WEBVTT - The Limp Won’t Make You Late 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.280 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.360 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:10.000 Be sure to. 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.720 Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:15.040 I hope you're blessed today. 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.800 I want to welcome all of our locations. This campus, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:25.240 our Valentine campus is called. 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.640 Our broadcast location. Let's welcome all of our EPAM all 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:30.640 around the world right now, who are joining us? 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:41.760 Hey, everybody today, the Lord gave me a word he 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:42.680 can give it to me today. 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.559 Gave it to me Monday, so I've been sitting with 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.639 it all week, so i can't wait to get to it. 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.360 So I'm not going to do any announcements. So I'm 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.360 just going to get right to it because I'm excited. 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:59.680 We're going to revisit Genesis chapter thirty two, the scripture 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.920 that I shared last week. We're going to jump in 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.920 at verse twenty four. Some things that the Lord has 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.680 been dealing with me about and some things I believe 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.880 he wants to assure you about. This will be a 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.400 word of assurance for somebody today. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:25.000 Genesis chapter thirty two, verse twenty four, The. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.640 Bible says, so Jacob was left alone and a man 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:32.000 wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.200 he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.880 Jacob's hip so that his hip. 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.320 Was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.240 The man said, let me go for his daybreak, but 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.039 Jacob replied, I will not let you. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.000 Go unless you bless me. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.560 And I talked last week about the blessing of letting go, 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.320 that sometimes it's not our strength, but our surrender that 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.160 determines our ability to move forward in life. And specific 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.559 what Jacob was letting go of and this passage wasn't 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.640 the man. It was letting go of a previous version 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:06.240 of himself. 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:10.040 Because watch this. The man asked him, what's your name? Jacob? 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.080 He answered, now, he had pretended to be his brother Esau, 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:15.919 and we'll talk about that in a moment, but now 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.240 he's saying his own name. And when he said his 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.280 own name verse twenty eight, the man said, your name 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.200 will no longer be Jacob. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:25.480 But Israel, because you have. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.839 Struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. Jacob said, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:30.880 please tell me your. 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.519 Name, but he replied, why do you ask my name? 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.800 Then he blessed him there so Jacob called the place 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.919 ten yell, saying it is because I saw God face to. 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.240 Face, and yet my life was spared. 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.079 Last verse, I want to read key verse for today, 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.360 Verse thirty one, Genesis, chapter thirty two. The sun rose 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:57.760 above him as he passed Tenniel, and he was limping 0:02:58.600 --> 0:02:59.560 because of his hip. 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:02.880 The sun rose above. 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:08.400 Him as he passed Tenneoh, and he was limping because 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.919 of his hip. Turn to your neighbor and say, I've 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:23.920 got good news. Tell them the limp won't make you late, and. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.960 That good news. Let's pray. Father. 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.280 I commend your people to you now, and I ask 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:37.160 you to flow through me Holy Spirit, with clarity, supernatural accuracy, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:42.120 and indelible power. Make an imprint on the lives of 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:47.080 your people, a mark that can't be erased. In Jesus' name, Amen, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:49.680 touch your neighbor on your way to your seat, and 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:50.600 tell them I'm not late. 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:00.480 Praise God. 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.840 I think the reason that I'm perennially drawn to this 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.560 text is because it illustrates one of my favorite things 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.960 to teach people from the Bible, and that's the concept 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:18.520 of progressive revelation. And when I say progressive revelation, it's 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.080 not just so I can use big words so that 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.080 you don't get confused at certain points in your life 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:30.839 where you learn something that causes you to have to 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.279 unlearn everything you thought you knew up until that point. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.440 Progressive revelation is the idea that as God is. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.440 Going in the scriptures, we see more and more of 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.160 who He really is, and so you don't get all 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.400 of God just by reading the Book of Genesis. You 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.360 don't get all of God just by reading Genesis, Exis 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.960 of Vidgicus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Pinituke, or those first five 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:56.599 books of the Bible. 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.040 You don't get all of God. By reading all the 0:04:59.080 --> 0:04:59.320 way to. 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.680 The Book of Malachi I'm finishing the Old Testament, or Matthew, Martin, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.880 Luke and John, or all of the Epistles, the letters 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:07.760 that Paul wrote to the Church, or James, or even 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.640 the Book of Revelation. You don't get all of God. 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.640 Even when you finish, if you go all the way 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:18.440 to the Book of Maps in the back, you still 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:24.240 will not have mastered God. This scripture is interesting, isn't it? 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:29.039 Because Jacob asked this angel for his name, and he's like, no, 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.880 not yet, I'm not going to tell you, I'm going 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.200 to make sure you know your name. But God's name 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.719 wasn't revealed until Moses came along, so that would be 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.520 many years later, it would be many centuries later. That's 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.960 what I mean by progressive revelation. Now, it's not like 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:51.320 God got his name when Moses came along. But there 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.120 are things that we know as we go. And so 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.679 when when I tell you today that you're not late 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.800 in life, that may be difficult for you to believe 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:09.520 because of what you thought you knew that you needed 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.960 to do by now, who you thought you needed to 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.160 be at this stage in your life. And the thing 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:23.640 about God's activity is that his revelation is on a schedule, 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:30.599 but this schedule is usually not seen by us. His 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.480 revelation is on schedule, and it's a schedule that you 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:34.919 can't see. 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.360 So write that down as a point today, Revelation is scheduled. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:42.440 Revelation is scheduled. 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.560 Judging by the percentage of people who wrote that down 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.440 when I said write it down, we either need some 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.040 more elevation pins to hand out at the door, or 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:51.800 you'll need it an extra two hours of sleep. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:52.960 I'm not sure which one it was. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.760 It's hard for me to believe that I'm pastoring this 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:00.640 church going into our eighteenth year. 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.960 Yeah. 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.000 Why is so crazy is when I visioned myself starting 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.240 a church, I was sixteen, but I thought I'd start 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.000 the church when I was in my forties. So now 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.680 here I am in my forties and I've been pastoring 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.120 the church for eighteen years. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:21.480 And that's just crazy to me. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.520 And God set the schedule for when he wanted me 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:32.360 to do this. And then Holly, she's very Holly has 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:38.080 an interesting concept of time. Usually she's the one behind 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.560 schedule in certain areas of life. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:43.480 She's doing a lot better with it. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:45.520 There was one time where she was the one who 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:47.440 was early and I was running late. Usually in our 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.480 marriage it's you know that I'm waiting in the car 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.640 and she's running a little late. Very stereotypical male thing 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:54.720 to say in the sermon intro, but it was true 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:55.880 in our marriage, especially. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:56.640 For the first few years. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.320 But in one of our first conversations about this church, 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:02.320 she said, you know, I believe it's time for us 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.000 to go start this church. We were in our twenties, 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:05.960 we had only been married a couple of years, and 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:07.600 she said, I think it's time. I said, it's not time. 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:09.520 We're going to do it later. I'm going to go 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.320 do something else for twenty years and learn everything I 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.040 need to know, and then we'll start the church. And 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.200 so she pointed me to the resources that God had 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.960 given us, and she let me see that in that moment, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.040 although we didn't feel like we had the experience that 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:24.800 we needed, and I didn't feel like that I had 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.320 the knowledge that I needed, that God's calling is more 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:34.760 important than human knowledge. So she was the person who 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:36.959 said to me, I believe it's time for us to. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.120 Go do this, And the. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.760 Stupidity of youth, aided by faith in God, led us 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:46.480 to start a church in our twenties. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:47.600 Praise the Lord. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.640 Now, the thing about that is at the time that 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.520 she made mention of that to me and I talk 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.480 about progressive revelation. There are a lot of mistakes that 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:02.360 I believe I made because I started the church so early, 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.079 that I probably would not have made if I had 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.960 been more mature. When I started the church at age 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.280 twenty seven, there were some things I didn't know yet 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.360 about human nature, and to be honest, some things I 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.719 didn't know about myself, my own deficits, my own psychological 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:24.240 garbage that I probably hadn't dealt with properly. There were 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:25.960 a lot of things that I still had to go 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.920 through to really know who I was. Remember in the 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.200 text that I read you, Jacob not only doesn't know 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.760 who God is fully, but he doesn't know who he 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:38.720 is fully yet either. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:45.240 And he was ninety years old when this happened. 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.880 So tell somebody next to you, there's hope for you yet. 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.120 And one day I was just going through a list. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:57.120 This was recent. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:59.880 I was going through a list of all of the 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.240 dumb things that I did in the foundational stages of 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:07.880 our church that I regret now because looking back, I say, 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.240 that was so dumb that I set it up that way. 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.760 If I hadn't set it up like this, we wouldn't 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:13.480 be dealing with that. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.320 Now I see that this was a bad idea. I 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:17.120 thought it was good. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.400 But now this this thing that was so good thought. 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.600 I thought it was so good when we started, and 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:22.760 this thing that I said. 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.679 And now is just ah. And I'm just beating myself up. 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:28.839 That's my spiritual gift, just to beat the crap out 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.200 of myself. And so I'm doing all this jiu jitsu 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:37.480 on myself making myself feel bad, and again, with wisdom, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:39.679 she steps in and says something that's so simple but 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:44.600 so wise. She's like, why are you punishing yourself for 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:49.600 decisions that you made with revelation that you didn't have 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:50.200 at the time. 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.040 Why are you punishing. 0:10:55.520 --> 0:11:00.559 Yourself over yesterday's mistake with today's revel. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:02.880 The truth of. 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.560 The matter is that at every stage along the way 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.080 of leading this church, I've tried to do what I 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:13.840 thought was right in that season with the resources. 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:13.680 That I had. 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.959 And I can respect that, because even if I. 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.320 Came to see later then I could have done it better. 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.160 I did what was right at the time. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:34.480 I led in the light that I had, with the 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.559 light that I had, with the knowledge. 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:41.320 That I had, with the wisdom that I had. Meager, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.960 though she were, I. 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.600 Led this church the best I could in the light 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.720 that I had. I want to call your attention to 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:55.560 two parts of Genesis, chapter thirty two, Verse thirty one. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.360 One says the sun rose above Jacob as he passed, 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:02.960 and the other says he was limping. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.719 Now, for the rest of this message, I want to 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:06.440 talk about. 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.680 Those two physical elements, but I want to use them 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.840 symbolically for spiritual purposes for what you're going through in 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.920 your life. It says the sun rose that's number one, 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.240 and he limped. So there's two characters at play in 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:29.760 this text. There's the light and the limp. The light 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.800 and the limp. And what I want to make the 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.200 case to you about in your life Jacob's life. My 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:41.439 life today is that the light didn't stop the limp, 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.800 but the limp couldn't stop the light. 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:50.080 They're like preaching that today. 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.319 So here he is Jacob ninety plus years old, getting 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.600 ready to go deal with his brother Esau, who he 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.960 cheated out of a blessing twenty years earlier. 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.920 Jacob has spent twenty years in sort of a layover 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.800 situation at his uncle's house. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.559 His uncle is named Laban. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.880 As it often happens in life, what happened to him 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.480 during the layover was even more important than what happened 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.120 when he got to the destination. It was at Laban's 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.400 house that he met his wife, Leah. It was also 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.319 at Laban's house that he met his second wife, Rachel. 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.600 Turn to your neighbors, say you only get one just 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.320 the Old Testament progressive revelation, and. 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:35.760 So is it truth? 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:37.599 Sometimes the stuff that happens. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.360 While you're trying to get where you're going becomes the 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:43.000 stuff that's the most important, and that while you're on 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.360 the way to where you're going, you stumble over what 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.439 you were actually supposed to do all along. I mean, 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.280 that is absolutely true in my life. 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:52.800 And yet we don't see. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.720 By all the light that there is only the light 0:13:54.800 --> 0:14:00.439 that we have. Right now, somebody is living in the life, 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.480 but only a little bit of light. All night long, 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.360 Jacob has wrestled with a man. He's not sure who 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.240 the man is at first. He's not even really sure 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.240 who the man is when the match is over, but 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.680 he has a little bit of a better picture, a 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:19.000 little bit of a clearer picture, and he's wrestling, grappling, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.960 and in many ways losing in this battle against this 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.840 opponent that he can't see. He is living in the 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.360 light that he has. And as daybreak comes and he 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.680 lets the man go, and he lets go of his 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:39.440 former self to receive his new identity, the light rises 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:40.000 over him. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:41.840 He walks past nile. 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.440 He says, this is the place where I saw God. 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:49.760 The sun is rising and he's limping at the same time. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.800 To me, that is very powerful to describe what it 0:14:54.920 --> 0:15:00.280 is like to walk with God. I remembered this funny story, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:01.960 and Graham probably doesn't remember it, but one of his 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.239 early birthdays, I was out preaching in Oklahoma. 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:06.240 I wanted to be home for his birthday. 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.600 Somebody let us borrow you know what story I'm about 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.040 to tell. Somebody let us borrow their little plane, and 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:12.720 so we were gonna fly back that night so I 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:14.560 could preach at night and then fly back. 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.760 Remember this. We got on the plane. 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:18.920 The plane was very small, so it couldn't get really 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:20.880 above the weather, so we had to circle around all 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:21.480 these storms. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.280 But I wanted to be back by his birthday. He's 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:24.720 finally had four or five at the time. 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:26.960 And we got on that plane and the pilot said, well, 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:28.760 we're going to be able to get you home. It's 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.680 just a matter of win because we're gonna have to 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.560 stop a bunch of times to refuel this plane because 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.400 the plane is very little and they can't hold much fuel, 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:35.960 and we're gonna have to fly around the weather. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:36.800 So we don't know. 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.560 We took a three hour trip from Oklahoma City to Charlotte, 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:47.720 North Carolina, and twelve hours later, at seven am, I 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:49.920 walked in the front door and Graham was just waking 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.000 up on his birthday, and he said, how'd you get 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:53.640 here so quick? 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.760 Because he thought I left that morning. He thought I 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:01.520 left that morning. 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.600 He had no idea that I had been flying all 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:13.280 night to get there what he called quick. People ask 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:19.000 me sometimes how did Elevation Church grow so quick? Sometimes 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.720 people look at your life and they can't understand how 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.600 you are where you are, and they look at you 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.680 and they think it just came natural. But what they 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:34.360 don't see is I thought all night. I thought all 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.080 night to get here. I fought all night and half 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.120 the morning. I thought all night and half the morning. 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.760 And that's before my husband even woke up. That was 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.640 my second fight, and the kids were the third. Getting 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.840 them to get dressed was the third. I thought all 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.120 night to get here. There is a sense in which 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.920 Jacob business passage serves as a model for all of 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.720 us who have been going through things that others don't 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.680 see me showing up looking like we plan to get 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:04.840 there along. 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:07.320 But they don't really know what you. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.760 Went through to get there, do they? They don't really 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.480 know what you went through to show up at the job. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:14.520 Every day last. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.440 Week do they, And you would never tell them that 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.320 because to tell them what you went through to get 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.280 there would make you feel a little vulnerable and insecure 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.120 because you don't think you're supposed to fight because nobody 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.480 else shows you their fight. You only see the fragments 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.439 of their life that shine through a screen light, and 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:36.760 so through the light of the screen, you can't really 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.040 see the struggles that other people deal with. So now 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.560 here you are in your life feeling like, oh, I 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.040 feel like I'm a little behind. Oh I feel like 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.000 I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Who says you're 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.080 not where you're supposed to be, Well, I'm not where 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.679 they are. Well, how do you know where they are really? 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.560 Because you don't know what they dealt with last night. 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.400 You don't know what they were doing last night. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.280 I don't know what's going through their mind right now, 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.240 So why would I compare myself with somebody I can't 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:13.840 see through? And I think it's worse than ever for 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:20.800 our kids, because now I gotta compare myself. 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.520 To the whole world at all times. 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:24.320 When I first. 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.840 Started learning how to play guitar, I just had to 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:28.120 be better than my friends. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:36.719 In Monk's corner who also played guitar. There were three. Now, 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.240 I gotta look at a four year old in Japan 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:44.479 who can play Stairway to Heaven left handed on one string. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:47.119 I suck. 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.360 And just about when you think you're doing pretty good, 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:52.400 here comes somebody. 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.280 Y'all, there is a man in our neighborhood. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.399 I testify God as my witness. I am not lying 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:02.320 that when we walked by. 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:10.240 His house yesterday, yesterday he was putting up his Christmas lights. 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.680 Pray for all the dysfunctional. 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.160 People who are clapping for that, like that's normal. 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:19.520 That's a demon. 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:25.680 That's a childhood trauma that needs therapy. Because it's November 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:30.119 fifth or sixth or something like that. It just got 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:34.840 cold three hours ago, and you're blasting simply having a wonderful. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:38.000 He had music playing in his yard. All the kids 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.320 were out there, nobody was fighting. 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:41.919 I was like, what's wrong with me? 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.959 I don't even know where we keep our Christmas lights. 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.200 Holly's in charge of that. I'm not a man. I'm 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:52.960 not a good man. 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:01.239 With a kid, I start playing sports, I thought, well, 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:02.760 maybe I'll coach their team. 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:04.240 They start playing baseball. 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:10.920 I found out real quick the standards for coaching little 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.760 league baseball have changed since I played little league baseball. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:18.440 Used to be you know, show. 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:24.080 Up, don't be drunk, don't yell at the umph. My 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.320 dad coached my team and he didn't ever play baseball, 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:28.920 didn't know about baseball. He went to the library and 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:30.760 checked out a book. I saw you see him reading 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:35.800 the book how to coach Little League Baseball. Times have changed. 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.240 He bought a rule book. He memorized the rule book. 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.280 He's out there teaching us to play baseball. He was, 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.400 he was, he was well, the team was worse than 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:48.560 he was. It was anyway, the whole season, all he. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.440 Let us do was bunt because we were that bad. 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:57.760 So I'm out there thinking my boys, like, well, maybe 0:20:57.800 --> 0:20:59.560 I could, maybe I could coach the team. Maybe I 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:01.760 could go to the library, go over to the car catalog, 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:03.120 get a little book and learn how to coach. 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:04.640 And maybe that'd be a good memory for the kids. 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:06.000 Man. 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.280 I don't remember if they were seven or five or nine. 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:10.119 I don't remember exactly. 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.560 It's all blurry, but they start talking to me pretty 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.560 much before the boys were in middle school. You got 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:21.680 them on a travel team. Yet I'm like, a, who 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.439 what doing good? I'm doing good to get them out 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.320 there for every practice. Note if you don't have them 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:29.840 on a travel team. This is what the man pulled 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:31.359 me aside and explain. If you don't have him on 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.879 a travel team by age ten, they'll fall behind. They 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.919 won't even be able to make the middle school team. 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.880 I said, wow, looks like you're not making the middle 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:52.400 school team. They learned to wrestle or something. And it's 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.680 nothing bad about travel teams or elite teams or AAU 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:01.280 or any of that. That's all wonderful, except when your 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:05.119 whole life begins to kind of feel like that, where. 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.840 I feel like I'm behind and I don't even know 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.120 how I got behind, But it. 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:20.360 Seems like everybody knows something, has something, sees something, and 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:21.040 can do. 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:22.880 Something that I can't do. 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.399 What I realized about Jacob's life as the sun was 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:33.520 rising and he was limping, is that he was born 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:40.600