Jacob Wrestles with God [Watch Sermon]
From the "Hunger" series
Preached on May 5 & 6, 2012
by Matthew Ross
Among my friends and family members, I have something of a reputation for being stubborn or, as my mother would say, obstinate. When I was growing up, phrases like “you can’t do that” or “that’s probably not a good idea” were usually just the encouragement that I needed to go through with whatever crazy idea I had at that time. Whether it was shooting fireworks at each other, shooting an arrow into the air to watch it come down or attempting my best daredevil jump on my 10-speed, I always ended up learning a lesson of some sort. The most consistent of those lessons was that, no matter how much I did not want to admit it, my parents were right.
In Genesis 32, we join Jacob’s story as he is preparing to meet his brother, Esau, decades after tricking him into selling his birthright and then having to run for his life shortly afterward. At the end of chapter 32, Jacob is alone and finds himself wrestling with God throughout the night. In my life, wrestling with God seemed to mirror the battles of wills that I had with my parents growing up, but there is one key difference. The battle of wills that children and parents have will one day be decided for better or worse when the child is old enough to be on his/her own. But when it comes to wrestling with God (just like in Jacob’s story), there will come a moment when we are face-to-face with God. When he touches our lives, we are changed forever.
That moment of change is painful, and it is one that we never forget, but when we wrestle with God and lose, we really gain. We gain a new name, a new purpose and a new identity from God, and we become children of God. While that life-changing moment is painful, the pain does not last. But what we gain lasts not just for our lifetime; it lasts for eternity. This week, take a few moments to look at your life and your past. Ask yourself what you are wrestling with God about. We cannot out-wrestle God. At some point, he will touch our lives in a profound way. When that happens, will you yield to God and let him give you a new purpose and a new identity?
The Sound of God Working
From the "Hunger" series
Preached on April 28 & 29, 2012
by Matthew Ross
It probably comes as no shock to you that life often proves to be messy and complicated. Relationships do not always progress like you thought they would. People do not always turn out to be who you thought they were or who they said they were. And we have all experienced those curveballs that come out of nowhere that leave a lasting impact on our lives. But it can be easy to forget that everything in life has a purpose behind it and that everything we go through has a lesson to teach us.
A few years ago, I had a major falling out with someone in whom I had invested a lot of time and energy and emotion over the course of many years. As you can imagine, I was deeply hurt over how things had transpired. One day, someone who is close to me asked me, “Why are you not more angry at them?” At first, I was taken aback by the question, but, without much hesitation, I said, “Because I do not want to be bitter about this.” You see, in my mind, I knew that, no matter how badly I had been hurt or how angry I felt, there were some lessons that I needed to be open to learning. When you get hurt, the natural reaction is to become angry and upset. But there is more there for you than the hurt and anger that you feel in those hard moments. God has a plan to use those moments to teach you something and help you to grow and use that experience for his glory.
Often one of the most powerful uses that God has for what you have been through in your life has little to do with you. It might seem a bit counter-intuitive at first, but your story can bring hope into someone else’s situation. It can remind a fellow Christian who is tired and ready to give up that God is still alive and working. Your story can show people that there is still hope no matter how abandoned they feel. And your story can even bring a lost person into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
This week, take a few minutes to ask yourself these questions. What is God trying to teach me through my current situation? Who else in my life can benefit from hearing my story? If I slow down to look at what people in my life are going through, what can I say to them to help lift them up in the midst of their struggles? To quote my grandmother who has since gone to be with the Lord, “It’s not all about you.” We are the body of Christ, and we are in this together. God’s plan for your life is not just to help you survive but to grow you and bless you. He wants you to help and bless others through your story and along your journey.
The Story of Jacob
From the "Hunger" series
Preached on April 21 & 22, 2012
by Matthew Ross
I can sum up the hardest and most powerful lesson that I have learned during my walk with God over these last 20+ years with one word: Struggle. We all struggle with different aspects of our faith, whether it is a struggle to understand God’s plan for our lives, God’s timing in our lives or meaning and fulfillment in our lives. The story of Jacob is one of the most poignant examples in Scripture of two children struggling to find God’s purpose and fulfillment in their lives when it seems like what God is doing makes no sense or that God is not doing anything at all.
All of us have had or will have one pivotal moment when we decide whether we are going to try to force or bully our way to the promises that God has for our lives or if we are going to surrender and lose the struggle with God and wait for God to fulfill his promises in his time. Jacob was focused on getting the position and authority that God had promised his mother for his own purposes and not God’s glory. As a result of his tricks and manipulations, Jacob finds himself running for his life. Eventually, after running and hiding, he finally stops thinking that he is alone and that he has outrun everyone, but what he finds is that, while he temporarily outran his brother, he ran right to where God was waiting for him.
The most powerful moment in Jacob’s life came when he thought that he had outrun everyone—including God—but despite all of his scheming and manipulation, he ran right to where God was. Whatever your life has been like up to this moment, whatever manipulating you have done and whatever consequences or past experiences you are running from, God has brought you to this moment. No matter how good your life has been or how many horrors you have experienced, God has a plan for blessings and fulfillment in your life. But you have to stop struggling with him and start trusting him.
This week, take some time to look at your life and those areas in which you have been struggling with God or trying to manipulate him to force getting your way. Give those to God and trust him instead of struggling with him.
What’s Next?
Pastor Keith Boucher
Preached on April 14 & 15, 2012
by Matthew Ross
Now that our Easter series is behind us, Pastor Keith’s message, “What’s Next,” was the perfect question to ask after celebrating the life of Jesus and what he did for us on the cross.
Pastor Keith summarized Luke 24:13-35 with a simple phrase: “Things are not always as they seem.” That phrase caught my attention because, for the disciples and anyone who was a follower of Jesus, those few days after his death were very dark days. In just about everyone’s mind, whatever plan that Jesus had to redeem the nation of Israel looked like it had failed. Rather than restoring Israel and getting them out from under the Roman Empire, he was handed over to the Romans, crucified as a common criminal and buried in a tomb. His followers must have felt devastated, confused and hopeless. How could Jesus be the king that they were expecting and redeem the nation of Israel from the grave? But things were not as they seemed. Jesus would not stay dead for long, and he would not leave his disciples and followers without hope. His plan of redemption had not failed.
Two thousand years later, we know how the story ends, and we know that God’s plan was to do far more than redeem one nation … he provided salvation for the entire world. Even though we know how the story ends, we still have those moments when we want to give up—those times when life becomes so hurtful and unbearable that everything about God feels like it was a cruel joke. Even when it seems like things cannot get any worse, like life will never get better or like you will never heal, God comes to us and begins to remind us of the things that he has done in our lives.
Jesus showed himself to his disciples after his resurrection, and he came to the travelers on the road to Emmaus to remind them that there is still hope and that he was alive. Jesus reminds us that, while it might not look like it, things are not always as they seem. Like Paul says in II Corinthians, we live by faith, not by sight. This week, ask yourself how you see God. Is God an active part of your life? Or is God more of an observer of your life? God wants to be an active part of your life … so much that he sent his only son to die on the cross for you. God has a plan for your life and is working in your life. Whenever it feels like there is no way out of your situation or like there is no way to make ends meet, God wants to remind you that things are not always as they seem. He has not left you.
Second Chances, part 2 [Watch Sermon]
From our Easter series
Preached on April 7 & 8, 2012
by Matthew Ross
This past weekend was the second of our two-part Easter series, Second Chances. The service was full of music, dramas and powerful teaching points about what God has for our lives beyond salvation.
I encourage you to watch the service from this past weekend. While you’re watching, ask God to show you what he has in store for your life beyond your salvation. God is not just asking to be our Savior and to help us through the impossible issues in our lives; he is inviting us to embrace the plan and purpose that he has for us and to partner with him to bring life to the world around us.
On behalf of everyone at Calvary Church, we are excited to see what God has in store for your life this coming year!