Greater Things (The Struggle is Real) pt.3
All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation
Today, we are going to end our series, “Greater Things.”
As I think dreaming big and trusting God can be tied to understanding our identity in the Kingdom…
If we don’t have a handle on who we were created to be, and the plans God has for us…
Then we will not have a handle on how to join Him when it comes to dreaming big and trusting Him in the process of seeing those dreams come to pass!
Today, we’re going to talk about the struggle… The struggle to achieve the dream!
Dreams are not easy to accomplish… There will always be obstacles, opposition, challenges… Times to regroup and adjust as the dream becomes a reality…
Think of a famous American who had a dream… Martin Luther King had a dream…
A dream where people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character… A dream where people of all races, all nationalities, and all creeds can live together as brothers and sisters!
The struggle was so real for MLK that he was assassinated for it!
Think of the dream some people had in England to start a new country in search of religious freedom…
In the year 1620 about 100 people boarded a ship by the name of the Mayflower to create a new country… the United States of America!!
This was not an easy dream to achieve and had plenty of struggles in the journey…
Dreams are going to have struggles…Especially the dreams God puts on our hearts!
And I think it’s fair to say that God intentionally allows certain struggles to come our way when achieving the dreams and plans He has for us…
I say this because God is more interested in who we become here on this earth, than what we do here on this earth…
God is far more interested in the person we become during the journey, than the accomplishments we acquire along the way…
The person we become, the character of our being, is what goes with us into eternity, into heaven… Not our list of accomplishments…
Even though we may achieve great things in life… It is who we become in the process that God is looking at…
Our character in Christ is the deeper purpose for the dreams God has for us to carry out!
Romans 5:2-4: “2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”
So, let’s look at an interesting character in the OT by the name of Jacob…
One night God gave Jacob a dream and laid out the path He had for Jacob’s life…
Genesis 28:10-17: “10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. 13 At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
This is an amazing dream… From Jacob and the ground he is lying on will come a nation of people… The nation of Israel…
Later in Jacob’s story, he has twelve sons… They will represent the twelve tribes of Israel…
With this dream came many struggles… But look at the promise in verse 15…
God tells Jacob, “I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go… I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”
Jacob may not fully understand what just took place, but he has this promise from God to hold onto through all the struggles and tension during the process of seeing the dream come to fruition…
There is a lot to unpack in this dream, as well as Jacob’s story, so for the sake of time we’ll do our best to hit some important points!
Just so we know… Jacob was not without his flaws… Part of his story is that he had a twin brother (Esau) that he was constantly at odds with…
In Genesis chapter 27 Jacob tricks his aging father, Isaac, into blessing him with the family birthright that was to go to his older brother Esau…
Esau had vowed to kill Jacob for what he did, so Jacob fled!
The name Jacob means deceiver, manipulator… And he definitely lived up to the identity of his name…
And yet, this was the man God chose to be the patriarch of the nation Israel!
After this dream, we can read about Jacob’s many adventures in life… And in these adventures, we can see that Jacob is a con-man!!
But let’s fast forward to Genesis chapter 32 when Jacob wants to make peace with his brother…
At this point in the story of Jacob, I picture him like many of us in life…
He sets out with the best of intentions, but he’s constantly scheming, and now he’s just tired of it all…
Maybe he’s at a point that always trying to outmaneuver someone else is wearing thin, and he just wants some kind of peace within…
He wants some stability in life… And now he plans to make peace with his brother…
The night before he and Esau are to meet, Jacob has a very strange encounter…
Genesis 32:22-30: “22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. 23 After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions. 24 This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25 When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” 28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel,[a] because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” 29 “Please tell me your name,” Jacob said. “Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. 30 Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”
Crazy stuff, right?
How many of us would agree that the root of most of our problems is really our struggle with God…
In other words, we want to be in control, we want to call the shots, we want to be the one who dictates our destiny… We don’t want to change who we are!!
But the reality is, God is the One who is in control… God is the One who leads us through life… God is the one who changes us… Not the other way around…
When we begin “wrestling” this out with God we may even wonder where the love from God is? Does God even love me? Why is life so difficult?
Here’s the deal… God loves us too much to allow us to stay the way we are…
On this night… Wrestling with God… A transformation takes place with Jacob!
We cannot invite Jesus into our lives and expect to stay the same person… That’s not how it works…
This is where the tension of the Gospel comes into play…
Jesus loves unconditionally, but the truth of the Gospel causes us to face the reality of who we were created to be…
Until we realize God is in charge, we will not be ready for the dreams He has for us
And this is where the tension…. The struggle… The wrestling match with God begins…
It is in this tension God will test our faith to see where our commitment level is with Him…
Jacob wrestled with God all night and would not let go until he received a blessing…
How’s that for commitment?
This reminds me of Galatians 6:9: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
Never give up… Jacob would not give up and somewhere along the line that night he must have figured out this person he was wrestling was no ordinary man!
When the man realized Jacob was not going to give up, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out its socket.
Verse 31 says that Jacob left the area limping… He never walked the same again…
One of John Wimber’s (Found of the Vineyard) many sayings is to “Never trust a leader without a limp.”
A leader who has faced the struggles, the tensions, the battlefield of carrying out God’s dream for them… These are the leaders who trust and depend on God as they continue in their journey!
And then in verse 26 Jacob is determined to receive a blessing from this man…
I have a sneaking suspicion Jacob knows who he’s been wrestling with all night…
The man asked Jacob his name… Jacob tells him… But then the man changes it to Israel…
And it is at this moment Jacob receives his blessing!
When we are committed to receiving all that God has for us, we will no longer be the same person we once were…
We now walk in the identity of who we were created to be in Christ!
2 Corinthians 5:17: “… Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
Ephesians 4:21-24: “21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
The moment we commit our lives to Jesus and allow the tension of the Gospel to renew within us a clean heart… A right spirit with God… We will never the same!
We welcome the tension of a changed life… And we step into the struggle of carrying out the dreams God has for us…
Some of us walk through life with a limp… And we know that limp comes with the blessings of God Almighty and an eternal inheritance waiting for us in heaven!!
Jacob’s identity was changed the night he wrestled with God…
Jacob’s commitment to not let go and hang on was proof that he no longer wanted to be identified as a deceiver…
But that he’s ready to take on the new identity God is calling him into…
And he will now be known as Israel… In this context Jacob’s new name, Israel, means, “Because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
It’s interesting to note, that despite Jacob’s character, God chose him to be the patriarch of a nation that bears his name to this very day!!
And I must wonder, how much of Jacob’s story had to do with his commitment to not let go of God, and embrace the tension of his new identity…
Jacob’s story still has many twists and turns… Lots of drama… But he remained committed to God!
God saw Jacob’s potential to carry out the dream and Jacob pressed into that… He embraced his new identity in the Kingdom!
As we bring this sermon to an end…
We all need to dream… Seek the dreams God has for you… Dream with Him and trust Him to see the process through…
Listen for promises like the one He gave Jacob… When God gives us a dream along with a promise of protection, and seeing the dream come to fruition…
It is up to us to embrace the tension and struggles that will come with that dream…
We may even find ourselves wrestling with God… And if we do, don’t let go until the blessing comes… Never give up!
But realize this… God does His deepest work in us when our identity lines up with who He sees us as… Who He created us to be!
Not how we see ourselves… Not who we think we are… But who we know we are in Jesus…
Romans 12:2: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
