This week’s sermon begins with a simple image: a closed fist.
A closed fist can mean we’re ready for a fight. It can also mean we’re holding tightly to something because we’re afraid to let go. As we explored the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25:19–34, that image became a way of thinking about the fears that shape our own lives.
It’s easy to assume there isn’t enough—enough security, enough opportunity, enough blessing. When we live from that assumption, we often find ourselves trying to protect, control, or grasp for what we think might slip away.
God was already at work long before Jacob or Esau had done anything to deserve or earn God’s favor. Much of our own spiritual life begins the same way. Before we fully understand what God is doing, God is already moving toward us in grace.
Near the heart of the message is this thought:
“Jacob’s problem wasn’t that he wanted the blessing. It was that he couldn’t imagine receiving it except by taking hold of it himself.”
Perhaps we’ve all found ourselves there at one time or another.
We don’t pretend that life is easy or that scarcity is never real. Rather, the gospel shows us that fear doesn’t have to have the final word. As we said in the sermon, “The opposite of scarcity is not abundance, but trust.”
As you listen this week, I hope you’ll take a moment to ask yourself the same questions we asked together in worship: Where am I living with closed fists? What am I trying to force? What might it look like to trust God enough to open my hands?
We’d love to see you in person at Lincoln Park-Lynnwood United Methodist Church, 3120 Pershing Street, Knoxville, TN. Come as you are. We’re not in the judging business. We’re in the welcoming business.
You know someone who needs to hear this message.
Make sure you don’t miss a message.
