On The Edge | Part 2 - Finding Purpose in The Pain of My Own Doing | Pastor Adam Bishop

You made a really bad decision. Now listen, if that's the case, it's alright. Welcome to the team. We've all been there. Okay? And you may be there right now. And it's a different kind of hurt when you have to acknowledge the problem with my circumstances and the pain of my circumstances is directly correlated to something I did to cause this. Now sometimes in life, that's not the case. [00:20:31] (21 seconds)  #OwnYourMistakes

Laban decided I'm gonna deceive the deceiver. So Jacob's been deceiving people his whole life. And again, we don't know all the details, but my own guess is that Jacob got a little over served at the wedding reception. Okay? That that's what I think. I think Jacob got drunk. And the reason why I think this is because he literally goes to bed with his wife on his wedding night, and I don't have to fill in the details of what happens on that particular evening. But when he woke up the next morning and rolled over, it wasn't Rachel, it was her sister Leah. That's called being deceived. Okay? [00:33:09] (35 seconds)  #DeceiverDeceived

And so Laban says, no worries, Jacob. You can marry Rachel. Just work for me for seven more years. So he does. Can you imagine that man's life for the next seven years? Okay? He's married to one sister and love with the other sister, and all the while, all of this is happening. And so finally, he gets to marry Rachel. He's fourteen years in. He's got two wives now. They both have servants that they just choose to throw into the mix giving him two more wives. Jacob now has four wives, which if you're counting is three too many. K? That's how that works. This is a mess. [00:34:18] (33 seconds)  #PaidThePriceForMistakes

purpose in the pain of our own doing. So here's the first thing I think we can see from this. Sometimes God's pursuit means he provokes a fight. That is what happens here. This wrestling match was God's idea, not Jacob's. Jacob was going to bed that night hoping to get a good night's sleep so that he could wake up tomorrow and face his greatest fear, Esau. But see, God had not stopped pursuing Jacob. And the way that God's pursuit of Jacob was going to look was he was actually going to pick a fight with him. [00:39:57] (32 seconds)  #GodPicksAFight

he brings heat into our lives. He brings divine disruption into our lives. And for many of us, we would love to think of a God who pursues us in the middle of a worship set. Might I suggest this morning, God may pursue you by picking a fight with you, by causing everything in your life to finally fall apart. So you finally have to reckon with what you've done to get your life to that point. And someone says, is that a gracious and kind loving God? Of course, it is. Because we would love to be left alone. [00:41:16] (30 seconds)  #GrowthThroughDisruption

So sometimes what God does is he brings us to our point of reckoning so that he once again has our attention. Here's the second thing I think we can see from the story. Submitting to the fight is the opportunity to ask for the blessing. See, oftentimes, we want a blessing from God, and we wanna ask God to bless us. And we would prefer to pray that prayer on our knees in the comfort of our living room. But what if God wants to invite you into a struggle, into a fight? What if God wants to show you that the blessing is in the wrestling? [00:41:56] (34 seconds)  #BlessingInTheWrestle

What if God knows that you actually won't get to a point of need and call on him to bless you until you actually have to? And this is what happened for Jacob. See, Jacob wrestles with God all night and it's finally over. And Jacob's like, wait a second. I'm not just gonna go through this for nothing. I'm gonna demand a blessing from you. And did you know that's how good our God is? That God doesn't just bring you to a point of reckoning. God doesn't just pick a fight to draw attention to your circumstances. God does this so that you can ultimately get something from it. [00:42:30] (35 seconds)  #AskBoldlyForBlessing

But you see, God has to bring you through it before you can get something from it. See, God wants to do something in you before he does something through you. And for many of you, you're in the middle of a circumstance right now and it's not good. Maybe you're having to face some consequences of some things that have happened in your past. Maybe your day of reckoning has occurred. Here's some good news for you. You can ask God to still bless you. You can ask God to do a work in you. Our God is so good that for years after this, he will be able to show you how he was actually working in the midst of it. And there are many who can give testimony that the greatest blessings in their life came from the most difficult circumstances. [00:43:04] (43 seconds)  #BlessingsInTheBrokenness

``He entered into the wrestling match with God as Jacob, the deceiver. His name was changed to Israel, the overcomer. And for many of us, this is what God desires to do. And that when he brings us to this point, he pursues us. He causes us to face up to what's happened. The goal of this encounter is that we become a new person. See, you cannot encounter a real and living God and leave not changed. If you think you've encountered God and you haven't changed, you haven't encountered God, you've just had a warm, fuzzy, emotional experience. [00:44:13] (47 seconds)  #WrestledAndTransformed

But when we encounter a real and living God, we're changed into new people. See, this is actually the foundation of the good news of the gospel message, is that when God meets us in our sin, he doesn't just take us in our sin and go, you know what? You've kinda been a pretty bad person, and and we're gonna put some polish on you. We're gonna fix you up a little bit. We're gonna make you a better person. That's not what scripture teaches. Scripture teaches that through Jesus, we actually become a new person. So let's step into the New Testament for a minute with this powerful verse from second Corinthians chapter five verse 17. [00:44:59] (32 seconds)  #NewCreationInChrist

And what God's trying to show you graciously, lovingly, without condemnation, but from a gracious kind perspective is that you are the common thread to every problem that's ever existed in your life. Every broken relationship, every failed endeavor, every misstep in your career. You're the only one who is there every single time. And God has been gracious enough to show this to you. [00:45:48] (26 seconds)  #OwnYourRole

He's showing you that the problem is sin and you're not alone. We all have the same problem. And our God is so good that he's not letting that keep you from him. It's why he sent Jesus, to pay the price for that. So God doesn't beat you up over your sin. I say this all the time because he beat up his only son for your sin on the cross. [00:46:13] (21 seconds)  #GraceOverGuilt

See, the wonderful thing about our God is you can come to God and have literally been walking a particular way for the last five months, the last five years, or the last five decades. And when you have a real encounter with God and he changes who you are, the next five months, the next five years, the next five decades can look completely different. But it does involve a fight. [00:47:48] (24 seconds)  #EncounterChangesEverything

A good fight with God, it leaves you with a limp. Leaves you with a limp. That's what happened with for Jacob. That literally for the rest of his life, the best we can tell from the book of Genesis, he had a physical limp. And when someone would ask him about it, he had this amazing story that he could share. But it wasn't just that God wanted to leave Jacob with a limp for a story. It was actually part of God's way of protecting Jacob from Esau. [00:48:33] (36 seconds)  #LimpBecomesTestimony

See, in Jacob's way of thinking, the best way to confront his brother was through his strength, through his might, which is why he sent all of these processions ahead of him to to kinda say, hey, I've made a name for myself. I'm Jacob. I I have a lot of things now, Esau. I I need you to respect me. He he was trying to engage his brother by might. And and what God knew was the best way that that Jacob could actually engage his brother was through a limp, through weakness. [00:49:09] (30 seconds)  #LimpOverMight

And isn't it just like our God to know, Jacob, the best way you can approach this situation isn't through your strength, but actually through weakness. So I'm gonna give you something that yes, it's a weakness, but in this particular situation will serve you as a great strength. See, God knows some things you don't know. God knows some situations you don't know. God sees some things you don't see. And we all have to come to a place in our lives where we ultimately have to acknowledge whether or not we are going to agree with that and trust him or just keep doing things our own way. [00:50:02] (35 seconds)  #WeaknessBecomesStrength