Wrestle Until You Win // Dharius Daniels

[Applause] Church home so good to be with you tonight in one of the greatest cities in the entire world with some of the greatest people in the entire world my high honor to be here tonight I have such just major admiration and respect love for my friend pastor Judah Smith he is an incredible human being and in my opinion one of the greatest communicators on the planet so I'm sorry you're stuck with me tonight but it's it's really really really good to be here with you and to share some things that are that are on my heart so there's a passage of Scripture I want to read and I want to use it kind of as a launching pad to leap into our time together tonight it's found in the book of Genesis chapter number 32 it's part of a story about a very influential biblical character named Jacob and so in chapter 32 verse 24 we pick up a very significant part of his life that I want to use as a teaching tool for us tonight it says in verse 24 so Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak when the man saw that he could not overpower him he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man then the man said let me go for it's daybreak but Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me the man accident what's your name Jacob he answered then the man said your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome I want to stop reading there and I want to talk from this topic in our time together tonight wrestling until you win wrestling until you win I was reared and raised in a small town called kill Michael Mississippi history suggests well town history suggests that the town got its name from a cow that broke free named Michael that was terrorizing the city causing people who were present to consistently communicate we need to kill Michael I don't know that's true but that's what I heard last census the population was 830 people I grew up we had one full-time police officer one doctor zero traffic lights my high school graduating class was 33 people and as you would imagine being reared and raised in a small town like that there were not many options as it relates to extracurricular activity so one of the activities we frequently engaged in was watching TV in every Saturday at 11 o'clock I was seated in the same specific space to make sure I got to watch wrestling I'm talking about vintage wrestling old-school wrestling it looks like it's real wrestling Ted DiBiase wrestling Ric Flair wrestler the Ultimate Warrior wrestling if you smell what The Rock is cooking wrestling and we were obsessed with wrestling we experiment it on each other with wrestling moves we made wrestling championship belts out of cardboard we loved wrestling but I never imagined I would grow up and become a wrestler and you may be thinking you're a wrestler yes I am a pastor but I'm a wrestler I don't have a stage name but I'm a wrestler I don't have theme music but I'm a wrestler and the truth of the matter is so are you our matches might not be in public our matches are in private but everyone who is seated in this space everyone no matter what stage and season of life we are in everyone is a wrestler we all to some degree are wrestling with something and I just want to encourage you tonight and to remind some and inform others that you don't have to wrestle alone that there is a partner who's on the outside of the Ring reaching his hand over into your situation waiting and wishing for you to tag him in so he can jump in the ring and help you his name is Jesus and he does not want us to wrestle and there may be a number of different areas we are wrestling in and a number of different areas we are wrestling with everyone is wrestling with something for someone it may be insecurity for someone else it may be anxiety for someone else it may be hypersensitivity for someone else it may be workaholism we are all wrestling with something and we are wrestling with different things but in our time together tonight and want to talk about something that many if not most people in our current cultural context finds themselves wrestling with and that is many are wrestling with rejection rejection is a universal universal ubiquitous unavoidable reality for all of us everyone has been and everyone will be rejected rejection is a refusal of others to accept you for who you are or for who you are not and everyone in some form has and will experience this if we've been broken up with that's rejection if we applied for a scholarship and did not receive it that's rejection if we apply for a role and did not get it that's rejection if we attempted to get a promotion and did not receive it that is rejection each and every one of us has experienced it and will experienced it if the most influential person in human history Jesus experienced rejection it is illogical of us to expect to live life without experiencing it of so Bible says that the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone and if rejection is not properly tended to and addressed it can become an emotional weapon of mass destruction the word rejection has Latin roots in a word that means to throw backwards and if rejection is not managed in a healthy way that is exactly what rejection will do for you and to you and I it can throw us backwards and it does so because rejection is a wound to the soul and soul wounds are different types of wounds because the bleeding is invisible its internal bleeding we can be bleeding and not know it and when this is not recognized its underestimated and this is exactly what transpire with a group of people that God used a man by the name of Jeremiah to speak to because this people group was under estimating the importance of the wounds in their soul and so God uses a man by the name of Jeremiah to speak to this people group and to talk about the importance of not under estimating a wounded soul and he says these words they dress the wounds of my people as though they were not serious peace peace they say when there is no peace God is saying to this people group through Jeremiah that you are putting band-aids on something that needs stitches this is serious it's serious because I think we all are aware of what can potentially happen to wounds that don't get tended to properly they can become infected and it's not always the wound that is dangerous but when the wound is not dangerous the infection can be dangerous and ladies and gentlemen rejection produces infections rejection produces infections and infections that come from rejections don't show up in the form of pain it doesn't always hurt but infections that come from rejections often show up in the form of personality traits they are postures that we adopt identity issues that we develop what if I told you that some people's timidity isn't their identity that's an infection what if I told you that some callousness and some hard heartedness and some indifference and some apathy is not an identity what if I told you that's an infection what if I told you that people-pleasing tendencies an approval addiction is not identity but that's infection could it be that is absolutely inconsistent with who God has called us to be who God made us to be and who God intends for us to be and I want to encourage someone tonight and I want to let you know that your history does not have to be your destiny where you have been does not determine where you're going and has happened to you does not determine what can happen for you that God wants to introduce you and me to a you and me we hadn't met yet there's a you you have met yet a stronger you a focus you a wiser you a you that steps into the reality of God's ves for your life a you that taps into your potential because God did not give us anything that God intends for us to waste he gave us potential because he wants us to use it our potential is necessary for our purpose and our purpose is always an answer to a problem so when we don't reach our potential we don't fulfill our purpose when we don't fulfill our purpose we leave some problems in the earth that God created for us to address [Applause] but that becomes in unlikely and in some instances impossible when we don't wrestle to win [Music] anyone know what it feels like to wrestle because wrestling is unpredictable wrestling is an activity of momentum there are times where you may feel well a wrestler may feel as if he or she is in control and they are on top of things and they and things are as they should be and then there are times where they feel like they are losing momentum and instead of being on top of things things are on top of them but we got to wrestle to win and there is an example in Genesis that I believe you and I can learn from tonight there is a wrestler in the scriptures I know you didn't know that but wrestling is in the Bible and there is a wrestler in the scriptures and it is an individual by the name of Jacob Jacob's story is a story that is inundated it is replete it is it is filled with rejection Jacob grows up in a home where his father blatantly shows favoritism toward his brother he grew up blatantly rejected by his father not only was he rejected by his father he grew up rejected by his brother he he dealt with some friendly fire and I want to tell you our rejection even created equal there are some voices that we value more than others and there are some opinions that matter to us more than others and Jacobs experience dealing with rejection in his own home was unique it was different and it impacted him in the unique way it caused him to act out in ways that was unhealthy it caused a strain in his relationship not only with his father but with his brother he had to leave home prematurely lives his life gives birth to his children his parents are not there to be a part of it he gets married his father and mother are not there to witness it he has career success his family is not there to congratulate him or to celebrate him he is grown he is successful but he is still dealing with the residue of rejection the Bible says that he makes a decision he's going to attempt to reconcile with his brother and as he does so he begins the journey toward meeting his brother whose name is Esau he doesn't know how this exchange is going to be if it's going to be contentious if it's going to get physical so he makes sure that he sends his family away and we picked it up right here in verse 24 where the Bible says and Jacob was left alone and he wrestled and Jacob was left alone and he wrestled and Jacob was left alone and he wrestled all isolation hidden evil there are times where God uses isolation for our transformation there are times where God uses isolation as an opportunity for us to do soul-searching that we could not do when we are caught up in the rhythm and in the noise of life all isolation isn't evil some isolation is orchestrated by God to produce transformation in our lives he's left alone and the Bible says this in verse 24 and he wrestled with a man until daybreak and he wrestled with the man until daybreak that's verse 24 but when we get to verses 27 through verse 29 the Bible says Jacob engages the man he's wrestling with and the man tells him I'm getting ready to change your name because you have wrestled with humans and with God and you have overcome so in verse 24 Jacob thinks he's wrestling with a man in verse 28 Jacob sees he's wrestling with God in verse 24 he thinks is one thing in verse 28 he sees this God because there are some things we are calling one thing in verse 24 that we will be calling God in verse 28 did you hear what I just said there are some things in our life that we will be calling pain in verse 24 but if you can live to verse 28 you will call it purpose there are some things that we're calling burdens in verse 24 but if you can live to verse 28 you'll be calling it blessing and I just want to ask a question I want us to pause for the cause and reflect back over our life because I believe if we do so we can all come to the conclusion that there were things we were calling one thing in one season and we're looking back on that and we're calling it a blessing in disguise in another season he he called it a man in verse 24 but it's God in verse 28 because God doesn't always show up looking like God sometimes I feel like God shows up opening doors I want to tell you God also shows up closing them [Applause] that the same God that is good when doors are open is the same God that is good when doors are closed it's the God who loves us enough and who is so vested in our welfare and well-being that that God refuses to allow us to make a wrong choice that is going to be catastrophic to our life so that God removes options from us by closing doors and because we are convinced that God's goodness extends to open doors and closed doors we should show gratitude and gratefulness when door is open but we should also show gratitude and gratefulness when doors close because God doesn't always show up looking like God but notice this verse 28 text says you have wrestled with God and humans and have overcome no one else was no other human was there but Jacob could it be this is a metaphor for something if no other human was there but Jacob and verse 28 records Jacob here in these words you have wrestled with men and with God and overcome could it be that the person Jacob was wrestling with was himself could it be the wrestling with God and man is the wrestling that all of us have to do the wrestling match the tension that exists between who we used to be and who we can be the old us and the new us the God that's trying to pull us into our future and the self-sabotaging part of us that tries to keep us in our past [Applause] what's interesting is in the middle of this wrestling the one that Jacob is wrestling with says these words let me go and Jacob said I will not let you go until you bless me in other words I will wrestle until I win they wrestled all night the Bible says that they wrestled for hours they didn't stop wrestling until daybreak but Jacob made up in his mind I will not stop wrestling until I win all throughout the night I'm sure there were shifts in momentum it seemed like Jacob had an advantage and then it may have seemed like Jacob was losing but no matter which way the battle went no matter how the tires shifted Jacob made a decision I will not let you go until you bless me I will not stop wrestling until I become the best version of myself I will not stop trying until I get on top of that which is on top of me I will not give stop putting forth my best effort until I become my best self and I believe that's a lesson that we can learn from Jacob because there are times we all suffer with faith fatigue and we want to give up on us but may we adopt the spirit and the attitude of Jacob that says I will not quit give up bow down give in until you bless me what's interesting is not just what Jacob said but when he said it he said it at a point in his life where he has married he's married he has children he's experienced career success yet he still says I won't let you go until you bless me which means his request was not to receive something his request was to become someone [Applause] because he had achieved enough obtained enough accomplished enough to know that there's no such thing as enough that there was still a wound in his soul that his accomplishments could not heal there was an emptiness in his heart that his achievement could not heal there was a place that was wounded in him so deep that nothing he had acquired or obtained could reach and he says I don't let you go until you bless me I will wrestle until I win that some of the experiences I've had that Jacob had in life rejection shaped him into a version of himself that was less than God's best and Jacob makes a decision to wrestle with himself and with God so that he doesn't allow his history to determine his destiny and there are a few things that I think it's important for us to understand if we're going to have Jacobs experience and overcome and one of the things I remember about wrestling is that the wrestler always had an advantage when he knew the enemy's moves and I think there's something three things that we need to understand about this area of rejection so that we can win and overcome just like Jacob won and overcome I want to give them to you really quickly here it is number one it's important to understand rejection can be a result of people's vision not your value what if I told you that the issue is not always you and I sometimes the issue is other people's eyes what if I told you that there's nothing wrong with your value that you have been created in the image of God a God who loved you so much that he committed to do whatever needed to be done to make sure that there was no barrier or impediment between our relationship with him a God who who who David says has fearfully and wonderfully made you and I what if I told you there's nothing wrong with your value but sometimes there's something wrong with people's vision and just because people can't see value doesn't mean it's not there it may not be anything wrong there's nothing wrong with your value something may be wrong with their vision I don't know when it comes to something people didn't make people can't assign value they can only recognize it and when we give people the ability to assign value to us we have given over to them power and authority and responsibility that can only come from God because the one who created us is the one who knows what's in us and what we are capable of and what we are called to and what we are built for and what we are purposed for if God says it that settles it number one rejection can be a result of people's vision not your value number two rejection can be a result of people's issues not yours Jesus is having a conversation in one of the Gospels with some religious leaders and he says to them he says listen he says you're trying to make assessments about the state of people without making an assessment of yourself so he says to them he uses a metaphor and he says what I want you to do is says I want you to take the plank out of your eye and when you take the plank out of your eye you'll be able to clearly see the splinter in someone else's there are times when people are rejecting us because of their plank not our splinter sometimes it's their insecurities not our accomplished not our accomplishments sometimes it's their issue not our identity and last but not least I'm closing here number three rejection is God's direction [Applause] [Music] rejection is not always rejection rejection is God's direction for most of my life I was preparing to be a lawyer go from wrestler to lawyer to passes like do figure out what you're going to be and so I wrestled got down to my senior year literally my senior year college and I decided to make a decision to to follow what I felt like I was supposed to do with my life and that was to use my life to serve people by serving the church so I gave up my dream gave up my desire my passion gave up what I thought was going to bring me the most fulfillment so I'll make a decision what path I'm gonna take what grad school I'm gonna go to I was only going to apply to that particular grad school one of my professors mandated that I apply to two other ones and Here I am just sure that I'm going to this school and you know I'm at that at that point I'm younger in the faith I'm super xilians I'm excited I'm telling people this is the school I'm going to I hadn't even got in but this is the school I'm going to and I'm getting ready to do this you know you get excited you say stuff and then it don't happen you wish you had said it it's like don't ask me about that so I'm sharing my dreams that I mean I'll never forget this I walk into my apartment from basketball practice my roommate is there Kenny Lee he knows where I'm supposed to be going to school I never got rejected from any school always good grades and I walk into my apartment Kenny's sitting on the chair with the envelope from the school I dropped my bag there were steps that went down to the living room in my apartment I don't even go down the steps I stand right on that last step and I opened that letter because I gave up this law school and so when I made that sacrifice I didn't know I had an attitude of entitlement I felt like God owed me there's my life right I mean God you exist for me right I don't exist for you I mean I know what's gonna make me happy God so I need you to help me cuz I got this figured out and I remember opening that letter and to this day I never read the whole letter because I remember the first lines we regret to inform you everything else was a blur I tore it up didn't even say a word to my roommate now I'm lost I gave up Law School I didn't take the LSAT I can't do that now the school I wanted to go to I I can't get into that now god I'm trying to do what I think you want me to do I'm confused rejection but remember my professor made me apply to two other schools so the other school came in and they accepted me but I couldn't afford they only gave me a partial scholarship so I couldn't afford the rest and then a week later the only option that I had was the school in the Northeast that I went to Princeton [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and up first time I ever went to New Jersey was with my in-laws were moving me in to seminary there when I tell you the Domino effects of that decision when I say it changed my whole life when I tell you I would not be here if I had not got that rejection letter now I called it unfair then I call it God now and your issue may not be a letter in the mail your issue may not be a school of your choice but your issue may be something that you feel like you're being denied that you need I want you to know rejection is God's direction it is his way of saying not here over there and if we will trust God's path to order our steps God has a way of putting us in the right place at the right time doing the right thing with the right people because rejection is God's direction and so with tears in our eyes with heartache in our heart we square our shoulders and you wrestle until you win because in the words of that old scripture weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning if you can make it through the night morning is coming for you somebody take a moment and receive that in this place wrestle until you win it's a fixed fight and you will win if you don't quit god I thank you that you heal our broken hearts and so I pray today for the brokenhearted those whose hearts are wounded by rejection I pray that you touch them that you would encourage them but urea and with faith and give them the strength to run on to see what the end will be God give us grace to wrestle until we win it's in Jesus's name that we pray amen hey everybody thank you so much for watching our YouTube channel to be honest it really means a lot it's kind of overwhelming to consider that you take time out of your life to listen to us tell the story of Jesus if you haven't already you can subscribe right here to the channel and get more of God's incredible love for you and his story of grace again I can't say it enough thank you so much for watching and hopefully we can do this again real soon

Channel: Churchome

Views: 177,214

Rating: 4.9067249 out of 5

Keywords: Churchome, Judah, Judah smith, church, message, anxiety, depression, how to, elevation, Steven, Hillsong, oceans, sermon, the city church, church home, Chelsea smith, bobby Houston, td jakes, pastor, pastor preaching, carl lentz, Jesus, conference, guest speaker, sermon jam, worship, Justin Bieber, la Hillsong, Selena, preaching, Judah message, performance

Id: 7HLLRgC7zTY

Length: 43min 14sec (2594 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 05 2019