Conversation - with Pastor Jared about - Surrendering The Past - Altar'd Series

Kingdom Conversations Podcast – Surrendering the Past

In this week’s episode of Kingdom Conversations, Pastor Robby and Pastor Jared dive into the powerful story of Jacob in Genesis 32–33 as part of the Lenten series Altar’d. Through Jacob’s wrestling with God and his long-awaited encounter with Esau, we explore what it truly means to surrender our past to the Lord.

Jacob’s journey reveals a familiar struggle—facing the weight of past decisions, fears, and unresolved relationships. Instead of running, Jacob wrestles… and in that wrestling, God transforms him. What begins as fear becomes faith, and what was once avoidance becomes reconciliation.

Together, Pastor Robby and Pastor Jared unpack how God meets us in our moments of tension, why surrender often requires confrontation rather than escape, and how true transformation happens when we cling to God and refuse to let go.

You’ll also hear practical insight on what it looks like to “wrestle with God” in your own life, along with a real-life question about trusting God in difficult and unexpected seasons.

If you’ve ever struggled with your past or wondered how God can redeem it, this conversation will encourage you to take your next step toward healing, trust, and surrender.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

At Church of the Lakes, our mission is to connect all to Christ, to become healthy in God and courageous in love. In 2026, we're emphasizing a kingdom mindset in all of our ministries and missions by being more like Jesus and countercultural in our living. Today's podcast highlights our Luton sermon series, Altered. As we study the altars found throughout Scripture, we are reminded of our call to surrender to God. In surrender, we create space for him to transform us from the inside out. Join Pastor Jared and Pastor Robbie as they unpack this week's message on surrendering the past to God, who transforms us by grace. Enjoy the podcast and be blessed.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Welcome to another Kingdom Conversation. I'm Pastor Robbie Strock, and today we are heading back into our altar series, Altered. And this time we're going to be studying Genesis 33, looking a little bit backwards from there, also, about an altar created by the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac, the infamous Jacob. It's before this altar we see a messenger of God approach Jacob. And Jacob, maybe for the first time in his life, instead of trying to cut corners and take shortcuts, he clings to this messenger who through his persistence renames him to the once again infamous name, Israel, to celebrate God's healing in his life. Jacob then uh puts up an altar. Well, Pastor Jared, I'm excited to get your thoughts on Jacob's altar, especially since Brian and I delivered the sermons about this subject. But uh, are you ready to give us some insight? How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I'm doing well and I'm looking forward to this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

All right. Well, I'm grateful. This is such a different dynamic. You know, you've prepped a lot of this study for us, and uh I'm excited to hear your specific thoughts on Jacob, Esau, basically everything between Genesis 25 and 33. Um, you know, Jacob has a persistent fear that he comes back to over and over again, and he decides to run away from it in his narrative, in his story. Um, what is it that really stands out to you about Jacob's fear of Esau, about his fear of losing out on the birthright, the blessing? Give me some of your thoughts, Jared, about the Jacob narrative.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I will love to do that. Um, when it comes to uh Jacob's fear of Esau, I think that is a valid fear. Uh I think that Jacob's fear is not irrational, uh, it's a moral fear. And the reason I say that is because uh Jacob has something to be fearful of. You know, you're talking about his story starting in Genesis 25. You know, he is the younger twin of his brother Esau. And just the name Jacob alone, as you and uh Pastor Brian talked about in service, uh, means deceiver or heel grabber. And so he was a uh pest uh in in uh Esau's life since before they were even born. And as the story goes, as they grow up, uh and I would want to commend these chapters to our listener, chapter 25 of Genesis, all the way through chapter 33. But Jacob does things that are very unorthodox. Oh boy, ain't that the truth? Yeah, he's he steals his brother Esau's birthright, which was supposed to be for the first son born in the family, goes on to steal his brother's blessing from his father by deceiving his father and making his blind father think that he was actually Esau when he laid hands on Jacob and blessed him. And so Jacob has this, again, fear that's not irrational because he essentially stole Esau's future as the first child, uh first son born of Isaac. And so uh Jacob isn't just fearful that Esau might hurt him because of what he's done. I think he's fearful because he's afraid he actually deserves to be hurt for what he did to Esau.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Wow. That's what you mean by moral fear, then. It's not just the fear of pain and punishment uh of justice coming from his older twin brother, which I'm sorry. Can we just press the pause button and go down the rabbit hole for a second, Jared? You're a twin. I am a twin. And you're the younger one.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

No, I'm the older twin.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I I think Jason has a different story to tell. I am three minutes older than Jason, and I'd like to tell him that I am his uh eldest brother and that I am more mature uh and that he needs to respect my position over his life.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Now, when he comes here to lead a concert in our sanctuary here in May, I can't wait to play this back in an episode for him so we can get that same uh feeling from you.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I told uh you know our organist dean that when he comes, I want to make sure I can introduce him so I can roast him before he uh offers up this concert. My twin brother's a very accomplished musician. Absolutely. He's got his doctorate in guitar, and he's gonna be an awesome uh recital here coming up in May.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Do you remember the date? It's May, it's the beginning of May, the first Friday or Saturday of May, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

You'll have to put it in the the Yeah, I'll put it in the description of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Yeah, but going back to it, you know, I I I think it's a moral fear. And the reason it's a moral feel, fear, and I think some of us can relate to this moment in the story, is Jacob is someone whose past is now standing in front of him. Oh wow. Okay, yeah. He knows that there should be consequence for what he's done. Yes. And I it's almost like the you know, the proverbial looking over his shoulder his entire life, because it's just a matter of time. When is it gonna happen? When am I gonna finally have to pay the debt that I have incurred against myself? And so that's why I think uh the this fear of Esau is really not irrational, it's a moral fear that he has.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Is that why in our own lives, if we reflect on the Jacob story, we see that the same past sins, the same past decisions, mistakes that we've made, that they tend to catch up to us because of the moral standards of our, not necessarily our world, but uh of our faith, because a lot of times spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, we feel the weight, the baggage, the burden of these past mistakes almost like it's uh um, you know, this baggage we're carrying around the airport with the TSA lines way too long. Way too long, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Can I answer that in two ways? Absolutely. Uh the first thing I want to say is uh because of Jesus and the blood he's shed at the cross, our past mistakes uh uh that that we incurred because of our past mistakes has been paid for.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

And so we need not have a moral fear in that sense that uh the past will soon catch up to me and I'll have to pay a consequence that's um more eternal in nature. No, no, that consequence has been paid for on the cross. When when Jesus shed his blood and we've we you know we we've had allowed that blood, uh the his blood to cleanse us of our unrighteousness, we have uh been bought, paid for, and we are redeemed. And we are uh have a future set before us that is prosperous, that is hope-filled. I say often that if those of us who are in Christ, it is always the best that is yet to come, regardless of our past. Uh now, with that said, in our earthly existence, there is cause and effect. There's natural consequence to poor judgment or bad behavior, and and that's kind of what we're talking about a little bit in the Jacob narrative, because the Jacob narrative uh predates Jesus hundreds of years. So um, you know, Christ has not yet redeemed humanity at the cross uh and and and you know, received that acceptance from the Father in heaven in the empty tomb. So, so he has this moral fear that yet he's gonna be found out, he's gonna be exposed, he's gonna have to suffer consequence for for what he had done to his brother. And you know, getting into Genesis 32, and I think we're going there, sure, where he he wrestles with this mysterious man on the bank of the Japan River. I don't think he's just wrestling with a mysterious man. I think he's wrestling with 20 years of guilt, deception, and fear. And I think that that also is something a lot of us have dealt with in our lives too, in our in our life journey, because of past mistakes. And again, looking ahead of the cross, we don't have to wrestle with the deception, the guilt, and the fear like Jacob did because of Jesus. But uh, but again, um we see this clearly, this wrestling with things like deception, fear, and guilt. I think in three places in Genesis 32, uh, the first place is in verses six and seven when he receives a report that his brother Esau's coming out to meet him with 400 armed men. Yeah, like the scripture tells us in those verses, Jacob is greatly afraid and distressed.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

So much so that he splits up his family. Splits up his family. So that one, if one gets destroyed, the other ones can get away. It's kind of like flanking in the military sense. Yeah, it's you see not only the fear played out in his practical application, but then also in his demeanor. Um, because you can tell he's emotionally shook.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yes, because the in the very next few verses, yes, nine to twelve, Jacob finally, yes, and I use that word with emphasis, finally prays honestly. And this is one of the most humble prayers I think in Jay's uh Jacob's life, where he basically says, God, I am unworthy of all your kindness, but I am gonna hold you to your promises over my life and the life of my family right now. I don't deserve it, but I'm gonna I'm gonna cling to the promise that you made to me so many years before. And then that the third space we see that that clearly I think uh shows you know that Jacob has wrestled with this guilt, fear, and deception for 20 years is the fact that he sends gifts ahead of him to appease Esau. Or what he thinks he needs to do to appease Esau.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Because he's what what he's still trying to do in that moment is manage the outcome. And he's got to get come to grips with the reality that he cannot manage outcomes.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Well, he's trying to tip the scales, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Even with the man, the mysterious figure that he wrestles, he's trying to manage outcomes. Daybreak, what happens? He clings and he says to the man, I will not let you go until you bless me. You know, and and so that's that's kind of the way the story unfolds.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Well, thank you for sharing that because I think that's applicable to the way that we face anxiety today, certainly. But why do you think in the biblical narrative it is so necessary for Jacob to face Esau instead of avoiding him? Let's be real, like Jacob ran away. Um, he got up and he moved out of, of course, uh pressure from his mother, who kind of made him take some of these bad decisions or colluded with him, not made him. Um, but Esau um isn't going anywhere. And Jacob feels the stirring to go back after he, you know, of course, had ex uh overextended his welcome with his uncle Laban. But but why why do you think Jacob had do you think Jacob had to face Esau? Do you think it was necessary? Why do you think it had to work out that way?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

I I think it was very necessary for him to face Esau, if anything, uh, to be healed, to heal the relationship, to heal his own soul. Avoidance delays healing. You know, there's a numer uh there's numerous reasons as to why Jacob did not want to face Esau and why sometimes we don't want to face our our past and that anxiety wells up. Uh I I think in terms of Esau and Jacob dynamics, uh he doesn't want to face Esau for things like, I don't I don't want to have a hard conversation. Well, how many times have we not wanted to have hard conversations and circle back to someone we've hurt, right? Another reason I think is because he didn't probably want to face someone that he hurt. It was there going to be fear of rejection. Uh uh is he gonna have to really own and live with the consequences of past decisions that he made? Uh maybe there was a fear that his past would ultimately define his future moving forward, and also um not wanting to face Esau because he was, again, still trying to manage outcomes in his life story instead of maybe trusting in a God of redemption in that moment. And so I think again it's necessary that he faces Esau to be fully healed. I think there has to be healing in that relationship that couldn't happen unless he came face to face with Esau. If you look at it this way: if Jacob never came face to face with Esau to heal the rift, he never becomes Israel. The family that God had chosen to be the patriarchs of a great nation would never reconcile. The nation would never have moved forward. Jacob always stays Jacob, which is deceiver, schemer, heel grabber. He would not have been Israel, one who's wrestled with God and has prevailed. Like some of the blessings in life can only happen on the other side of hard conversations. And I have found that to be true in my life. You know, people that I've hurt, whether they are family or friends, where I was willing to say, you know what, I need to address this with this person, and not give an I'm sorry but, but to simply say, I'm sorry for this, will you forgive me? Uh I had a friend in college years ago. Um, you know, I dealt with some anger issues uh when I was younger. Uh praise be to God, I've I have found uh healing and and uh triumph over. But in college, I I had this outburst with one of my friends, and uh it was really unwarranted. I was as it was a bad moment. It was a really tough moment for me. And you know, I I don't think it it it it fractured our relationship irreparably. Uh but for years, uh probably 10-15 years later, I I I was still thinking about what I did and how I never actually apologized.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Emphasis on the time frame there. Yeah, 15 years.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yeah, and so I I actually called him up and I said, I I don't even know if you remember this moment, but I have to I have to acknowledge to you that I was wrong, and I I'm seeking your forgiveness. And I honestly I don't think my friend even remembered the moment, but I did. And I think it meant something to him that I was willing to come back all these years later to say, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? And that has to happen in this story uh for the blessing that God had bestowed upon this family to move this family forward. Uh avoidance, I think, at times feels like peace, right? Because hard conversations are tough to have and they feel tumultuous sometimes. So so avoidance may feel like peace, but I think avoidance is actually bondage. And if Jacob really wants freedom from again the uh guilt and the deception and the fear that has been plagued his story for 20 years, he's gotta approach Esau head-on and had that conversation.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Well, the final push, and I called it Jacob's Come to Jesus moment, as he sends his family, all of his belongings, all of his servants across the Jabbok River, he stays alone on the other side for an evening, a night, and maybe perhaps forever. I don't know if it's the final push that was necessary, but God meets him and confronts him in a wrestling match. Yeah. And it's one turn of phrase in the scripture. It's kind of crazy. It's like it says he, Jacob, stayed alone and a messenger wrestled with him through the night. It's like this incredible one sentence that you're like, hey, Kinton, did we skip something here? What happened? But you know, instead of a peaceful encounter, you know, Jacob recognizes God is confronting him and he wrestles with him. Well, Jared, what's going on? This is kind of nuts. This is not uh a traditional way we see God, maybe perhaps in our scriptures, but it's the final push Jacob needs to head back to Esau, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

That's a that's an incredibly great question. One of the reasons why it's a wrestling match, and it's not just a conversation like you and I are having right now, is because I think a wrestling match is a perfect illustration of the spiritual life. When you think about going deeper into the waters with the Lord, what you see like you do in a wrestling match, if our listener can picture two guys on a mat wrestling, it's personal, it's exhausting, it's messy, it's close, it changes you. Like you don't walk away the same. And we know Jacob didn't walk away the same because he got his hip hip socket pulled out, you know, and and he walked with a limp the rest of his life. So God doesn't just want to talk to Jacob like you and I are talking right now. God wants to transform Jacob. Yeah, and the way he's gonna transform Jacob is the way he often transforms us, and that's a wrestling match. It's you know the dark moment, the seasons where we have the dark night of the soul, where we have to really wrestle and struggle with our faith and what we believe and work through uh uh with God some of our stuff, you know. Um fasting like i is a great discipline in the regard is that when you fast, you're wrestling with your body, your spirit's wrestling with your body to to allow the spirit to overcome the flesh. And I think sometimes when we're really serious with God and we and we we we desire something from God, fasting's a way we wrestle with God to for God to give us well and what God desires for us. Maybe it's spiritual discernment or or something else. Um but I think wrestling is a great great evocative illustration for the spiritual life, and that's why it's a wrestling match and not a conversation between God and Israel.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Well, Jared, thank you so much for bringing this up. Man, I'm really passionate about this. Like so many times in the Christian walk of life, we wrestle with scripture, we wrestle in prayer with our Lord, we wrestle in moments of anxiety and moments where we want to be in control, but are trying to allow the spirit to work through us so that God's really in control. Wrestling does not show a lack of faith, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

No, instead, it illustrates to me how important it is to wrestle because it means you're trying to attempt to get deeper into your relationship with Christ. You're trying to be convicted by God to do something maybe that's not easy. And guess what? The only way in life to do hard things is that are in Christ and not alone or separated from Christ. You know, I just am so passionate about that. Uh wrestling with God does not mean you do not have faith.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Where do we get this idea that a vibrant Christian life is uh smooth sailing? Is it is a day at the spa. Like there's nowhere in scripture that talks about No, actually it's quite the opposite. The complete opposite. And Jesus does not bait and switch us. No, he says, Those who choose to follow me, let them deny themselves, pick up a cross, and follow me. You know, it you know, those who seek me must lose their life if they are to find it. You know, it it it's a constant sacrifice and surrender, you know, the whole way through. It's not a day at the spot.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Well, it speaks to the fact of our mission for this year, our ministry priority of really focusing on living countercultural because so often in this world uh we look for the shortcuts.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

We do.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

We look for the infamous staples easy button to press uh to get through. You know, I I it's just like if you pick the narrow path and choose, wrestling does not mean you're off the path. It means sometimes you're going over a hurdle that you're gonna need lifted up by the spirit. You know, you can't crawl under the hurdle, you know, necessarily. But uh yeah, I just like like this scripture from Jacob, it just of Jacob's narrative and his refusal to let go just shows to me and speaks to me about how blessed he really is by God, even though his life is a utter complete mess. Like it is, yeah. Um, what do you think that really reveals? You know, our our sermon series has been focused around surrender, and we tried to focus in on Jacob surrendering his past. And I like the illustration of um, you know, Jacob's name, the meaning deceiver. Somebody else is called the deceiver in our scriptures, too. Uh it's Satan. And it's so far and and it's this, you know, he's transformed from this name to a new name to Israel, the one who struggles with God, and how much that is above. What where do you see surrender in the story of Jacob, Jarrett?

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Well, I, you know, going back to the the mysterious, the wrestling match of the mysterious man, when when when day breaks, the mysterious man's looking to leave, and and Jacob, the scripture says, clings to him. And here's a paradoxical statement. Surrender is not letting go of God, it's refusing to let go of God. Okay. Let me say it one more time. Yeah. Surrender is not letting go of God, it's refusing to let go of God. And I think we see this moment in the Jacob narrative that he's totally surrendering to the Lord and refusing to let go of God. He says, I will not let you go. Because the man's saying, or the mysterious figure is saying, get off me. He said, I will not let you go until you bless me. Synonymous with him basically saying, I am done running, I'm done pretending, I'm done manipulating, I'm done being the old me. I need you, I can't fix this, I won't let go until you change me. And so surrender to me is. It's clinging, not controlling. And in this moment, Jacob's coming to that realization. He's been a person who's always tried to control the outcome. Now he can't control the outsome, so he's just gonna cling. He's gonna cling. So surrender is a you know clinging, not controlling, although we're people who like to control. Or think we can control things, but we really can't.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

That's why we kind of kicked off. I shouldn't say kicked off our series. It was week two, but still it was uh Abraham, yeah. Yeah, Abraham Mariah, yeah. What Jerry, what does it look like for in our lives to practically cling to God? You know, I I think often we understand the idea of wrestling with God, but to persistently cling then, in this day and age, here in Canton, Ohio, what what should our church uh strive to do as we look to cling to God?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Practically, what does that look like? It looks like honest prayer, not polite prayer. What does that mean? Uh when you're struggling and if you feel like God has deserted you, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's it's the prayers of Job. You know, in those those tumultuous seasons, knowing that it's not faithless prayer, it's just honest prayer. It's prayer that's where you're you're you're longing uh to connect with with the God who created you and to hear from him as to why what's happening to you is happening to you. Um one thing I love about honest prayer is that uh again, it's not faithless, it's not rejecting God, it's just the opposite. It's saying, I trust you enough, I I I see you as one who is big enough to actually help me understand.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

And if I don't understand, at least help get me through it. So I think it's honest prayer, I think it's confession. Uh I I think it's against surrendering control like like Jacob did. It's it's sitting in uncomfortable obedience. Sometimes obedience is not a walk in the park.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

No, never.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

You know, and oftentimes we don't you know we we've the blessing comes on the other side of uncomfortable obedience. Like we we want God's blessing. God says you need to do this first to get this blessing. Okay. It's not we want it to be the other way around. God, if you bless me first, I'll then be obedient. No, it doesn't work that way with the Lord. It's obedience and then blessing. Uh it's um maybe it's it's what Jacob did. It's facing what you've been avoiding, asking the hard questions, or circling back to someone who you need to ask forgiveness from. It could be uh letting God change your identity. Uh we live in a culture that kind of celebrates uh victimhood mentality. You know, sometimes we want to be a prisoner of our past. It gives us an excuse. It gives not only an excuse, but also gives us an identity. And sometimes the identity you know is better than what you don't. But we need to do what Jacob did and say, okay, I'm not gonna be a victim of my past anymore. I'm instead gonna let God change my identity into someone else. Like that that maybe can be useful to him in his kingdom, expand the boundaries of his kingdom on earth. Um I I think it's also letting God touch the place of your strength and make you dependent on him. Jacob got his hip socket wrenched out. He had to walk with a limp. You know, that's synonymous with him having to live with a dependence on a power source greater than himself, which was God. Um that's how I would answer that, I think, when it comes to wrestling with God.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Well, Jared, thank you so much for walking us through your thoughts on the Jacob narrative. Once again, uh listeners, I hope you go back and you go through and read just these seven chapters out of Genesis. I I think you begin to understand why I absolutely adore this book of the Bible, because you know, from one story to the other, we have so many truths that are still relevant today.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

It's a very relatable story.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

It is, and it's to be honest with you, uh I see a lot of my own life in Jacob, you know, someone who really has struggled with their past, because you know, I, you know, feel like I've lived two lives. Yeah. Uh and it wasn't until I owned my faith that I truly be able to leave my past mistakes in the past. I'm sure everyone can relate to that story. But Jerry, thank you so much once again for walking us through reconciliation, uh, talking with us about wrestling with God, what that looks like today. Um, but I want to turn as we get ready to end here today to our newest segment, uh, Real Questions, Real Answers. Now, this is a question that kind of ties in uh unexpectedly, but it doesn't have to. Uh, if you'd love to send in a question for Jared to answer, please send it to me at Robert at churchalakes.org. We'd love to put him right on the spot. Now, to be fair, I give Jared a little bit of uh advanced warning of what the question is because we don't want him uh to look too silly in front of a microphone. Uh we do enough of that on Sundays, don't we, Jared? Uh here's our question for this week, and I'd love to hear your thoughts, Jared. Here's our question. How do I better learn to trust God more fully when my life has taken a hard turn in an unexpected direction? So this has to do with trust, Jared. Trusting God, especially in the midst of the storms, as you say, in life. What do you think about that question?

SPEAKER_01 27:29

I think you learn to trust God the same way Jacob did. One of the first things Jacob did uh when it comes to trusting God more fully, was he remembered God's promises. Look, I I I love Genesis 32, verses 9 to 12. Jacob's prayer here. Because what he's doing is he's praying God's promises back to God. I mean, let me got the Bible here. Let me read this to you. And Jacob said or prayed, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good. Then he goes on to the confession, I am not worthy of your kindness, um, or the the deeds of your steadfast love, or of all of your faithfulness that you have shown your servant. For with only my staff I crossed to Jordan, and now I become two camps. Verse 11, please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come back and attack me, the mothers and the mothers of my children. But you said But you said But you said, God, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered by multitude. The first thing Jacob does to learn to trust God more fully is simply to rem to pray God's promises back to him. I think trust grows when we remember what God said, not how we may feel at any given moment. Lean into the truths and promises of Scripture more than how we might feel at a particular moment. Because our feelings deceive us. Our feelings can deceive us. Um yeah, feelings can sometimes be such a great liar. Uh another thing is by bec by coming to the end of your own control. I know we're Americans, we love to think we have a semblance of control in in every situation we find ourselves in. But like Jacob, he finally came to the place of realization I cannot control Esau, I cannot control my future, I cannot fix my past. All I can do is let go and let God. If I can use the Christian cliche there. Um it's it's also I think by clinging to God and not simply by always needing understanding. There's some things we go through in life that we're it, they just they don't make sense, and we're not gonna understand it this side of heaven. Uh but again we have to trust in a faithful God. Uh Jacob didn't get an explanation in Genesis 32 from the mysterious man. What he got was a limp, synonymous with the need to depend on a source greater than him, and he also got a blessing. Well, we got a blessing from God. Uh, many times God doesn't give answers. What God does, he simply gives himself. And the quintessential example of that is when he gave his son Jesus at the cross, who shed his blood to cleanse us of our sin. Um I the last thing I would say too, in terms of uh learning to trust God more fully, is by looking back over seasons of your life and see that God was actually there. Sometimes in in the midst of a difficult or tenuous moment, we can't see the or feel the presence of God. It's not until we look back and be like, wow, actually God was there. And Jacob does that. Genesis 32, verse 30, he says, I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared. Like he looked back and said, Wow, God was there, God was there, God was there, God was there, God was there. I have to acknowledge that God has been faithful to me in my life. And therefore, since he's been faithful in the past, I know he's with me now, and he's gonna lead me into a future that that will be prosperous, that will be filled with hope. Uh sometimes you only realize it was God wrestling with you, not destroying you after the night is over. It's kind of like Satan I'd like to end with. It's just sometimes it's not till after the event is over that you can look back and be like, wow, God actually maybe not cause that, but has the providence and sovereignty to use that for my good and for his glory. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Romans 8.28. It's it's a beautiful uh imagery that Paul writes in Romans, and it really speaks to me as well. But Jared, thank you so much for your time today. You know, um, it was really fun to go over the scriptures with you, brother. I think this is uh really a fruitful endeavor. Every time that we dig in and get to maybe take a little tangent or go down what you know some people might call a rabbit hole in the scriptures, I think people can get a sense of how passionate you are about the scriptures. And let's be honest, if you're not, then what are we doing here? You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So I hope people can follow along once again, go through Genesis 25 through 33 as we get ready to celebrate Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem as Palm Sunday is coming up. Uh, once again, uh, we're gonna be continuing to look at altars in the Old Testament and this week of coming and worship will be no different as we look at the altar of David, and we're gonna be looking in first Chronicles 21 specifically.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Um When's the last time you've been in First Chronicles?

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Oh, Jared, I was gonna make a confession. You beat me to it. You know, after 1st and 2 Kings is 1st and 2nd Chronicles. Correct, yeah. And my problem is is you read the same stories over again, maybe slightly different, or maybe you know, the but it's just and it's like history, like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And like, I'm pretty sure I could hit uh control A delete sometimes on first and second chronicles because I'm so ready to be done with it. Uh but here, yeah. I mean, uh to show you Brian will tell you he hates the book of numbers, yeah. But that's one of my favorite books of the Bible. You know, they speak to different people differently.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

God's word, which is living and acting.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

So you know, but I have a little PTSD when I read First Chronicles and our plans. Uh, but that's okay. Uh, but before I go, uh, and I just want to say, of course, the same as always, a big thank you and a shout out to Betsy, our director of communications, to Len. Thank you so much for working with the crummy audio. Sometimes I give you uh Jared and I have found great encouragement uh in creating this and working together to do this. And thank you so much to my wife, Stephanie, for helping us get this up and running every week. And if you'd want to reach out to Jared or I, please send in an email. That's Robert at churchalakes.org or Jared at churchalakes.org. We'd love to read your questions out on the podcast. We'd love to get more real and more deep on what's going on in your mind and in your life and in your faith. And blessings. Uh once again, you remember we got a lot going on in this season as we head towards Holy Week and as we try to connect all to Christ to become healthy in God and courageous in love. So until next time, God bless.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Thank you for listening to this bonus podcast from Church of the Lakes with Pastor Jared Presett and Pastor Robbie Strapp. If today's message encouraged you and helped you grow as a devoted follower of Christ, we invite you to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can also help others discover this podcast by leaving a five-star rating or review, sharing it with your friends, family, co-workers, and others in your circle of influence. We're also very grateful for your generosity, which helps make messages like this available to more people. If you feel led to give, please check the link in the description. And if you're in the North Kenton, Ohio area, we would love to invite you to join us in person on Sunday and worship together. To learn more about Church of the Lakes, visit churchofthelakes.org or visit the website link in the description. Until next time, stay encouraged and keep walking in faith.