Good morning, everybody. You know, it's always very difficult to preach and chapel here because you never know what you're really doing. You know, whether or not you know, are you an example of preaching or are you trying to impress your fellow faculty members or are you trying to minister to people or you know, it's just a very difficult thing to do. I want to let you know that and so when I pray it will be a sincere prayer but let me let you know what I intend to do. What I intend to do is to just take the next few moments to minister one dimension of my life and from the scriptures that I think is important for you to know about. And I want to do that just as your friend and also as a minister of the gospel this morning. So this is not Richard the professor, this is Richard the minister and friend. So let's pray together. Our Jesus, you're good to us and you're kind to us as we just son what moving songs are just son to know you that way to be able to worship you that way is a lovely thing. And now we're coming in a place where we talk about your word and we talk about you ever so much but at the same time it's often just talking about you rather than talking with you. And so we're here now to hear your word to be spoken to you, so to be spoken to by you so that you may be honored and we may be transformed and made into your likeness. Amen. I was about six years old I guess it was and my parents first took me to New York City. My dad was a railroad worker so we got free tickets on the train so we would go to New York City a lot. And I remember one of my earliest childhood memories from New York City was they sneaked me into a television show called to tell the truth. Now some of you are old enough to know to tell the truth. I was so young to get in but they sneaked me in anyway and it's very impressive to a young child to see a TV show made and let me tell you how to tell the truth always happened. There was a high stage and the stage was dark but a spotlight would come on three people one at a time and the announcer would say this to the person as the spotlight came on him he would say what is your name please and the person to say my name is John Jones and to go the second person to say what is your name please and the person to respond my name is John Jones and then the third person light would come on and the announcer would say what is your name please and the third person to say my name is John Jones and then the point of the game show was for the contestants the celebrity contestants to find out who John Jones really was by asking a series of questions. And so what they would try to do is find out things about the person and then they would discover whether or not the person was really John Jones or not. I'm going to read a passage from the Bible to you now where God asked that question what is your name please and the response would have been shocking had you had to give it and but it's quite telling as we see God the celebrity contest are asking questions as we see God the one who's inquiring finding out exactly what is in this name and then again granting a new name so Genesis chapter 32 in verse 22. It's a familiar passage that night Jacob got up and took his two wives and his two maid servants and his 11 sons and crossed the four to the jabic after he had sent them across the stream he also sent over all his possessions so that Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. This phrase Jacob was left alone is a rather poignant phrase in the story of Jacob's life because if you think about it as you know that story Jacob was the last person to ever want to be alone he tended to always be with other people and did it always to sort of hide himself from God in activities involving other people. There were two big times when Jacob was left alone the first one was at Bethel do you remember that the pillar the rock for a pillow and he saw the ladder and all that business the ziggurat and some great things happened to him at that moment and this is another big time when Jacob was left alone when something big is going to happen to him again. Jacob you know was a fellow who was very active and very productive in life he would have made a good presbyterian minister because he knew how to wrestle with people and get the job done and he would have made a good seminary of pardon me student because he would also he knew how to get jobs done unless facet you want a birthright he knew how to get it you want a wife he knew how to get it and he was willing to work forever to get her and he got it got an extra one on the way you know that kind of thing okay so we're talking about somebody who was very successful in everything he's ever done but in all that activity something had happened to Jacob and that was he was a corrupted person seeking in some ways things that were honorable but seeking them in very corrupted ways and what happens here is that the fear of Esau who means about to approach us he tries to come home the fear of what Esau may do to him drives into the point where he is by circumstances beyond his control absolutely alone and he wrestles with some guy the text says a person all night long now we know the story well enough to know that this is some kind of representative of heaven and jealous being something like that where Jacob is dealing with going to have to deal with God and so this statement that Jacob has left alone I think stands as a very striking moment in the story a moment of silence as it were a moment of loneliness a moment of admitting at a moment of dealing with life at its very basic level at its most fundamental and terrifying level and that is this aloneness this aloneness with God when you're not used to being that way and I think that we can certainly say a couple of things here about this we know that God loved Jacob very much despite the kind of person he was he loved him very much from the womb he loved him and chosen to be his own and this tells us something about our Lord and that is that when those who he is chosen and those who he loved him not to volunteer to be alone with him he works out circumstances that make them be alone with him and I do think that that raises a very serious question for you and me as we even contemplate this passage and that is whether or not we're the kinds of people who understand the value of volunteering to be alone or have to learn the hard lesson of being forced to be alone with God now by being alone I don't simply mean you have a nice little quiet time 15 minute quiet time every morning or something like that by the way if you do that you're super spiritual Christian and I admire you greatly for that but that's not what I'm talking about but I'm talking about is face-to-face with ultimate reality face-to-face with the God of heaven and earth and a way that you're stripped down and you have nothing to offer and absolutely nothing to give no way to protest no way to do anything that obscures the reality that you're alone absolutely alone with him it's is an amazing thing how much time we spend working at not being alone even when we even went activity cease what do we do even those precious moments like when you're driving in the car alone what do you do you play the CD you listen to the radio you do practically anything to keep the quiet away when you're at home and there's nobody in the house you know those few moments when that's true the children are there your spouse is not there and you're actually alone in your house you're not to worry about whether you have your clothes on and things like that still what do we do the tendency is well I'll read a book or I'll watch a TV show or I'll listen to the radio or I'll do something in the yard I'll do something I'll be with somebody I'll be preoccupied some way because the fact is we just don't like this idea of having all our possessions away from us all of our preoccupations taken away from us and having to stand alone and dealing with this person now we're going to discover and I think you know already that for Jacob because it was by coercion that he was left alone with God that was not a very delightful experience for him at least not at first it was a very painful experience as he limped away from this and I think there's a limping that often goes with people who are coerced to be in the presence of God but there's great joy and pleasure for those of us who learn that there are those moments and those times when we must find the way to deal face to face with our God rather than obscuring the realities of who we are and who we is by means of activity and by means of relationships you found yourself doing that here I'm sure you have if you haven't you're not taking school very seriously you found yourself obscuring the fact that all you have and all you ever hope to be as we just saying that all of that isn't him and that he's the one who gives all these things to you do you find a being obscured by the activities as good as they are by the family as good as it is by every possibility of doing something good for him watch out if you don't volunteer to be alone he'll just force you to be it will come in some tragedy it will come in a divorce it will become an everybellious child it will come in sickness it will come in some horrific way that you wish you could have avoided volunteer don't be forced to be alone but what did Jacob do when he's alone listen to what it says when the man's verse 24 so Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak wrestle is a wrestling match going on here as you know 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 him and then the man said let me go for it his daybreak but Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me and the man asked him what is your name and he said Jacob then the man said your name will no longer be Jacob this is not a wrestling like the world federation wrestling thing okay that's not what the picture is here this is not a defiant person who wrestles with this man or this heavenly being that's not what's happening here and you get that picture made very plain by the fact that early on the socket of his hip is touched and he's falling he's in great agony he limps away from this he's in great pain this is not this is not Jacob with the angel in a half-nelson or something like that this is Jacob cleaning and you know experiences like that it's it's very much like that first day of kindergarten where there's always that one kid who wraps her arms around mom's legs and wraps the feet around mom's legs and just won't let go you know it takes two or three adults to pull her off so she'll stay there in the room I was the kind of kid who just loved the fact that I was going to kindergarten but there was always that one kid you know that just won't let go and that's what's happened to the Jacob he is he's falling to the ground and this man this angelic being is saying let me go the sun's coming up I don't understand exactly what the problem with the sun coming up was but nevertheless let me go the sun's coming up and I know it sounds a little bit like a vampire movie but I'm going to say there's lots of mysteries in this passage but the fact is the thing that is clear here is that Jacob says I can't do it I can't do it not just that I won't do it not just now that wouldn't be convenient but he was desperate desperate in this situation where he had been left alone with God when he'd been left alone with the representative of heaven and he's absolutely desperate not to let go until he receives something did you hear what it was a blessing he's absolutely terrified at the thought of what he's going to have to face with Esau he knows that life has gotten out of control for him he knows the things ahead of him are so insurmountable that he just dare not face them on his own anymore he dare not use this conniving anymore he dare not seek to do these things in his own power anymore so now that he's been coerced as it were to be alone he now is going to hold on for dear life now if you and I had been in Jacob's position in some angelic creature it said to us let me go we've gone okay I guess that's what us listen to God said so but remember in the Bible often God says don't pray let go so that you will pray all the more and so you'll hold all the more and Jacob knew this and was desperate enough to hold on until he received some kind of blessing now the reality is this when you study religion it's very hard to be religious when you study God is very hard to hold on to God the study of God the study of faith the study of Christ is by his very nature an objectification of God an objectification of Christ an objectification of faith is something that you sit out there and you think about and you reason about and you examine you put it like on the operating table and you and we teach you to do that as we teach you how to parse Hebrew verbs and tell you about text criticism of the new testament we teach you to do this as part of what we're supposed to be doing as we give you these skills but the reality is is that if you constantly get wrapped up in the objectification of your faith you understand that you sometimes just learn how to forget you just simply forget how to hold on for dear life who wants to hold on to a subject for dear life a topic an academic study why was Jacob holding on for dear life because he realized something and it was that he just absolutely could not go forward without what this man had to give and I think that you and I understand that we will never be the kinds of people who cling on to Jesus and hold on to him in prayer and devotion and prayer and meditation we will never be the kinds of people who wrestle with Jesus until we are absolutely convinced that the east of his coming around the corner is just too great for us to deal with ourselves and I don't believe you think that yet I don't believe that you think that the ministries that you're pursuing here with ever so much zeal is too far beyond you I don't think you think it yet I just don't believe it because I'm convinced that if you were really if you were really compelled by that thought that a whole lot more clinging would be going on here and a whole lot less objectification would be going on here I know this is true in my life is when I think I can manage the things that are ahead I don't need Jesus I don't need them all I need is people's money all I need is a little cooperation from somebody just get out of my way I can deal with this when I walk into a classroom and I have to teach I generally don't go Jesus help me okay the times when I go Jesus help me is when I start thinking about my grandchild who's about to be born say let me tell you about me now I'm 45 years old I thought when I turned 40 I was just going to basically I'd raise my child and she's a good Christian girl my kind of thing and I think all right now I'm just going to be able to sort of slide on into heaven sort of retire in this thing it's called clinging to God and lo and behold a year or two later what happens get a day gone grandchild coming and the whole thing starts all over again I'm now worried about whether my granddaughter is going to be a Christian and you know what I realized just like I realized as my own daughter that I can't make her into a Christian and frankly I want to spend eternity with her I hate the thought of thinking that my granddaughter might actually not be with me forever and with Christ forever now see that's I'm desperate about that and so what I find is I cling like crazy to Jesus about that well if you're not desperate about some things in life start looking at life again would you mean do you really think you're going to be okay in the ministry of the professors here can certainly tell you this as we continue to get phone calls from people who did so very well in seminary who are really promising and good students who had everything in the world going for them and when they get a ministry they bite the dust and it's not because it didn't learn their lessons well it's because the unforeseen took place the unimaginable takes place a wife leaves he leaves children rebel churches just devour them alive things that we can't anticipate things we can't control and if you don't realize those things are just out there those well-intending dragons that they're out there just waiting for you to devour you that he's out there like a lion roaring trying to devour you if you don't realize that well then you probably will just continue doing what you're doing that is studying hard working hard making sure you make the right connections talking to the right people you know getting ready for ministry man I'm preparing to do ministry so I have an important question for you when was the last time you were absolutely desperate about something so utterly desperate that you held on to his skirt and just would not let go and Jesus said to you let go of me and you said no way well a wonderful thing happens to Jacob as a result of his wrestling with God he's compelled to be alone and he cleans for dear life and something remarkable happens look again with me at verse 27 the man asked him what is your name see there's the tv show what is your name please and he said Jacob now most of you know the Hebrew word here y'all cove and you know how he got it that means something along the lines of jack the ripoff okay Jacob jack the ripoff it's it's the one who supplants the one who grabs the heel and pulls and remember he got that because he tried to beat his older brother out of the womb and I'll wait a minute he saw get back here okay and didn't work but he continued that process of grabbing after he saw he'll he's the planter the deceiver and he was that way all of his life and so when Jacob says his name Jacob he doesn't say it was great pride I mean can you imagine your mother naming you jack the ripoff and it's sort of a little yeah but nevertheless I'm sure that wasn't his nickname or sure that was just his proper name what is your name please jack the ripoff thank you so he says it with his face down at the ground hesitating to admit who he is but nevertheless at this point he's come to the point but he knows who he is he knows what he's done he knows how much he needs God to rescue him from who he is and from his inadequacies and so he admits my name is Jacob and so God responds to him the man responds in verse 28 your name will no longer be Jacob your name will now be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and you have overcome the name Israel actually is a doxology is ale God wrestles God is victorious in battle but the name here is in a sort of popular way applied to Jacob in a sort of reverse manner it says here that he Jacob is one who wrestles and the remarkable thing about this is not that he wrestles with men I mean I got to do this is read the story you know he does that it's not remarkable that he wrestles with men and overcomes that's that's not surprising at all the the thing that's the shocker here is that he's a God wrestler and he overcomes and he wins this is as close as you can come to Jacob's life to a conversion experience I think I don't know that we can actually identify this as a moment of regeneration and saving faith and all those kinds of things that we get from the New Testament but it's pretty close as he asked me he confesses his sin of being Jacob and then he receives a new name Israel and this of course is the name that is the precious name you don't hear Israel singing great songs about being Jacob what they sing songs about and what they delight in is being Israel now they do use the name Jacob because it's an utter name it's a patriarch but they delight in the name Israel as you go over to Israel what they call themselves is Israelis when you think about the children of Israel the Israel lights it's because this name is a precious name it's an honorable name it's the name that they want to have I mean can you imagine this people in that game show standing up and say what is your name please well my name is Saddam Hussein what is your name please my name is Saddam Hussein by the time you get to the third person I think they're the booze and the tomatoes that would be thrown at them I think the third person say I forgive but my name is but the fact is is that this is a heroic name it's the kind of name he wanted to have as the kind of name that was supposed to be reflective of his character and it's the kind of name that we should want and there you got it I mean if people were to go around asking on the street or maybe in churches out there tell us what's it like at RTS tell us what's it like and if they were to characterize us and I mean people that even haven't been here what would they say they would say well they got to find faculty one of the best faculties in America and that's true
oh they're growing unbelievable how fast that campus has grown down there in Orlando and that's true oh they got a great campus if you've been out there recently you got a great campus biggest building I think in all of Evito isn't it I think I think that's true I think Len tell me yesterday is the largest employee and employer rather in all of Evito at this point okay nice gate all kinds of thing your own traffic light oh man what a school what a school but I have to tell you this I cannot imagine a single person not a single person saying about RTS Orlando well let me tell you what it stands out to me about this place it is that there are a bunch of God wrestlers I just can't imagine that being the case they wouldn't say that about me there are a few individuals here about whom they might say such a thing but the fact is is that we should want a name like that we should want a reputation like that we should want to be the kinds of people and the kinds of seminarians who actually have the reputation of being people who know that there are times to be desperate for things and they cling onto God and they hold on no matter what until he blesses them and let me tell you something of all the things that my granddaughter will know about her grandfather the thing I want my granddaughter to know about me is that your grandfather wrestlers with God why because that's the most important thing I can imagine someone knowing about me so what do you want people to know about you you're a good creature forget it you're a good leader really forget that you got it together a good student never mind let them know let them know that you're a God wrestler by becoming one let's pray together