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Are Your Lies Becoming Your Identity? (With Pastor Matt Rosson) · The Extra Mile Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, we feel like, and I think, man, a lot of times we do this with God.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: We feel like we have to edit our identity.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: We have to cover up who we are.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: And we're really doing ourselves hard because again, God can't really do the work in us to be honest with ourselves.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome back everybody to the Extra Mile Podcast.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: My name is Steve Hussey, Lee, Pastor of Faith Church, and I get to sit to the table with the very first time.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Matt Rothin.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: Man, I'm excited.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Pastor, for the honor.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm just ready to get going.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, man, I know you are our youth director at our Lawrenceburg campus, and man, God's doing some great things there.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: And uh just proud of you, man.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations on a new baby.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: How's the baby life going?
0:44
SPEAKER_02: It's I tell people it's exceeded every expectation that I had.
0:48
SPEAKER_02: And I had a lot.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh something my wife and I have been praying for for a long time.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: And just to see God answer so many prayers.
0:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, there's a lot of things that I could get into that I don't have time today, just the story of how God has provided.
1:00
SPEAKER_02: But it's just been such a joy and an honor.
1:02
SPEAKER_02: And uh gosh, I can't imagine any other life at this point.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, you had uh what what is the age of difference between you and your younger sister?
1:09
SPEAKER_00: Five years.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Five years.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: So so you you've had you have some experience with some kids younger than you.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Um I was the youngest, so when we had our first child, Kayla, like brother, I had no experience holding a baby, you know, changing a baby, feeding a Shauna had no reason ever to leave me alone with this child.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: But the reason I bring it up is, man, again, congratulations.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: But you know, this is a um a church podcast, this is a spiritual conversation podcast.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: And I would encourage anybody listening to this, if you're afraid of the call of God on your life, it's like raising a baby.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: If you want to do it well, you almost can't mess it up.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, you have seasons of failure and seasons of success, but like if you give it time and attention, like babies have a way just kind of naturally growing, and ministries that have attention and time and prayer are gonna grow, man.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: That's brother, you've done that really well.
1:54
SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate it and thank you for kind of being a spiritual father of my life, you know, and just a lot of grace and uh mercy and but challenges, all the things, and it's just been incredible.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: So I'm just so thankful for what God has brought me and my family and where we're going.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: It's uh exciting times.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's jump into the podcast, man.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: We um we started a conversation this past week with a series, and it's funny, man, the way God speaks to me and things he gives me, and I always think like, you know, how's that gonna land?
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, I do it because I don't, it's not that I don't care, I just care what God says more.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, like Paul, man, if I if I choose to be a friend to friend of men, you know, I can't be a servant of the Lord.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And so, but uh this this term deadnaming.
2:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And I thought more people would be familiar with it, and I guess they're not, which is why more people aren't irate and upset.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Because really it's it's a it's a word used in culture, but primarily it's kind of a word used in the transgender community that when someone changes their name from like Samantha, yeah, and they become a transgendered man and they go to Sam.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: If you call them Samantha, that's deadnaming.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Basically, it's this idea: once I move into a new identity, it's it's offensive for you to bring up my old identity.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: And man, we're called as Christ followers to be redeemers.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: We redeem culture.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like, man, we had the maybe wasn't called that, but biblically we had the uh we cornered the market on deadnaming a long time ago.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: So this conversation we're talking about people in scripture, and there are multiple ones, some I won't get to in this series, but basically they have a name that their parents gave them, yeah, and they have this encounter with God, and God gives them a new name.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: And the goal is, man, once God gives you a new name, man, you don't how dare you go back to an old, don't deadname yourself, man, walk in your new identity, your new purpose.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: And so we introduce not the first person in the Bible that gets a new name.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about him this weekend, yeah.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: But we introduce one of the new people in the in the Old Testament, one of the first people who got a name change, and it's this guy by the name of Jacob.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Jacob.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And uh so Jacob gets a new name and it becomes the name Israel.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to talk about his story, but man, before I jump in, what was maybe something that stuck out to you in the in the current conversation?
3:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, I love how, and you do this so well, um, but there's so much to the story of Jacob from time he's born all the way until he becomes Israel, but you made it so personal.
4:06
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think there's not a person that listened to that message and the content that was covered that left there thinking, gosh, that's me.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: Like that was my story.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: I know from from my life who I was before Christ and how he came and marked me.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: And even though my my name here on earth has not changed, my nature has changed, which is exactly what you were talking about, right?
4:26
SPEAKER_02: Names are a reflection of our nature.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: And um, I just was so so happy to see so much response on Facebook and just talking to people about how that message, they're like, that was for me.
4:39
SPEAKER_02: And there's so many people, hundreds of people.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: That was for me.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: So, like, that was incredible to make such a large contextual story feel personal.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I'm just excited to kind of dive more into that story because there is so much.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: So, for those listening, if you don't know the story, Jacob is the grandson of this guy by the name of Abraham.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Abraham's a key figure in the Old Testament.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: But Jacob comes into this world, he don't have a name yet, but he gets named really quick, and it's because of the way he's born into this world.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And he's born as a twin, the younger twin, the first baby out of the womb of his mom is the older brother named Esau.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us that as soon as Esau is born, like as soon as he pops out, there's a hand grabbing his heel, trying to be the first one out.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: And it's Jacob.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: So mom and mom and dad says, Hey, we know your name.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna call you Jacob, which means heel grabber.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Kind of another name is supplanter, and again, not a word used a lot in culture, but what it what it means is somebody that's trying to manipulate their way to the top, someone that's trying to, you know, deceive so they get ahead.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: So ultimately his name becomes synonymous with not heel grabber, but deceiver.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: And I thought one of the things, and I didn't spend much time talking to it, but you know, I feel like a lot of times in in culture and in life, we try to live up to names.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian, I want to, I want to live up to that name.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my parents really encouraged me as a young child to live up to the name Husky.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, like, you know, be a person of honor and care.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: So live up to the name Husky.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob the Deceiver, the heel grabber, the supplanter, he lived down to his name.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: So he's born into this world, given this tag, given this title, Jacob the Deceiver.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: And man, the rest of his life, until he has this encounter with God, he's a deceiver.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: He deceives his dad, he deceives his brother.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: He ends up getting deceived himself by his father-in-law, his wife becomes a deceiver.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So, like this nature, which was a key takeaway again, you mentioned, man, like, especially in the Bible and really in our own lives, our name is a reflection of our nature.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And he takes on that nature and it, man, disrupts his life.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:37
SPEAKER_02: I just think it's interesting uh when you compare Esau and Jacob, you know, Esau, he's hairy, he's red, like this.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: You just imagine this dude, like, you know, maybe on a Discovery channel or something, just out in the middle of the wilderness.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: And then there's Jacob who's defined as smooth.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:52
SPEAKER_02: And it's like a perfect description of their character as well.
6:56
SPEAKER_02: You know, Jacob, he's a smooth deceiver, he's a smooth, you think about people who are using their words to manipulate.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: And it's and I wrote this down as you were preaching that, you know, Jacob, he's living this life of deception.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: And you look out through his story, and what I think it robs him of is his peace.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: And a deceptive life is the thief of peace.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: Because he's manipulated and with the help of his mom, you know, to lay the top and all these things, but he can't he's constantly knowing, like, man, Esau, he's coming for me.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: I gotta look over my shoulder.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: There's things in my life that I've done, things that I've said where I can't live at peace, even with all of my wives and my kids and my children.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: I I can't live at peace, you know, and I think that's such a reflection of even our own lives.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: When you try to live this life of deception, try to do things where you think no one knows, but the Lord knows, and it's gonna rob you of your peace.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I I just I love how the story of Jacob ends because so many of us may find ourselves in that moment right now where we're looking over our shoulder thinking, man, when's the hammer gonna drop?
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: And thankfully we got a God who meets us right in that moment, like you talked about on Sunday.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: So it's funny, you know, you mentioned that when you when you tell a lie, you have to remember the lie.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then you have to tell another lie to cover that lie.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: But when you tell the truth, you don't have to remember because it's it's the truth.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: And so again, this guy, Jacob, just a quick recap.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: So he lives his life as like that's that's what he's tagged with.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: That's what he and he lives down to it.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: And you know, maybe you're watching this, and I just would ask the question, like, hey, what's what's the name that's been pinned on you?
8:29
SPEAKER_00: What's the title you've been given?
8:30
SPEAKER_00: What's the derogatory term that either you've given yourself because you don't like what's looking back at you in the mirror, or maybe a family member or a parent or a coach or a teacher said something about you and like you carry that shame and that guilt, you're probably not just carrying that internally, you're probably walking that on your life.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: And I just would say this the same way God gives Jacob a new name, every person watching this, God wants to give you not just a new name, but God wants to give you a new nature.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: So the story that we spent time on was in Genesis 32, and it's a crazy story, man.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: I I love the Bible, man.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: It's just you know, he gets in a wrestling match, um, he sends all his family away because he believes Esau's on the way to kill him.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: So he sends his family away.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: And the next moment, in the same verse that he sends his family away, it says, then this man comes up and wrestles with Jacob.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And we find out on the story that the person he's wrestling is actually a physical representation of God, a theophany.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: And um, man, I again I love it when the Lord shows me things and you know gets a share it.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: And I know as a communicator, you love the same thing, but you always hear the story as like Jacob wrestled with God.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's not what happened.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: No.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: And the difference is God was the initiator.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: So even though Jacob lived contrary to God, contrary to the person he should have been, God never gave up on him and met him in that moment and engaged in basically fighting for him and fighting against his old nature.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And so they get in a wrestling match.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: It is WWF or you know, whatever wrestling people watch.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Get ready to run.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you, I I felt I felt like I did pretty good with my um my impersonation of Paul Logan.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: That was gold.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'll never do it again, but it's captured forever.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: I was hoping you'd take your shirt off.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: If I could rip it off, I would have.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so he has this wrestling match, and in the middle of it, he says, um he he refuses to let go.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: And early in the story in the wrestling match, basically God's like, hey, be I'm I'm tapping out on you because you won't tap out on yourself.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm done, I'm done fighting you.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the guy who ever gives up, but if God's, if you're not gonna change and you're not gonna repent and you're not gonna submit, what else can God do?
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Because while God will continue to pursue you with his grace, at some point you have to submit.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And so the angel of the Lord, like the this this physical representation of God's like, hey, day, daybreak's coming, you're not gonna give up, you're not gonna relent, you're not gonna repent.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: So let's move on.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And I love Jacob in this moment.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: He refuses to let go and says I says, I won't let go unless you unless you bless me.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious, what do you think the blessing was he was looking for?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think a lot of times we think material wealth, yeah.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us, so we can really only surmise maybe what was he looking for?
11:14
SPEAKER_00: I think what he was looking for when he said, Hey, will you bless me was he knew his brother Esau was on the way with 400 soldiers.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: He thought there to kill him.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: I think he was saying, God, like bless me, like keep me, protect me.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: I I need you to stay here and basically be my shield, be my be my soldier.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And um I think uh I think everyone should pray that prayer, hey, God bless me.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you pray that, you may not get what you want because God doesn't protect him, God actually touches his hip and dislocates his hip and changes his life because he walks with the lymph the rest of his life.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: So you're not always gonna get what you pray for when you pray to God, but you're gonna get what you need.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I was thinking about this idea of what that even looks like to wrestle with the Lord and times in my life where that's happened.
12:00
SPEAKER_02: And uh I remember being in the middle of a dorm in college, way beyond like the campus.
12:07
SPEAKER_02: You're out there in the middle of nowhere, and like there's this moment where God I could not sleep.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: Like I could not sleep because I knew the life I was living was not what he had for me.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:16
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I I look back and that moment marked me.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: Now, am I limping it right now?
12:21
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not limping, but I can look back to that moment and saying God is is drawing me back in and and calling me back to this reality of following him is always gonna be more satisfying, more peaceful and freeing than anything I could ever pursue on my own.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I I wrote this down, I'd rather limp with God than run with the world.
12:42
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: And you know, there's there's so much I think that the world offers us that we think is gonna satisfy and bless us.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: But when you realize that, man, God, He He's the creator of everything, He is the sustainer of it all.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: And the moment you surrender and say, Lord, I whatever you have for me, I want it, I'm in, I don't want anything else, like whatever it is, and it may be a limp for the rest of your life.
13:07
SPEAKER_02: But I know that when Jacob looks back on his life and he looks at all the decisions, the deception, I can imagine this moment.
13:15
SPEAKER_02: He's actually able, because you go look in chapter 33, what do they do?
13:19
SPEAKER_02: They make peace.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: You know, and that's just an incredible picture of God's sovereignty and his love for his people that he doesn't give up on them.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I would go back to your testimony and mine, and many people who've come to Christ is that you know, you don't maybe maybe walk with a limp, but you do walk different.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's reflected in the New Testament is this idea of us living for Christ, it it's synonymous with our walk.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: We and I gave a bunch of verses like we walk in love, we walk worthy of our calling, we walk in our purpose, we walk worthy of Christ.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: And so, over and over and over again, this idea is if you have an encounter with God, you're gonna walk different.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: For him, it was a physical limp.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: For us, it's a practical life change.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: And so here's how the here's how this key moment happens is asked after he asked for a blessing, the angel of the Lord turns to Jacob.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: God in physical form turns to Jacob and asks this question Hey, what's your name?
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what a crazy question.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: But what he's trying to get Jacob to do is to own who he is.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Because earlier, when he was standing in front of his dad trying to rob his brother of the blessing, his dad's like, Hey, what's your name?
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm Esau.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I find that this idea of he says, Hey, I'm Jacob, it was him owning not his name that he was giving at birth, like, hey, I'm Stephen.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: What he was saying was, You got me.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm a deceiver.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Like he came, he came full vulnerability, submission, humility to, you know, I've been living a life trying to make it happen on my own.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: I've been manipulating situations and circumstances to get what I want.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: It was his way of owning his sin.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: And you can't really experience grace until you first own your sin.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: And so immediately after he confesses, hey, I'm Jacob, I'm the deceiver, I'm the supplanter, that's when the angel of the Lord says, Hey, no more from now on.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna call you Israel.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: He gets a brand new name, which is a brand new nature.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: And all of us can have that moment, but you have to admit, you have to confess, you have to own the dirt of your life and the mess that you're in.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: It just begins with humility.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: And and recognizing where you are.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think so many people in our culture, we we think too highly of ourselves and we think, man, I can just do this on my own.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: I got this, you know, I I'm big and strong, or I've got ideas, I'm smart.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: And um it's it's humility that that leads to confession, and that confession leads to a relationship with Christ, which you you know, you said it's so great.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: Salvation begins with confessing our sin before we confess Christ as our savior.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: And uh you know, to me, man, it's this idea of like we like to edit our identity.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do this a lot, and especially guys, you know, we get in, we start talking about stories, and we're you know, especially when you're older, man, you're just you know, um, you see yourself as cooler than you were, or tougher than you were, or you know, you have to be stories up how successful you were at basketball or golf.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, we feel like, and I think, man, a lot of times we do this with God, we feel like we have to edit our identity.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have to cover up who we are.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And man, we're really doing ourselves harm because, you know, again, God can't really do the work in us until we're honest with ourselves.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And so if someone's giving you a tag, giving you a title, giving you a name that you've carried of shame, guilt, frustration, failure, or you've put it on yourself, you just have to own that.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: But if you'll take that to God, I promise you, He can give you a brand new name, a brand new nature.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: He can change your heart, he can heal your soul, God can put you on a brand new track and he can give you a new walk.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's funny too, because we try to hide things from the Lord and He already knows.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: It's just dumb to think, like, hey, God, you know, I've got all this stuff over here, God can't see it.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: He already knows.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: And so just bring that to him and let him do what only he can in our lives.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: And that's it just starts with true humility.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: You can fool your earthly dad, but you can't fool your heavenly father.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Like he tricked his dad into thinking it was Esau, but yeah, like, no, man, God's like when God asks a question, who you are, who are you?
17:05
SPEAKER_00: He already knows.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: He just wants us to come face to face with the reality of our own lives.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I uh recently just in the past week, I had to travel two times, and I just I'm not a fan of traveling, I'm not a fan of airports, not a fan of luggage.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Like the whole thing is just feels like a wasted day.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: But you know, here's what I want you to think about is when you go into an airport and you throw your luggage up, everybody's pulling a you know, a little roller bag, everybody's dropping luggage off at the main gate.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, every bag looks the same.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not it's you know, what determines the destination isn't the bag, it's the tag.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: And um, so every bag looks the same, but man, it's every bag has a tag on it that tells you what the destination, what city it's gonna end up at.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I think a lot of people maybe feel like, you know, I just I can't get past this, I can't move on, I can't heal.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And you know, um, people that have experienced abuse or abandonment, they carry those titles, but again, God's saying, like, hey, you may feel like you can't get ahead in life or you can't move past this, but when God comes and gives you that new tag, it changes your destination.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: So man, I I think um everybody just needs to see themselves instead of the bag they are or the tag they can have.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
18:18
SPEAKER_02: And it just starts with with Jesus.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I would not be where I am today, you would not be where you are hadn't had it not been for the grace of God and and Jesus changing our name, changing our destination.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: And uh it's not by trying harder, it's not by trying to muster it up in your own manipulation or deception.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if you come to him with true grace, humility, and saying, Lord, I I can't do this on my own.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing and it's a miracle what he does in our lives if we'll just take one step, you know.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: And I love how you ended kind of the the whole message about that walk, right?
18:53
SPEAKER_02: And it's with Christ.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: And I think about what Isaiah says, he he says, I'm gonna soar on wings like eagles, I'm gonna run, not grow weary, but I'm gonna walk and not grow faint, you know.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: And he ends that I think that's so profound because when you think about our life with Christ, we are saved and our place in heaven that's right.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna run this race, it's set before us, but it's by walking one step in front of the other, and it begins with Jesus.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: And um my uh my hardcore uh brothers and sisters in uh Calvinism would not probably agree with me.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, obviously I understand that that that grace and salvation is a is a sovereign work of God.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's really nothing we can do to save ourselves.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: I I acknowledge that, I believe that.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: But um I think there's a picture here that really to me moves us in this conversation.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, again, only God saves us, but I think there is this there's this part of us that we participate in the salvation experience.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: And so again, God never gives up on Jacob, He pursues Jacob, He's the one who initiates the wrestling.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: But again, because Jacob's not willing to to tap out and really at this point own his mess, yeah.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: God's like, fine, if you're not gonna change, daybreak's coming, I'm out of here.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think the key turning point in the story isn't just God showing up to wrestle with Jacob, but Jacob refusing to let go.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: And I made this statement on Sunday that it was it was Jacob's first grab that defined him, and it was the second grab that refined him.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: So the first grab in his life was him becoming the supplanter, grabbing the heel of his brother Esau, but he refused to let go of God.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: And so to me, if it was just God, he would have walked away.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: But Jacob's like, no, man, I'm not I'm not gonna let you go.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: And so I just man would encourage people to know that God is pursuing you, but at the same time, God wants you to pursue him.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God's not doing what you think he should do.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's not operating the way you think he should on the time frame you've set for God.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: But I promise you, God is working all things together for the good of those who love him or called according to his purpose.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: If you love God and you're committed to following, don't let go.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Don't let culture make you tap out on God.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Listen, tap out on yourself before you tap out on God.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: But um, man, this idea of this picture of God grabbing a hold of Jacob and then Jacob grabbing a hold of God, I think is a really great picture of God the initiator of salvation and us, man, refusing to let go of our hope and our salvation.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: And uh I'm just thankful we serve a good God who is with us in the mess.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: So um, Pastor, thank you, you know, for this conversation.
21:23
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if there's anything else you you're looking to cover, but man, it's been so amazing just to hear uh this story and again how you took something so broad, made it so personal for every single person that heard it.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: So well, we're gonna dig in.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't normally give much away, but I'm gonna dig in this coming weekend on Abraham.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: And really, my the message I'm looking forward to is week three.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about Peter, who got the new name, The Rock.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: And so I just would encourage you, man, if you're a part of Faith Church, make sure you're here in the room and be a part of the conversation.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: If you are not, just would invite you to join us online.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: You can find us at iGotofaith.tv and catch the message.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: But if not, at least thanks for joining us for the podcast.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And uh man, trust that God is going to do exactly what he did for Jacob.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: As you surrender to him, he's gonna meet you where you are, heal your heart, restore your soul, and give you a brand new name.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks for joining us, Pastor Matt.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you guys next week for the extra mile.