Citizen | Week 3 | Clayton York

Hey, it's it's it's fun to pretend every once in a while. I'm super excited to to dive into God's word with you this morning. I'm very energetic, so we're gonna have a lot of fun in God's word. But before we get there, I want to tell you a story. When I was younger, I didn't make the wisest decisions

growing up, and I just kinda wanna let you into one of those. I was a stupid young man. And so here's exactly what I mean by that. One opportunity, friends and I were like, hey,

we want to it'd be cool if we went to the zoo. They just had a brand new gorilla enclosure at the zoo. So we're like, let's go check this out. It's gonna be the coolest thing in the entire world. And so I was like, yeah. But you know what would make the the trip even better? I was like, what if I went and got a gorilla costume

and I dressed up? Yeah. Y'all are already judging me right now. I grabbed a gorilla costume and he was like, perfect. I've got a banana costume. I'll wear that too. So here's what happened. At the zoo, the way that that this zoo specifically was set up was there were different continents.

In order to get to the different continents, you had to take a tram to the different continents. And so I was like, hey, let's head over to Africa. I've got the gorilla suit. And so I can't believe I'm saying this. We we went to to the continent of Africa,

and I was hiding in the wooded area. So, like, off to the side, nobody could see me whatsoever. This was, the most realistic gorilla suit you could ever find.

The the face looked super real and everything. So I was, hey. Let me know when the tram is coming by, and, like, just let me know like five seconds before it gets to where I am. And I'm gonna pop out. I'm literally gonna go ape. And so he was like, counting me down,

and it got super close. And you you guys you guys, I jumped out. I was first of all, was on all fours. I ran out. I stopped the tram. He almost hit me. I I slammed my arms down on this tram, and then started beating my chest. And everyone was like, oh my gosh.

One lady got off the tram and ran back to Africa because she thought the gorillas were there. People were like, it was unbelievable. Do you wanna know how that story ends? Does everyone you wanna know how the story ends? K.

Before I tell you that, I need I need your thumbs up as a verbal agreement not to judge me for the rest of time I'm up here. Cool? Okay. I was handcuffed and escorted out of the zoo. Okay? I couldn't go back to my car to drive away. I had to have somebody come pick my car up. The reason

I tell you that story is this, it's fun to pretend sometimes. It's fun to pretend to be somebody different or something different. And we've been in this citizen series the past couple weeks, and Bill launched us off a couple weeks ago by talking about our homeland,

determining where our heart lands, and then last week brought an incredible message with Noah about fixing our focus and not our world. And this week, our big idea is simply this, God won't bless who you pretend to be.

That story of me being escorted was not a blessing from God. That was a consequence of being extremely stupid. God won't bless who you pretend

to be. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna launch back into Hebrews 11 where we've kinda been the past couple weeks. And so with that being said, if you've got your bibles, grab your bibles. I wanna read this together. If you've got your smartphones, grab your smartphone phones. If you've got an Android, go ahead and grab your dumb phone.

Any Android users in here? Any Android users? Woah. That's more than I thought. Put your hands back down. Grab your smartphones also. We're gonna we're gonna hop into Hebrews 11 starting in verse 20, and it says this. It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.

It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff. Now we're gonna come back to this passage in a little bit and you'll understand why. This weekend, we're gonna spend some time talking about Jacob.

And we're gonna we're gonna hop into Genesis 32 in just a second. But before we do that, let's pray. God, we we trust you this morning.

Lord, would you do what only you can do, God? Would we leave this place with more clarity and understanding of what your bible says than we walked in with? God, you are good and you're good to your people. We love you. We praise you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen? Amen. Amen. Hey, let's go over to Genesis 32.

Again, if you don't have anything, we've got it on the screens for you. Genesis 32 starting in verse 22 says this, during the night, Jacob got up and took his two wives. We'll revisit that in a relationship series coming up. During the night, Jacob got up, took his two wives, his two servant wives,

and his 11 sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. This was a river that flowed from Gilead into the Jordan. It's another cool interesting fact. Jesus was actually baptized in the Jordan River, so it's cool to put things like this into context for us.

It says after taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions. This left Jacob all alone in the camp and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. Many theologians claim that this man is actually Jesus incarnate. This is God in the flesh. Interesting note, Jacob is wrestling

God right now. It goes on to say, when the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, let me go for the dawn is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let go unless you bless me. What is your name? The man asked. He replied, Jacob.

Your name will no longer be Jacob, the man told him. From now on, you will be called Israel because you have fought with God and with men and have won. Please tell me your name, Jacob said. Why do you wanna know my name? The man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.

And under the and in order in order to understand anything we're talking about in Genesis 32, you've gotta understand who Jacob is. So I'm gonna put his life into context for us just a little bit. Jacob

has a brother. His name is Esau. Esau is the older brother. Jacob's the younger brother. They're actually twins. The bible says that Jacob was born holding on to Esau's heel. And a lot of you might know or have heard this story before because their father was Isaac.

Isaac's father was Abraham. And if you've ever heard the expression, we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the reason is because Jesus comes from their lineage, which is incredible. We don't have a ton of time to get into that. Their story is super powerful, but we're gonna focus on

Jacob for the remainder of today. Y'all Jacob had some problems. Jacob was a messed up little dude. You're like, what do you mean? I'm gonna explain what I mean. Jacob was always jealous. Jacob wanted everything his brother had. Jacob got to the point to where he wanted to steal his brother's birthright

as being the first born son. You're like, what in the heck does that mean? Let me let me let me tell you this. Back then, the father would would give the blessing to his oldest son. It always worked that way. And so Jacob wanted the blessing that was meant for Esau.

But you've got to understand this, in the tradition back then, blessing was a big deal. It's it's it's it's different than what we think today. I think I think we've used that word bless or blessing so loosely, we've become so accustomed to it that it doesn't really have meaning to it anymore. For instance,

if I, interact with me on this, if I were to do this, oh, some of y'all are like, I'm awake now. What would you say? God bless you. Right? Think about that for a moment. Some some person just snot bubbled all in your direction and you're like, yes, God bless you. Thank you very much. I needed that. It's,

we've we've we've become so accustomed to saying God bless you that I think we've lost the meaning of what bless or blessing actually is. Back then, bless or blessing is a practical word because when you are blessed, got a double portion of the family inheritance, you got the social status,

you got the authority of dad, so it was a big deal. When you got blessed, the the father was transferring all that God had given him over to you. So it was also a very spiritual concept if you think about it. So Isaac, their father, wants to bless his firstborn son, Esau.

So he tells Esau, listen to this, this is wild. He tells Esau, hey, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go hunt, bring back some wild game. We're gonna cook it up, and I'm gonna give you a blessing from that. K. Here's where the story gets weird. Nudge the person next to you and say, it's about to get weird.

Yeah. It's about to get weird. This is what happens. Rebecca, Isaac's wife, overhears

her husband telling Esau, go go do this. I'm gonna, you know, come back. You're have a blessing. So here's here's what Rebecca does. Come here for a second. You in the front row. Yeah. This is sorry. You have a name. You are not just you in the front row. Who are you? What's your name? Daniel. No. Your name is Jacob for this story. What's your name? Jacob. Yeah. Thank you, Jacob. So here's what Rebecca says. She says, hey.

Dad's gonna give Esau a blessing, but you want the blessing, don't you? Absolutely. Okay. So here's what you need to do. You know Garrett and Garvey in the pasture?

No. Yeah. Guess you don't know who that is. Garrett and Garvey are the goats. You know Garrett and Garvey in the pasture? Yeah. The goats. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I want you to go grab them, bring them back before your brother gets here. I will cook them up because that sounds delicious. So good. So good.

Okay. Bring them back. We'll cook them up, and we'll trick your father into thinking that you're Esau, and you'll get the blessing. How does that sound? Fantastic. No. It doesn't, but you can go sit back down. Can we thank Daniel? Daniel's actually our young adult's intern. Super fun to pick on him.

How weird is that? She says, go grab the goats from the pasture and bring them back and we'll cook them up and trick your father into thinking you're Esau. Then you'll have the blessing. You know what Jacob said? He said, done. I'm doing it. He went to get why why would he do that? Here's why. I woke up at 2AM

a couple days ago. Anybody ever wake up at 2AM before in the morning? And you're just like, God, what are you doing awake at this time? I don't understand. So I woke up at 2AM because I was thirsty. K? It was one of those, like, in the moment you wake up and it's like, and

I always have water by the side of my bed, I looked over at my nightstand, and my water bottle was was not there. So I was like, so it's like, and so I was like, I gotta I don't know why I made that sound. Okay? Forgive me.

I so at that point, I'm like, I gotta go to the fridge and grab some water. It's 2AM. So I'm like, you know, I'm like walking to the fridge like super parched because apparently this is how you walk when you're thirsty. So I I went to the fridge, flung the fridge open,

and there's like 15 bottles of water sitting in the fridge. Okay? This is where this story gets a little bit more interesting. I grabbed the first bottle that I saw and began chugging it. It didn't taste like water in the moment, but I didn't care.

What it was was simply this. My wife decided, for those of you that work out, you know what pre workout is. Okay? My wife decided it would be a good idea to take the leftover pre workout that we had, stick it in the fridge that looked like all of the other water bottles because that's a thing that you do. And I took it and began drinking it. This is 500

of caffeine. This

is 02:00 in the morning for me. All I I was just thirsty, so I grabbed the first thing I saw, chugged it, and then after that, I was like, I gotta get back to bed. I'm off. And you know, it's just like because I was so energetic at this point right now, so guess what I did? I laid in bed for four more hours wide awake

because that's what happens. Why do I tell you that story? When you're thirsty, you'll drink anything. Jacob was thirsty for his brother's blessing. I didn't mean to do that, but it was perfect time to take a drink.

Jacob was thirsty for his brother's blessing, so he did the the first thing somebody told him to do. When you're tired, that's a bad time to start making decisions because you lower your standards pretty quick, and you'll do the first thing you think you need to do in order to receive something. But it actually gets

weirder. I know you're like, how in the world could this story possibly get any weirder? It does. He grabs the goats. Jacob grabs the goats, brings them back to the house. Mom cooks them up for Isaac.

Jacob takes the skin of these goats, puts it all over his body. I know you're like, weird. And then grabs his brother Esau's clothes and puts them on. Why does he do that? Because their father Isaac is blind. And the only way he can tell his sons apart is by feeling them. It's like, for me, I I picture it like Jacob walking into the room. He's like, hey, dad. It's me, Esau. Because that's what Jacob sounds like. And then Esau Isaac was like, oh, son, come here. Let me just feel you.

That's weird. Isaac says, Esau, is that you? Jacob's response, yes. It's me, Esau, your son. So he receives the blessing. Jacob gets the blessing, but the blessing is meant for Esau. So what happens next? Esau comes back home with the wild game, brings it into the house and sees dad already eating and connects the two and is like,

I'm gonna kill you, Jacob. He literally wants to kill Jacob. So what does Jacob do? He runs. Jacob runs away. He runs for twenty one years. Not not like Forrest Gump running where it's like nonstop. It's like he ran. He was on the run for twenty one years. Did you know that it's possible

to get what you want and not want what you got, especially if you've received that the wrong way. Here's why I say that. Listen to this. Whatever you seek is what you will find, and when you find it, you will know if it's worth it one way or another. If you're gonna be a citizen of heaven, family,

you need to remember that God won't bless who you pretend to be. And although it might seem great in the moment to you and I, God won't bless Jacob dressed like Esau. It's not gonna happen.

How many times will it take us? How many times will it take you and I to understand that God won't bless us if it's who we're pretending to be. If you want to be blessed by God, stop putting on goat skin, stop wearing Esau's clothes, and quit pretending. Listen to this. Jacob spent so much of his life deceiving

and manipulating. If you're deceiving someone else, it's because you've already fallen into the false reality of deceiving and thinking it's normal. So that's what you're used to doing. Aaron Hill, a writer in the seventeen hundreds.

I like putting names to faces. So I have a picture of Aaron Hill. I know what you're thinking. That boy looks gangster. He looks cool. How many okay. Let me say this. How many of you know Caleb McMaines, our middle school pastor in here? Yeah? Cool. Well, if you don't, I have a side by side of Aaron Hill and Caleb McMaines.

That gets me. Yeah. Aaron Hill said this. The real Aaron Hill said this, deceit is the false road to happiness and all the joys we travel through to vice like fairy tale banquets vanish when we touch them. What good is Jacob's blessing if he can't even stay in the house with his own family?

A few weeks ago, Bill said our homeland determines where our heart lands and a sad reality is a lot of us think that we've made it. This is our homeland. This is not our homeland. This is just a stopping point to where your homeland is. If only you would understand that and see that.

Jacob kept pretending because his heart was in the moment. Who are you pretending to be? Who are you trying to be? Jacob was pretending to be Esau. And look family, your identity isn't expected or inherited. It's created.

A lot of us think that because of who my parents are, that's who I'm going to be. Or because of what I've known growing up, I'm just inheriting this identity. You're not. You have been created differently. You've been created differently. So stop pretending. Let's stop pretending.

Back to the story. Jacob is on the run because Esau wants to kill him. So Jacob is running. Jacob ends up at his uncle Laban's house. Uncle Laban, let me tell you, has two daughters, Rachel and Leah. It says that Rachel is the younger, more attractive, beautiful sister, and the bible says that Leah is the weak eyed one.

Let me tell you something here. Weak eyed doesn't mean she was weak in one eye. This is the bible saying she was a bit hard to look at. Leah was the not so attractive sister. And so Jacob says, Uncle Laban, I need Rachel's hand in marriage. I wanna marry your daughter. So Laban says, awesome.

You can marry her, but here's what you have to do. You've gotta work for me for seven years. Right? So Jacob's like, done. I'm working for seven years in the crops, in the flocks. This man works for seven years,

And it's finally wedding day. For those of you that remember your wedding day, it's like the most incredible thing in the entire world. It's wedding day. Jacob's like, I can't wait to marry Rachel. It's finally happening. So wedding day happens. He gets married and wakes up the next morning. Guess what happened?

Homeboy married the wrong sister. He's in bed with Leah, not with Rachel. And so he's like, oh. So he's he goes to uncle Laban. He's like, what the heck happened? He was tricked and deceived. Laban deceived Jacob into marrying the wrong sister.

We should know, you and I should know that even by looking at this story that what you sow

is what you reap. And if you don't like the harvest you're reaping, you might need to check the seeds that you're sowing. That right there is what I call a thrut punch. That's the throat and the gut. I I got you in both places. Right? Bill's coined this phrase, throat punch. I got the thrut punch.

Jacob is a deceiver. So it shouldn't surprise you and I that he is now being deceived. Why? Because God won't bless who you pretend to be. And you cannot be a citizen of heaven if you are a citizen of self. Jacob was so focused on himself, always pretending and deceiving that now he is actually

deceived. So he doesn't like the outcome of of this marriage. He goes back to uncle Laban and he's like, look, man. I wanted to marry Rachel. Can I marry Rachel? You know what Laban says? Yeah. But you gotta do something first. You know what it was?

You gotta work for seven years in the crops and and with the flocks. And so Jacob's like, bet. This dude worked fourteen years for Rachel's hand in marriage. Okay? So he ends up marrying Rachel. Now he's got two wives, which is what we saw in the beginning of Genesis 32. Jacob has two wives at this point, ends up staying

at uncle Laban's house for about twenty years. And in the midst of that, ends up deceiving Laban again to the point that now Laban wants to kill him. Laban's like, what are you doing?

So Laban wants to kill Jacob. First, it was Esau, his brother, who wanted to cut thrice, cut cut throats, and cut ties with him. Now uncle Laban wants to kill him. Guess what Jacob does? Any any guesses when somebody wants to kill him? Yeah. He runs because that's what he's used to doing. So Jacob now runs and Laban gets to point where he's like, you know what? I gotta go get him. I gotta go get

Jacob. So he goes and on his way to meet back up with Jacob, God says, do not kill him, bless him. Imagine that with me for a moment. You ever been so angry before? And then all of a sudden God's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's different.

Laban had a heart change because he heard from God. So now Jacob and Laban are face to face, and Laban looks at Jacob and says, hey, man, let's just forget it. Let's forget all about it. I forgive you. There's reconciliation happening between Laban and Jacob. Get this. To the point that Jacob's like, uncle, you forgave me. Now

my heart is stirred in this way that I've gotta go back home. I've gotta go reconcile with my brother Esau. So Jacob is on his way back to reconciling his relationship with his brother that failed 21 ago. And that's where we come to Genesis 32.

And get this, sometimes it takes you getting exactly what you wanted to realize it's not what you needed. Money, followers, popularity, success, a job, sometimes family.

Jacob got what he wanted. He did. The blessing meant for Esau and realized that even though he got it, it wasn't worth it. Why? Because God won't bless who you pretend to be. So that brings us to Genesis 32. We see Jacob wrestling with God and there's something interesting

to note here. Jacob is wrestling with God. Just shout this out. How old do you think Jacob is right here wrestling with God? If you could put it into perspective, shout it out. 35, 45, anybody else? 28. So, yeah, yeah. Let me explain something real quick. I I thought was like, yeah, he's gotta be 24, 25 years old.

Jacob let me put this into perspective. I did some research. Jacob literally stole the blessing from Esau when he was 76 years old. Y'all are like, what is homeboy still doing living at home at 76 with his parents? Right? He stole the blessing at 76. Ran for twenty one years.

And now granted this is pastor math. I don't I don't know if I'm correct on this. That would make him 97. Right? 97. Thanks, Hunter. 97 years old. Wrestling with God at 97. You're all like, no wonder his hip went out of socket. The boy was old. That's not why. But he's wrestling with God at 97. Do

I have to say this? For ninety seven years, Jacob has been deceiving and pretending. God won't bless who you pretend to be, but for ninety seven years, he's been a deceiver and a a trickster. And get this, regardless of how you interpret this story, you need to understand something. Jacob is no match for God.

Jacob is no match for God. Did anybody please be open with this. Did anybody watch professional wrestling growing up on TV? Awesome. I've got more people in here on my side. So get this, it was my favorite thing watching professional wrestling like WCW, WWE. You're just like, yeah, we know. We can tell by your hair.

I loved professional wrestling. I I remember watching it with my dad growing up and I would, you know, jump off the couch and, you know, punch him in the face. I wouldn't do that. That was a lie. It'd be cool. But I remember watching that growing up because it was incredible. I thought, like, man, these guys are so real.

It is with a heavy heart, Rock Point family, that I bring you the news I'm about to bring you. I found out a couple days ago that professional wrestling is fake. Okay? I know. I see tears. I see some tears also. It's fake. It's very fake. It's all staged. The reason I tell you that is to tell you this,

Jacob wrestling with God is more fake than professional wrestling. It's more fake than than that. When God wrestles with you, it's not so that he can prove his strength, it's so that you can admit your weaknesses. God did not want to have a match with Jacob. He wanted to have a moment with Jacob. It was deeper than the match.

He wanted God he wanted Jacob to realize something in the moment. Genesis thirty two twenty five, when the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Now I know what you're thinking. You just told us that Jacob is no match for God, and right here it's saying that God

couldn't win. It's deeper than your thinking. This is about the physical battle. It's not that God couldn't win. God will always win. It's that he knew Jacob wouldn't give up. It's that he knew Jacob would not surrender, so he had to physically touch his hip and make him limp. And with a wrenched hip out of socket,

Jacob is now stuck limping. Sometimes God will make you limp so that you stop running. Imagine the story of Jacob would have gotten away if he would have let go. He would have been running the rest of his life like he's always been used to, but he held on. Now Jacob and God are wrestling, and Jacob responds with this.

I'm not letting go unless you bless me. I'm not letting go of you, Jacob says. Jacob spent so much time deceiving others, running around, stealing, positioning, and posturing himself for blessing that this is the first time, Rock Point family, that we see Jacob asking for a blessing.

He's not trying to steal it. He's asking for it.

27, what is your name? The man asked. And if you remember, if you remember, if you remember, twenty one years ago, we we saw Jacob in this same position where he was asked, what is your name? His father says, is that you Esau? And Jacob responds with, yes, it's me Esau.

This isn't the first time we see Jacob being asked who he is, but this is the first time we see him respond with, I'm Jacob.

Perhaps Jacob finally realized after years of wanting to be someone else, wanting to be his brother, pursuing identity as somebody else that now he's face to face with the opportunity of his own blessing, he responds to the man's question with, it's me, Jacob. You know the name Jacob literally means deceiver or trickster?

Jacob has been living up to his name his entire life as a deceiver. And look, everything about your life is based on who you believe that you are.

Everything about your life is based on who you believe that you are. We always act out based on that specifically, not what people say about us, not even what the bible says about us. Our standards are based on who we believe that we are. He's saying,

what is your name? I'm Jacob. I'm Jacob. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. You're not. You're no longer Jacob. As we see in verse 28, your name will no longer be Jacob, the man told him. From now on, you will be called Israel because you have fought with God and with men and have won. Jacob was done pretending.

And because he was done pretending, he was truly blessed. And unless you're born again, you cannot be a citizen of heaven. I hate to break the news to you, but unless you let God change you and give you a new name, you will not be a citizen of heaven. And that might be harsh for some people, but it's true for all people.

God wants to change you once and for all, and get this Rock Point family, God's been changing names forever. This isn't the first time we see this. He took Abram and changed his name to Abraham. He took Sarai and changed her name to Sarah. He took Jacob, a deceiver and a trickster, and changed his name to Israel. He took Simon,

a fisherman, and changed his name to Peter and said, upon this rock, I will build my house and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

What's your name? It's me, Jacob. Not anymore. You're Israel. God won't bless who you pretend to be, family.

The the blessing Jacob received was nothing like he's been running after, but everything he's been running after.

And the way Jacob won was by finally losing.

For the first time ever, can walk while limp in fear instead of running. He can walk in faith instead of running in fear. Jacob was broken and out of his brokenness, he was blessed. I'm gonna be very real and open and transparent with you all for just a moment. I wanna give you a snapshot into my life.

I truly believe that authenticity is the currency for intimacy. If I am authentic with you, you get to see who I really am. My wife and I moved to Arizona just over two years ago. And on the way here, we went through our first miscarriage at six weeks

old. We have been trying to have kids for over five years. So that was the first time that that had happened. Happened. Couple months after that, went through another miscarriage. She was pregnant again and lost the other one at six weeks. And it was very hard and rough. Went through a very difficult time.

And in transitioning between jobs, I got offered the position here as young adults pastor, it was a very exciting thing. Thank you.

It was a very exciting thing for us. And I'll never forget my wife. The very day I was offered the position, I was working in the garage. She came into the garage and she said, hey, I'm pregnant.

And I didn't know what to expect. I didn't I didn't know how to think or process in that moment. I was excited. I was nervous because we've been so used to loss before. And so pregnancy goes on, we get to the six week mark and she passes that where the other two we had lost.

This one was different. It felt it felt different to us. I I remember my parents coming over visiting us from Kansas City, and we wanted to break the news to them. So we had an an ultrasound

on on on hung up and strung up next to a couple of other pictures in one of our upstairs bedrooms. And so we took them up and we were like, hey, do you notice anything about this room? And they saw the ultrasound and my mom began crying and I began crying. She's like, you're pregnant again. I was like, yeah, we are. And then I said, do you notice something else about this room?

And in this specific room, there are two closets that are identical. We were pregnant with identical twins and it was it was incredible. Got to ten weeks and my wife was in the room one night. This was very late and she started writhing in pain and I didn't know what to expect. My wife's pain tolerance is very high

and this was very hard for her. And so I was like, let's just get you to the ER and just check up and make sure things are okay. Took her to the ER and the night did not end as we expected it would. At ten weeks, can see arms and legs. That was the hardest night for my wife and I because we had we had lost another set.

I identified so much with being a dad. It's all I wanted. I just wanted to be a father. And I spent so much time identifying as a father that I think I missed out on actually identifying who the father is. And and I wrestled with God for a long time. Children are a blessing from God.

And I wrestled with it for so long, I didn't know how to handle the situation. God, why again? I would argue.

Five days after that miscarriage, I had to get on stage and preach to our young adults. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I don't wanna get up and share my hurts, my struggles, but I heard God saying, go do it. Would you just get up there and be real? Would you get up there and be honest and open? So I did.

I think in that moment I realized that as much as I was wanting something else, God blessed me through my obedience and getting up and speaking to other young individuals because what had happened from that is

afterwards there were multiple people that come up and they came up to us and said, hey, I've been through it. Hey, we're going through it. Hey, we just lost a child as well. And and and and that's how God works.

We it's one of the hardest things I've ever had to live through. And let me let me share this. Second Corinthians one four says, he comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort others.

When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. But how does comfort come from a situation like that? You might ask.

Blessing isn't always easy, family.

Blessing isn't what you want, but what God wants for us. And because of that, because of that situation, I believe my prayers have changed from God bless me to God thank you for the blessing of me being able to help others and bless others.

I just had to admit that I needed him. So where does that leave us? Where does that story leave us? It takes us right back to Hebrews 11, which says, it was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.

As Jacob walks with a limp and leans on his staff, it is a physical reminder of God blessing who he is, not who he pretends to be. Sure, like, don't get it, Clayton. I don't understand. That's how does a blessing end in a limp? That doesn't seem like a blessing to me. And let me put this into perspective for us, family.

Two thousand years ago,

Jesus went to the cross for you and I. He not only died for you, he died as you.

And then they placed him inside of a tomb, and three days later he rose again validating who he really was, king of kings and lord of lords. And when he showed up to the disciples who he did life with, they did not believe it. Jesus, there's no way that's you. You're in a tomb.

This can't be the real there there's no prove it. Show us you are who you say you are. Show us your scars and we'll believe you. You know what Jesus did?

He held out his hands and showed them the scars in his hands and his feet. Love people in this room, listen. Even though it was Jesus resurrected, it was his scars that proved to them it was who he said he was. Jacob, now Israel walks with a limp because it is a reminder of who God is.

God will change us, but allow us to keep the scars as a reminder of what he's done. The situation that I went through with my wife after losing the twins, I have the scars from it as a reminder of who God has made me from it.

And God will change you. Oh my gosh. God will change. He will. He will change you. You may have sat in service after service and gone to churches your entire life or maybe you're in here for the first time. You need to understand and hear this. God will change you. He will give you a new name,

but he won't bless who you pretend to be. And he'll allow you to keep the scars of your past as a reminder of what he's done. You've got to understand, Jacob, in this moment, surrendered who he was to become a citizen of heaven.

And you might be sitting there or watching online thinking, man, I identify so much with Jacob. I've deceived and tricked my entire life. I've pretended to be somebody different my entire life. I've been putting on a front and faking so that people will accept me.

You don't need to be accepted by people. You've been approved by God. Stop pretending. And you might be like, I need a change. I I I I need a new name. God will give you that if you ask.

Jacob confessing who he really was led to God changing him. And this morning, God might be calling some people in this room to a new name. For those of us that have been in this situation before and surrendered and given our lives to the Lord, you know you know

what God does and what an incredible moment that was, and for some other people that can happen right now. Why would you not leave here changed? Why would you come in here and not leave different than when you came in? And it's a simple it's a simple process.

A limp might be the best thing you'll ever get, and it might make it might it might not make sense to other people, but it's life changing for you.

Jacob leaned on a wooden staff. And tonight today, you have the opportunity to lean on a wooden cross. It's incredible what God does.

The bible says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your hearts that Jesus is who he says he is, you will be saved. It's not could or might. It's a promise. You will be saved if you confess and believe. And if that's you, you want to make that change,

you want to leave here different, you want a new name, it can happen right now. So we're gonna give you the opportunity to do so with every head bowed and every eye closed, not looking around right now. It's simple. I just want you to pray this prayer with me. Not out loud to yourself,

But just say, Jesus, you are the son of God.

You died and you rose again

so that I can be saved.

I'm done pretending. I want to be a citizen of heaven. I ask you Jesus to be the Lord of my life. Would you change me from the inside out? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen? Amen. Hey, can we welcome those that just did that to the family of God? That's the best decision you will have ever made.

I'm gonna leave you with this. Remember, God will always fight for you even if it means fighting with you. And he will bless who you really are, not who you pretend to be.