet his marriage
was actually a mess.
But he flies into New York
for a meeting
with his boss.
He's only got a few minutes
to get his input
on a number of decisions.
So he starts off saying,
hey, listen,
I need a decision
on this and this and this.
And his boss cuts him off
and says,
thanks,
but I wanted to tell you
that we don't need
your post any longer.
His whole world
came crashing down.
He was broken.
Everything that he'd worked for,
his whole identity,
broken in one second.
his hip dislocated.
And at that moment,
as he processed it,
as he wrestled,
he realized he'd built
his whole sense of identity
and value on his work
because he was good at it.
But actually,
as God humbled him
and broke him
in the pain,
he found that actually
he had another place
he could run to,
which was an identity
in Christ,
which is actually
a much surer foundation,
that nothing is going
to else break you.
and what happened
in his life,
he actually,
as he was humbled
and broken,
he began to see
some of the things
he was doing
in his marriage
and he began to own up
to the sin in his own life
and just say,
man,
I've really just been
blinded by myself.
And there began
to be healing
that began to come
and God gave him
a new path in life
where he was actually
able to serve
many, many people
through his next career.
You see,
God wants to break you
to bless you.
Someone once said this,
God uses broken things.
It takes broken soil
to produce a crop,
broken clouds
to give rain,
broken seed
to give bread,
broken bread
to give strength.
It's the broken
alabaster box
that gives forth perfume.
Jacob,
after he is broken,
in the next chapter,
which we haven't read,
he goes to meet
with Esau,
humbled,
walking
with a limp,
the base of his strength,
broken.
But he's able
to face
his brother
regardless of how
his brother
is going to respond
to him
because he's been
in the presence of God,
because he now knows
that he's got acceptance
and approval
and the blessing
from God
that he'd been chasing
everywhere else for.
Now he didn't need
his brother for that.
He didn't need
his family for that.
He had a security.
And actually,
restoration
after 20 years
takes place.
It's a beautiful story.
Read the chapter afterwards.
When you find
that you don't need
your love
and acceptance,
you don't need
your security
from any of these
other things
that you're chasing for,
he was not defined
by his father's
lack of love
or his need
for approval.
It opens you up
to find healing
and blessing
and to be released
to love
and serve other people.
You know,
many of us here,
we are actually
nursing wounds
from our past,
from our parents,
from colleagues.
Maybe we wanted
someone to say,
I love you
and you never heard that.
Maybe
you've been offended
by what people
have said to you
and you've just
nursed that wound
in your heart.
And there's so much
tension that's come
into family relationships
through these things.
And maybe you've
just been working
really hard
to try and prove
yourself,
make up for all
those things
that you didn't feel
you got before
in the past.
But God wants
to come and wrestle
with you.
God wants to break you.
God wants to humble you
so that you realize
you are not defined
by anything in the past
that has happened to you.
You are not defined
by even your own sin
in the past.
You can come before him,
be broken of your strength
and find strength
in the God
of all creation.
There's no one
who knows God deeply
who doesn't walk
with a limp.
No one.
And so I've been
praying for myself,
God,
would you touch my hip?
Do you know
how scary
that prayer is?
But God,
do I want to know God
that much
that I'm willing
for him to dislocate
my hip?
I don't know
what your hip is.
What's your source
of strength?
What are you looking for?
Is it your friends?
Is it your grades?
Is it your health?
Is it your work?
Is it your appearance?
I don't know what it is.
You know.
But are you willing
to pray,
God,
would you break my hip
that I might know you
and your presence?
And encounter you.
You know,
I'm actually praying,
maybe this is a little scary,
but I'm praying
for some of you
in this congregation
that God would actually
break your hip.
Because some of us,
we're relying on
so many things
which is actually
wrapping us up
and God wants to
break us free from that.
And that's what will
bring healing
in our lives.
Some of us are actually
going through
you feel like
you're having
a train wreck
in your life
at the moment.
You feel like
your hip is
being broken
right now.
So what are you
praying for?
Are you praying,
God,
just get me
out of this situation?
Or will you pray,
I will not let you go
unless you bless me?
I want to know you
more through this situation.
Even if you keep me
in this place,
I want to know you.
It's challenging, right?
But this is how
we come to encounter God.
Because at the end
of chapter 33,
which we didn't read,
Jacob,
for the first time,
he erects an altar.
And he calls this altar
El Eloho Yahweh.
He calls him
not the God,
the God of Israel,
which means
this is my God.
He was my father's
God before.
He was my father's
father's God before,
but this now is my God.
He's my God
because I've met him,
I've wrestled with him,
I've been broken by him,
but he's restored me
and given me
a new identity,
and now I know him.
Do you want that?
God wrestles,
wants us to wrestle with him.
God breaks us
to bless us.
Final thing.
God chooses
to be broken himself
to bless us.
God says,
your name
shall no longer
be called Jacob,
but Israel,
for you have striven
with God
and with men
and have prevailed.
I've often wondered,
why does God
himself
say
that Jacob
has prevailed
over him?
Prevailed means
to win,
to conquer,
to overcome.
Like,
isn't that weird?
And then I heard
someone talk
on the meaning
of the name
of Israel,
and it's made
up of two parts.
The first part
is Yashar,
and the second part
is El.
El means God,
and it's the subject
of the sentence,
which means he's the one
who's doing the action.
Yashar means
to strive
or to fight
or to struggle.
So actually
what Israel means
is God strives,
God fights,
God struggles.
That's what it means.
But then he says,
God fights
for you
have striven
with God
and have prevailed.
That's even weirder.
But this name
of Israel,
which would come
to characterize
as the whole people
of God
throughout the whole
of the Old Testament.
He's saying,
your name is God
fights because Jacob,
you fought with God,
but actually
the God of Jacob
is the one
who is willing
to be prevailed over
in order that
he might win.
He is the one
who is willing
to be defeated
in order that
he might bring victory.
That is what
the word means.
And you know,
throughout
whole of history,
all the other gods
of Babylonians,
Egyptians,
Greeks,
Romans,
even the gods
you see around,
how do they express
their power?
Through conquering,
through dominating,
through crushing people.
Just read history.
But this God
is different.
This God
wins victory
through being defeated,
through being prevailed on.
And you know,
throughout the rest
of the Old Testament,
many kings
came and went.
In fact,
all of them
sought to dominate
and control.
Just read the story.
And then,
when it comes to Jesus,
Peter,
one of his disciples,
recognizes Jesus
as the Messiah.
That means
the king
who's coming.
And he's expecting
this guy
to be just like
all the other kings,
dominating
and striving
and overcoming
with power.
And do you know
what he says?
Jesus says,
sorry,
Peter says,
you're the Messiah.
And Jesus says to them,
you're right,
Peter,
but I'm a different
kind of Messiah.
I'm going to die.
And do you know
what Peter says?
He goes,
no way.
He says,
no way.
That ain't the way
it's written in the book.
And Jesus says,
actually,
yes it is.
Have you read
Genesis 32?
Because
the God of Jacob
is the God
who comes down
to the dust
of the earth
and wrestles
with sinful humanity.
Those of you
like you
and me
who compete
and in this competitive,
I mean,
Hong Kong's competitive
enough,
right?
And we're constantly
competing
and trying to get ahead
and trying to wrestle
and fight with each other.
But God comes down
to wrestle with us.
And then like Judas,
you know,
Judas was another hustler.
He came
and he was stealing money
from the disciples'
accounts
because he wanted
to get ahead.
But Jesus
knew that he was
going to betray him.
And do you know
what Jesus did?
He allowed him
to betray him.
He allowed himself
to be arrested.
He allowed himself
to be nailed
cruelly on a cross
for you
and for me
because
when he died,
he gained
the greatest victory.
When he was broken,
that was the sign
the blessing
was coming.
You see,
he could have hired
a thousand
legions of angels
to come
and rescue him.
He had power
to break
the strength
of the Romans
with a touch.
But he chose
not to
because of you
and me.
Some people say
the God of the Bible
is just like the God
of all other religions.
Let me tell you,
this God is not
like any other God.
The God
of the Old Testament
is the God
of the New Testament.
Jacob had a limp.
Jesus has nail prints.
Do you know
in the book of Revelation
there's this amazing bit
where you see
the picture of heaven
with the God
on the throne
of all of creation.
And do you know
what it says?
It says,
and I saw
a lamb,
Jesus,
who was
slain.
You saw
the nail prints.
Right at the moment
of glory
you see the moment
of brokenness
because this is our God.
God.
So let me finish.
A God
who has such power
to break
your strength,
your greatest strength
with a touch
is the God
who in Jesus Christ
wrestles with us.
Is the God
who right now
is calling you
and saying,
what's your name?
He's exposing you.
He's wanting to expose you
today for who you are.
He's the God
that if we encounter
him today,
we will come away
saying,
I have seen God
and my life
has been delivered.
He's a God
who will break us
to heal us,
who will wound us
to bless us,
who will bring us
a new identity
and a name.
You're not defined
by your past.
You're not defined
even by your parents.
You're defined
by who you are
in him.
So will you wrestle
with him today?
Will you wrestle?
Psalm 46 says this,
be still
and know
that I am God.
I will be exalted
among the nations.
I will be exalted
in the earth.
The Lord of hosts
is with us.
The God of Jacob
is our fortress.
You can rest
in Christ
right now.
Let me just pray
for us.
So I want you
just to,
right now,
we're going to take
communion in a minute,
but I want you
to think about
those questions.
Have I wrestled
with God?
Am I wrestling
with God?
Or do I just
treat him lightly?
Do I really
know this God?
Do I want
to know him?
How much
do I want
to know him?
Am I willing
to pray,
God,
would you even
break my hip?
Would you even
break my hip
that I might
truly know
your presence
and who you
really are?
Just take a minute
to reflect
on that.
Because in a minute,
we're going to
take communion
where we're going
to celebrate
the breaking
of our Savior.
If you're not
a believer,
I don't want you
to come up
to take the
communion elements,
but I want you
to just think
about that.
Have I encountered
God?
Or am I religious?
Or do I want
to encounter God?
This God
who is willing
to be broken
for you.
So just do
some business
with God
while we're
waiting.
I'll ask
the communion
stewards
to come up.
And when
you're ready,
you can come
up and take
the communion
elements.
But maybe
you just want
to spend time
repenting and
confessing before
him.