Speaker 1: Hello Evams, especially our West Coast family. We have an
Speaker 1: announcement for you, Elevation Nights twenty twenty two West Coast.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? October twenty fifth through November third,
Speaker 1: We're coming your way so exciting. You can get your
Speaker 1: tickets right now at Elevation Nights dot Com. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be me Holly, Elevation Worship. It's gonna be amazing, unbelievable
Speaker 1: these nights. Don't want to miss So if you're in Glendale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Sacramento, California, Eugene, Oregon, Seattle, Oakland, California, San
Speaker 1: Diego and La or anywhere near those areas, we want
Speaker 1: to see you. Elevation Nights dot com. Don't miss it.
Speaker 1: Elevation Nights dot com. Get your tickets Elevation Nights dot Com.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the message the Lord. Let me the
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter thirty two for our lesson today. I want
Speaker 1: you to find that on your phone and your Bible
Speaker 1: or look on the screen. I want you to see
Speaker 1: this with your own eyes. I've been reading through the
Speaker 1: Book of Genesis with Elijah and Kelsey and it's been
Speaker 1: so fun. We're going real slow we figured out if
Speaker 1: we read the Bible this slow, it'd take us four
Speaker 1: years to get through it. So we're cool with it
Speaker 1: because every day we're looking for a lesson. And when
Speaker 1: we came to this passage, I knew I would preach
Speaker 1: it soon because he grabbed me in a new way.
Speaker 1: Been years since I've preached about this passage. And we're
Speaker 1: going to see this Bible character, Jacob in a wrestling match,
Speaker 1: and I reckon, this is my reaction to reflect got
Speaker 1: around all those women, and I'm want to preach a
Speaker 1: wrestling message or something like that. And I was watching
Speaker 1: Jordan Burrows when that seventh Championship the other day. That
Speaker 1: was cool. Did you see that? You didn't see it?
Speaker 1: It was cool. Look at Genesis chapter thirty two one.
Speaker 1: Let me reado kind of from this this transitional verse.
Speaker 1: So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he
Speaker 1: himself spent the night in the camp. That night, Jacob
Speaker 1: got up and took his two wives, his two female servants,
Speaker 1: and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabakh.
Speaker 1: You see, they're kind of how the ford that he
Speaker 1: has to cross kind of sounds like his own name
Speaker 1: and it's a picture that what he's going through externally
Speaker 1: is really secondary to what he's going through internally. And
Speaker 1: so when we focus on situations that we've got to
Speaker 1: get through, sometimes we miss the point. Because God uses
Speaker 1: situations to deal with issues in you. And if all
Speaker 1: you want God to do is get you through the situation,
Speaker 1: you'll miss the main thing that God wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and then you'll recreate the situation that you get through
Speaker 1: because you didn't deal with the issue that caused it
Speaker 1: in the first place. That's what's happening in thirty two.
Speaker 1: And I know that because Jacob is about to have
Speaker 1: a wrestling match, which is the same thing he was
Speaker 1: doing in his mother's womb. His mother, Rebecca, when she
Speaker 1: found out she was pregnant with twins, she knew it
Speaker 1: because she felt them fighting inside of her. And so
Speaker 1: these two boys, Jacob and Esau are we're going to
Speaker 1: see both of them in this passage, mainly Jacob, but
Speaker 1: they had been fighting each other now for ninety seven years.
Speaker 1: Ninety seven years, that's how old they are during this
Speaker 1: wrestling match. So but it's not Jacob and Esau here.
Speaker 1: You would think that Jacob is getting ready to meet
Speaker 1: up with his brother Esau, because he's trying to get
Speaker 1: back home. But watch what happens as he's preparing to
Speaker 1: meet with Esau. It says in in verse twenty three,
Speaker 1: after he had sent them all of his sons and
Speaker 1: servants and wives, after he had sent them across the stream,
Speaker 1: Rachel and Leah and all the different things that he
Speaker 1: had ready to make peace with Esau, he sent over
Speaker 1: all his possessions. So Jacob verse twenty four, Jacob was
Speaker 1: left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
Speaker 1: And when the man saw that he could not overpower him,
Speaker 1: he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his
Speaker 1: hip was wrenched. Now, I got to say, it's a miracle.
Speaker 1: He got to age ninety seven, and this is the
Speaker 1: first hip trouble that he had to begin with. But
Speaker 1: it took him this long, so he really did pretty good.
Speaker 1: But his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Speaker 1: He still don't know who the man is yet. Probably
Speaker 1: at this point he might think it's one of these
Speaker 1: river devils that they believed in in the Transjordan. They
Speaker 1: thought that when you're crossing a body of water, there
Speaker 1: were spirits that would come up and fight you. So
Speaker 1: he probably thinks he's wrestling one of these devils. And
Speaker 1: he's in the middle of wrestling his hip goes out
Speaker 1: of socket. And then the man said, verse twenty six,
Speaker 1: let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied,
Speaker 1: I will not let you go unless you bless me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna grab you with these arthritic hands and hold
Speaker 1: on to you. I'm white knuckling this thing. You are
Speaker 1: not going till you bless me. And the man asked him,
Speaker 1: what's your name? Jacob? He answered. Then the man said,
Speaker 1: your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because
Speaker 1: you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.
Speaker 1: And Jacob said, please tell me your name. But he replied,
Speaker 1: why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him.
Speaker 1: There So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying it is
Speaker 1: because I saw God face to face Pineo means face
Speaker 1: of God. I saw God face to face, and yet
Speaker 1: my life was spared. Somebody shout I survived. I survived.
Speaker 1: The sun rose above him as he passed Pinnel, and
Speaker 1: he was limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day,
Speaker 1: the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the
Speaker 1: socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip
Speaker 1: was touched near the tendon. And Jacob looked up and
Speaker 1: there was Esau coming with his four hundred men, so
Speaker 1: he got nervous, divided the children among Leah, Rachel, her
Speaker 1: there are two female servants, and put the female servants
Speaker 1: and their children in front, Leah and her children next,
Speaker 1: and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. He himself went
Speaker 1: on ahead, bowed down to the ground seven times as
Speaker 1: he approached his brother. Because Esaul was a skilled hunter
Speaker 1: and Jacob was a skilled cook, and that's how Jacob
Speaker 1: got him to eat his beans and trade his birthright,
Speaker 1: and that's why he Sau got so mad he wanted
Speaker 1: to kill him. So when he's a skilled hunter and
Speaker 1: you're a skilled cook, you bow down and say, man,
Speaker 1: can we just get this worked out through our words?
Speaker 1: There's really no need for us to fight. But Esau
Speaker 1: ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Wasn't expecting that.
Speaker 1: He threw his arms around it neck and kissed him
Speaker 1: and they wept. Wow, isn't that crazy? What he was
Speaker 1: staying up all night worried about God had already worked
Speaker 1: out when he got there. How many things in your
Speaker 1: life have been like that? When you actually did it,
Speaker 1: it wasn't as bad as you thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be. But the verse I want to preach from
Speaker 1: is very simple. Is in verse twenty nine. It says,
Speaker 1: then he blessed him there. That's what I wan I
Speaker 1: preach to you about today. And the title of this
Speaker 1: message is trusting through the tearing. Trusting through the tearing,
Speaker 1: or if you want to stay in the flow of
Speaker 1: what I've been preaching the last few weeks about God's
Speaker 1: got your back, you could turn to your neighbor and
Speaker 1: tell them God's got you in between, in between, in between,
Speaker 1: tell somebody else God's got you in between. You may
Speaker 1: be seated. What an amazing story, What an epics story
Speaker 1: in that incredible Bible story. Let's put our hands together
Speaker 1: for the Bible. That's amazing. You are leaving already, I'm
Speaker 1: just starting, all right, see it? Well, I guess they
Speaker 1: got the most important part. They got the scripture. I
Speaker 1: honestly didn't want to bring this up because it sounds
Speaker 1: so superficial and the text that I read was so deep.
Speaker 1: But it was so hard for me to figure out
Speaker 1: what to wear to preach today because somebody gave me
Speaker 1: this a couple of years ago, and I saw it
Speaker 1: the other day. I was like, I never wore that.
Speaker 1: I like it. I want to wear it this week.
Speaker 1: But in the South, seasons are tricky, and we're always
Speaker 1: talking in our family, what's your favorite season? Graham says
Speaker 1: that spring is off brand fall. That's his theory. Holly
Speaker 1: and I love fall because when we go on our walks,
Speaker 1: we're so boring in a way, but we love it.
Speaker 1: We embrace it. One of our favorite things to do
Speaker 1: is just crunch leaves and see who can crunch the
Speaker 1: lead the loudest, and we're like, we have crunch of
Speaker 1: the day competitions when we go on our walks. It's
Speaker 1: very simple. It's a cheap date, by the way you
Speaker 1: want to use it, and we'll do that. We walked
Speaker 1: out the other day, Holly was all bundle up in
Speaker 1: a hoodie and I'm laughing. I'm in a tank top
Speaker 1: because I know our driveway is kind of long. So
Speaker 1: when we were in the shade of our driveway, she thought, oh,
Speaker 1: it's fall because football is on, so it's fall. Soon
Speaker 1: as we got out of the shade, she's peeling that
Speaker 1: hoodie off and we look at each other and we laugh,
Speaker 1: and she goes. Fake fall. Fake fall is something you
Speaker 1: may not know about if you aren't in the South.
Speaker 1: It's when you go outside. It's fifty nine degrees. Everything
Speaker 1: tastes like pumpkins in every restaurant. But no, sooner do
Speaker 1: you go back inside to grab that cute cardigan that
Speaker 1: you've been saving all summer and waiting for the fall.
Speaker 1: Then you walk back outside. It's ninety six degrees now
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, and it's only been five minutes, and it
Speaker 1: can be refreshing because it can feel hot one moment
Speaker 1: and then God will just blow an air condition like Gabriel,
Speaker 1: just blow in your face and you'll say fall. I
Speaker 1: feel you welcome fall. But don't be deceived. Do not
Speaker 1: be fooled, do not be dismayed. It is only fake fall.
Speaker 1: So make sure you pack at least three different outfits
Speaker 1: when you leave in the morning. It's fake fall. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: football is on, but it's not fall yet. It's fake fall.
Speaker 1: We walk back these people the other day crunching leaves,
Speaker 1: and this guy says to us in a very northern accent,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna impersonate it because it might be
Speaker 1: offensive because I can't do it that good. But he's like,
Speaker 1: how about this fall weather? And Holly turns to me
Speaker 1: and goes northern or fake fall? He do no, don't
Speaker 1: tell him, don't tell him. No small it for him.
Speaker 1: He thinks it's just gonna stay like this fake fall.
Speaker 1: You'll know what I'm talking about. Fake fall. So I
Speaker 1: didn't know whether to put this on today because it
Speaker 1: feels like fall to me. The kids are back in school.
Speaker 1: Chick fil A has this autumn spice milkshake, but I
Speaker 1: don't know really if it's it's it's an in between season.
Speaker 1: It's in between seasons. I'm standing in my closet. I
Speaker 1: can't figure out which one to grab because I've been
Speaker 1: waiting to wear this. But it might be now. We
Speaker 1: keep it fifty seven degrees in the auditorium at elevation
Speaker 1: Valentine to keep y all awake, so I'm not worried
Speaker 1: how it's going to be in the room that's mandated.
Speaker 1: Is that a prayer request? I could turn it up
Speaker 1: hot and preach about hell, and then we'll see what
Speaker 1: happens you feel the flame, baby. But to me, there's
Speaker 1: nothing trickier than in between seasons. One thing to figure
Speaker 1: out what do I wear? I mean, I could take
Speaker 1: this off if I chose wrong. But there are other things,
Speaker 1: other things in life, the in between things that can
Speaker 1: leave you feeling irritable, unstable, uncertain, like you're having an
Speaker 1: identity crisis, like you really don't know which one to
Speaker 1: go with. In between things. The Bible says, and we're
Speaker 1: fond of quoting in Romans eight twenty eight, that all
Speaker 1: things work together for the good of those who love
Speaker 1: God and are called according to His purpose. All things.
Speaker 1: Somebody say things, then it says a little further down
Speaker 1: in the Book of Romans, and I think the thirty
Speaker 1: first verses says, what shall we say in response to
Speaker 1: these things? That God has predestined us, that God has
Speaker 1: called us, that He has justified us, and he has
Speaker 1: glorified us. All of that. In Romans chapter eight, I
Speaker 1: am all of those things. I am called by God,
Speaker 1: I am justified by Jesus, I am glorified with him.
Speaker 1: I am joined together. I'm a joint heir with Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ me and him hooked up and I got everything
Speaker 1: that he has for me. When I called on his name,
Speaker 1: he said he'd come live in me and be with me,
Speaker 1: and would leave me or forsake me. So I'm all
Speaker 1: of those things. Whatever he said I am. That's what
Speaker 1: I am. Whatever he calls me, That's what I'll be
Speaker 1: whatever he calls me too. That's what I'm walking toward.
Speaker 1: Whatever he labels me, that's what I live by. I
Speaker 1: am all those things called justified glorified, and yet their
Speaker 1: context of Romans Chapter eight is interesting because it talks
Speaker 1: about the groanings that happen on the inside of us
Speaker 1: as we wait for our adoption and eagerly expect to
Speaker 1: be brought into the fullness of what we have the
Speaker 1: first fruits of it is Paul's way of saying, we're
Speaker 1: in between things that we know we're called, but we're
Speaker 1: often confused. That we know we're justified, but we often
Speaker 1: deal with guilt. That we know we're glorified, but we
Speaker 1: often feel gritty because I'm in between things. I'm all
Speaker 1: those things called justified glorified because Christ said I am.
Speaker 1: But I'm some other things too. Sometimes I'm some other things.
Speaker 1: I can be selfish, I can be rude, I can
Speaker 1: be ignorant, I can be compulsive. I'm getting depressed right
Speaker 1: now as I think about the other things. And the
Speaker 1: truth is, I'm torn. I'm torn. I was torn to
Speaker 1: figure out what to wear to church today. I was
Speaker 1: torn to figure out what's to preach to you today.
Speaker 1: I'm torn in this very moment as I stand before
Speaker 1: you and try to tell you that I'm all these
Speaker 1: wonderful things in Christ, with all of the reminders behind
Speaker 1: me of all the ways that I fell short of
Speaker 1: the glory of God this week. The truth is I'm torn.
Speaker 1: That's one of the things about being between things is
Speaker 1: that you can feel kind of torn. I mean, just imagine.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to demonstrate it. Two big, strong guys
Speaker 1: standing on either side of me today, and one is
Speaker 1: pulling me here and one is pulling me there. And
Speaker 1: here I am in between two things, in between my
Speaker 1: heavenly calling call justified, glorified, right with God, and then
Speaker 1: my sinful tendencies, lazy self pity. I can be very.
Speaker 1: I can be very. I can be a very convincing
Speaker 1: victim as their fault they didn't they should have can
Speaker 1: I can be a lot of things I'm torn. I
Speaker 1: knew that starting to sermon this way would be kind
Speaker 1: of interesting, because I think what people are looking for
Speaker 1: when they come to church is for me to talk
Speaker 1: about certain things and then to leave other things for
Speaker 1: Monday through Saturday. Problem with that approach to ministry is
Speaker 1: it's what happens in between our Sunday meetings. In between.
Speaker 1: It will not be sufficient if you write down everything
Speaker 1: I say today and live none of it out until
Speaker 1: the next time I see it. It will not be
Speaker 1: sufficient for us to get a Bible lesson today that
Speaker 1: for a few moments maybe tickles our intellect or enlightens
Speaker 1: our senses, or helps us to know something grammatical or
Speaker 1: historical about the Word of God. It is what we
Speaker 1: do in between. I'll prove it from the Bible. Faith
Speaker 1: comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. But
Speaker 1: faith without works is dead. So Jesus said, a sower
Speaker 1: went out to sow. He started sowing. Some of the
Speaker 1: seed before it even hit the soil got snatched up
Speaker 1: by the bird. Can that really happen? Of course it can.
Speaker 1: In between the release of the seed of the Word
Speaker 1: of God and the fertilization in the soil, even before
Speaker 1: it could hit the soil, let alone Germany, beneath the soil,
Speaker 1: before it even had the opportunity to be what it
Speaker 1: could have been, what it should have been, and what
Speaker 1: it really was on the inside, something snatched it in between.
Speaker 1: So you have to be very careful about how you
Speaker 1: spend the first thirty minutes after you hear a sermon.
Speaker 1: You have to beat back birds the first because the
Speaker 1: enemy knows the enemy of your soul. The devil Satan,
Speaker 1: O slew foot Lucifer, that old devil, that old devil
Speaker 1: he had. Don't pitchfork devil. He's a little bird. He's
Speaker 1: a cute little bird comes up in just as a
Speaker 1: distraction snatches it in between. You can't even get to
Speaker 1: the car and hold on to what has been said,
Speaker 1: because we don't know how to be bored anymore. We
Speaker 1: don't know how to sit with anything anymore. We can't
Speaker 1: think about a word, we can't get out of search
Speaker 1: and reflect on it for a minute. So we can't
Speaker 1: germinate because you don't meditate because they got snatched in between.
Speaker 1: How many feel convicted that we just run from one
Speaker 1: thing to the other and nothing in between. So now
Speaker 1: I have so many any games, and so many apps,
Speaker 1: and so many distractions on my phone that I have
Speaker 1: no time for any creativity. How could God remind me
Speaker 1: of anything? I gave him no space to set up
Speaker 1: in between my appointments. And our lives are very crowded,
Speaker 1: because even the Bible itself is full of amazing things
Speaker 1: that happened in between. Think about that. If we took
Speaker 1: out everything in the Bible that happened as the characters
Speaker 1: were going somewhere else, we would have removed some of
Speaker 1: our best Bible stories, and we would have neutered some
Speaker 1: of our best Bible characters, like Moses the burning bush.
Speaker 1: If Moses had had data on his phone, he wouldn't
Speaker 1: have seen the bush burning, because all he was doing
Speaker 1: was trying to go to Horror with the sheep for
Speaker 1: his father in law, Jethra, and then he was going
Speaker 1: to go back to Midian. And in between, this bush
Speaker 1: catches on fire, and God says, by the way, you're
Speaker 1: about to lead a nation out of slavery. That happened
Speaker 1: as he was going to do something else. Now that
Speaker 1: had been me, I'm very sure that I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: looked at the bush, because I'd have been right here
Speaker 1: looking at something else. The enemy is good at filling
Speaker 1: the in between spaces, so you don't even see God.
Speaker 1: I see this in the Life of Moses. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about. I guess my favorite Bible story because it's
Speaker 1: the first one I ever preached. How Peter walked on
Speaker 1: water to Jesus. You know that happened just as they
Speaker 1: were trying to get from Jesus. Jesus didn't set up
Speaker 1: a water walking seminar that day. All they were trying
Speaker 1: to do is get from the eastern shore to the
Speaker 1: western shore. And they were going to the western shore
Speaker 1: to do miracles. But they had to leave the eastern
Speaker 1: shore to go to western shore. Along the way, here
Speaker 1: comes a storm, and in the middle of the storm,
Speaker 1: here comes Jesus and comes toward Peter. Peter's like, I
Speaker 1: want to come toward you, And Peter comes toward Jesus.
Speaker 1: He falls down. Jesus picks him up, takes him back
Speaker 1: to the boat, and they say, truly, you are the
Speaker 1: Son of God. And we love that story. But it
Speaker 1: happened in between. It happened in between. You think Mary
Speaker 1: wanted to give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem. You want
Speaker 1: to give birth to Jesus, away from your doctors, away
Speaker 1: from your hometown. They were there for a census, and
Speaker 1: the Savior of the world was born. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to say that some of the best stuff happens in between.
Speaker 1: I want to remind you of that, some of the
Speaker 1: best things in your life while you're so focused on, Oh,
Speaker 1: when I get through this, when I get through that,
Speaker 1: Oh when I just get I just want to get
Speaker 1: to the end of twenty twenty two. You've been saying
Speaker 1: that for the last forty seven years. About this time
Speaker 1: every year, you start thinking, if I could just get
Speaker 1: through the year, I'm just waiting for a new year,
Speaker 1: and here it is fall. Okay, just a few more months.
Speaker 1: If I could just get through twenty twenty two, If
Speaker 1: you could just get through twenty twenty two, you were
Speaker 1: gonna take twenty twenty you into twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two ain't gonna kill twenty twenty you. I
Speaker 1: got stuck in the trap at one point in my
Speaker 1: life of just surviving between Sundays as a preacher, and
Speaker 1: at that time we were doing Saturday night services. I
Speaker 1: haven't forgot about Jacob. I'm setting this up. Okay, I
Speaker 1: haven't forgot about it, but I'm gonna tell you something
Speaker 1: in between. I read my scripture. Now I'm gonna illustrate.
Speaker 1: Then I'm gonna go back to Jacob. I used to
Speaker 1: just think, if I could just get to Sunday and
Speaker 1: get another sermon, study, pray, beg plead, offer my children
Speaker 1: on the altar. What do you want? And a scary thing.
Speaker 1: It's a scary thing. Y'all's expectations are really high. It is,
Speaker 1: y'all really do have high expectations. Be serious, be funny,
Speaker 1: be youthful, be wise. You want a lot, speak for God,
Speaker 1: keep it real. Torn. I'm so torn. If you can
Speaker 1: see me right now, I mean I might be holding
Speaker 1: together on the outside, but on the inside. So I
Speaker 1: just try to get to Sunday, and then I think,
Speaker 1: if I could just get through Sunday. So wait a minute,
Speaker 1: your whole life is getting too and getting through and
Speaker 1: you are missing so many things in between. Oh, if
Speaker 1: I can get this degree, what do you think that
Speaker 1: degree is gonna do? What do you think that degree
Speaker 1: is really gonna do? It's gonna open doors? What's on
Speaker 1: the other side of a door? What do you think
Speaker 1: is on the other side of the door, a massage table.
Speaker 1: You think it's a beach on the other side of
Speaker 1: the door. The degree open the door. Then you gotta
Speaker 1: do the stuff that they taught you to do. That
Speaker 1: isn't really what you gotta do, because they don't really
Speaker 1: teach you in school what you gotta do. What do
Speaker 1: you think that degree is gonna do for you? Somebody
Speaker 1: shout I'm in between. You didn't shout it convincingly because
Speaker 1: it's not sexy. Oh watch this, Watch this, somebody shout
Speaker 1: I made it. You see how much better you did that.
Speaker 1: Shout this, I'm gonna do it. Come on, shout it
Speaker 1: from your chest. But that in between things you didn't
Speaker 1: say that too good. Won't practice that. We don't practice
Speaker 1: that in between. We don't really know how to be
Speaker 1: in between. We really don't know how to be in between. Oh,
Speaker 1: we definitely know how to think about the future, just
Speaker 1: we know how to in our minds. I Jacob, he's
Speaker 1: going to meet with Esau. He's like, okay, Now when
Speaker 1: you get there, you give him a first gift, and
Speaker 1: then you give him a second gift. So it won't
Speaker 1: kill me. You give him a third. He's out there
Speaker 1: in the future. He's really good at sending stuff ahead.
Speaker 1: He's sending everything ahead, so he thinks it'll be all
Speaker 1: right when he gets there. He's sending everything ahead. By
Speaker 1: the way, He's come a long way. He just got
Speaker 1: back from Mahinim, where the angels of God met him,
Speaker 1: where the angels of God attended to him, where the
Speaker 1: angels of God show up. So he's seen a lot
Speaker 1: of wonderful things behind him. But now we see Jacob
Speaker 1: in a very interesting place. He's not in Shechem yet
Speaker 1: where he's going. But he can't go back to Laban's
Speaker 1: house either. That's his uncle who he's been living with
Speaker 1: for twenty years. An angel of God tells him, you
Speaker 1: got to get up, you gotta go, You gotta move
Speaker 1: right now. You don't have time to think about it,
Speaker 1: you don't have time to strategize it. The only problem
Speaker 1: is if he leaves Laban, he has to deal with Esau,
Speaker 1: and the last time he saw Esau had blood in
Speaker 1: his eyes. Now we meet Jacob in Genesis chapter thirty two,
Speaker 1: and the Bible says that the angel of God begins
Speaker 1: to wrestle with him at night and wrestles with him
Speaker 1: all night, all night long. Jacob is struggling with something
Speaker 1: that he doesn't know what it is. But this is
Speaker 1: nothing new to Jacob. You see, he's been practicing this
Speaker 1: since the womb. He's been manipulating situation since he was
Speaker 1: old enough to calculate. He's been moving here and moving there,
Speaker 1: and doing this and doing that, and scheming things and
Speaker 1: plotting things. Not only did he steal his brother's birthright,
Speaker 1: he stole his blessing to by pretending to be his brother.
Speaker 1: And now he's got to face the one that he
Speaker 1: pretended to be, who wanted to kill him the last
Speaker 1: time he saw him. But I can't stay with Laban,
Speaker 1: but I can't deal with Esau. I'm standing here needing
Speaker 1: the help of God. And so God comes not to
Speaker 1: help him, but to wrestle with him. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: to me that it didn't happen when he got to
Speaker 1: Esau the fight. Esau gave him a hug, and God
Speaker 1: gave him a broken hip. I'm confused. I thought you
Speaker 1: asked God to bless you, Jacob, and he said bless me,
Speaker 1: bless me. I'm not letting go to bless me. Let's
Speaker 1: read the text again. This is Wow. Wow, this is
Speaker 1: just unbelievable. For everybody who's in between right now, for
Speaker 1: everybody who's torn between what you believe that God has
Speaker 1: spoken that you really are and what you feel like
Speaker 1: from time to time. Everybody who's torn right now, how
Speaker 1: many of you are in a seasonal shift in your life?
Speaker 1: Was very difficult for you to comprehend where you're at
Speaker 1: because I'm forty two. How many y'all think that's young?
Speaker 1: How many y'all think that's old? I'm torn. I'm torn.
Speaker 1: I'm torn. Graham's hand went up so high when I said, oh,
Speaker 1: and half this section, I don't know what's going on
Speaker 1: over here in this section, y'all said it was really young.
Speaker 1: I'm torn. I don't know which one to believe. Life
Speaker 1: is tricky because life will intersect in betweens. So you
Speaker 1: raise teenagers, but you're also a tween ager because he's
Speaker 1: about to turn fifteen. I'm close to turn of fifty.
Speaker 1: Both of us are in the middle of something and
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm in the middle of and
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what he's in the middle of. And
Speaker 1: so now I'm trying to raise somebody as I walk
Speaker 1: through something that I haven't seen the end of yet myself.
Speaker 1: And look back at what he's in the middle of. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of mine. And tell him about
Speaker 1: the middle of his and bring him safely through it
Speaker 1: and don't get him killed. And he's stubborn. So when
Speaker 1: he wants to learn how to drive, watch this. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have enough money to afford a car, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't have enough humility to listen to me when I'm
Speaker 1: teaching him how to drive it. I'm just kidding, Graham,
Speaker 1: You're still perfect. He's gonna be a great driver. I prophesied,
Speaker 1: I declare it, i'd decree, I plead the blood. But
Speaker 1: that's what I mean by in between, is Jacob knowing
Speaker 1: I can't stay with Laban where he met his his
Speaker 1: wife Leah and his other wife Rachel, and he married
Speaker 1: one and thought he was marrying the other. This dude
Speaker 1: has a lot of problems at night. Jacob needs to
Speaker 1: put a nine pm curfew on himself because he gets
Speaker 1: in trouble at night. He went and slept with the
Speaker 1: wrong sister at night, woke up. The Bible's so funny.
Speaker 1: The Bible says he thought he laid down with Rachel
Speaker 1: that's who he wanted to marry. He commits to her father,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work seven years so I can marry Rachel. Okay.
Speaker 1: At the end of seve in years, the father Laban
Speaker 1: slips in Leah, the other sister who has what we
Speaker 1: say the good personality. Leah has a good personality. Jacob
Speaker 1: goes to bed thinking it's Rachel, wakes up and there
Speaker 1: the Bible says, there was Leah. So funny, this is
Speaker 1: kind of like that because everything in the text. Watch
Speaker 1: this is what drew me to the text when I
Speaker 1: was thinking about being in between things. Nobody's calling me
Speaker 1: the young pastor anymore, but nobody thinks I'm an old
Speaker 1: sage either. Oh God, what am I? I am not
Speaker 1: a spiritual Bible quote and tongue talking Christian all the time.
Speaker 1: But I'm not trying to cuss people out either and
Speaker 1: start fights because I've learned too much to be ugly
Speaker 1: all the time. And no, I'm gonna have to clean
Speaker 1: up messes after I make them. So I'm too saved
Speaker 1: to be angry and too fleshly to be perfect. And
Speaker 1: I'm stuck in the middle feeling like ah Tar because
Speaker 1: I could handle it if I had this self control
Speaker 1: to just pray for people, that would be one thing.
Speaker 1: If I was just worldly and I knew jiu jitsu,
Speaker 1: I could handle it that way. But it's in between,
Speaker 1: so it's nighttime. Jacob is heading to what he thinks
Speaker 1: is his appointment. He's leaving what has been his refuge,
Speaker 1: and God meets him in between. The Lord said to
Speaker 1: tell you today, he's trying to meet you in between,
Speaker 1: and he's got you in between for a reason. He's
Speaker 1: got you in between for a reason. Jacob never could
Speaker 1: have known when he was sending his wives and his servants,
Speaker 1: and his donkeys and his camels and his gifts across
Speaker 1: the Jabak to meet with his brother Esau, that God
Speaker 1: was leaving him there, stripped of all of his appointments
Speaker 1: and all of his acomplishments, and all of his affiliations,
Speaker 1: so that he could show him something he never could
Speaker 1: have known. That. He never could have known while he
Speaker 1: was wrestling who he was wrestling with. He never could
Speaker 1: have known while he was wrestling what the outcome would be.
Speaker 1: But he wouldn't let go. He wouldn't let go. He
Speaker 1: held on for dear life. And when the angel, the
Speaker 1: Angel of God, who theologians would say is a pre incarnate,
Speaker 1: a pre incarnate revelation of Jesus Christ himself. When Jesus
Speaker 1: came to wrestle with Jacob, Jacob held on so tight
Speaker 1: that the angel said, boop, I'm going to put your
Speaker 1: hip out of joint so you can see who I am.
Speaker 1: That's not very nice, that's not very christ like. But
Speaker 1: it's Christ. I'm torn. This doesn't seem like something God
Speaker 1: would do. Usually, when we hear about God touching someone,
Speaker 1: something good happens. After God touched the blind man, his
Speaker 1: eyes were open. Holly preached about that Friday night. Well,
Speaker 1: what about poor Jacob. Jacob's eyes didn't open, he didn't
Speaker 1: get a testosterone boost, he didn't grow hair back in
Speaker 1: a bald patch. None of this happened when God touched him.
Speaker 1: The Bible says something interesting. It said he touched the
Speaker 1: socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched
Speaker 1: while he wrestled with the man. And go all the
Speaker 1: way down to verse twenty nine. He said, please tell
Speaker 1: me your name, but he replied, why he asked my name?
Speaker 1: Then he blessed him there. That's important. He blessed him
Speaker 1: there where in the place in between where Ja had
Speaker 1: left and where he was going. I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: you to see that God puts the blessing in the
Speaker 1: in between moments of your life, and if you are
Speaker 1: so focused on Esau in the future or Laban in
Speaker 1: the past, you will not receive what you need to
Speaker 1: receive in between that will strengthen you for what's ahead.
Speaker 1: For the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen
Speaker 1: short of the glory of God. But the Bible also
Speaker 1: says that all things work together for the good of
Speaker 1: those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Now,
Speaker 1: at certain points in your life, that verse will be
Speaker 1: tested as to whether you believe it's true. You will
Speaker 1: experience moments in your life where Romans eight twenty eight
Speaker 1: appears to be a flat out lie. So now you're
Speaker 1: trying to hold on to a truth that you're read
Speaker 1: in the Bible that all things work together for the good,
Speaker 1: and you're being held by something in your life that
Speaker 1: is dragging you into a place of doubt, being dragged
Speaker 1: all around standing there in between. But in these moments,
Speaker 1: God wants you to know that in the in between
Speaker 1: moments of your life the truth that you've heard, the
Speaker 1: truth that you've received, the truth that you believed, and
Speaker 1: the tearing that you've experienced. These are not always bad places.
Speaker 1: These are not always moments that God wants to deliver
Speaker 1: you from. Sometimes the in between place is the blessed place.
Speaker 1: And if all your focus is on getting through, getting to,
Speaker 1: getting through and getting too, you will miss the blessing
Speaker 1: that God has in a place called there. By the
Speaker 1: time he got to Esau, it was already done. You
Speaker 1: can keep your camels, you can keep your gifts. Doesn't
Speaker 1: need any of it, because that's not where God met
Speaker 1: Jacob to reveal himself. He met him in between. This
Speaker 1: is a word. I said, A wouldn't do it. But
Speaker 1: come here, chunks, come here, buck. This is a word,
Speaker 1: both of y'all. I don't have time. I don't have time.
Speaker 1: You gotta hurr, you gotta hurry, but I gotta show you.
Speaker 1: This is a word. Now, don't pull me too hard,
Speaker 1: don't pull me too hard, but I'm gonna hold you.
Speaker 1: You go that way, you go that way. This is
Speaker 1: a word. Go the other way, Buck, go the other way.
Speaker 1: This is not too hard, not to art, not too hard,
Speaker 1: not too hard, to shoulder. I'm forty two. Man, you
Speaker 1: can't pull too hard. This is a word when you
Speaker 1: feel torn. This is how you've been feeling lately. Not
Speaker 1: always stand still, y'all being too tense. This is a word.
Speaker 1: This is a word not only when you feel torn
Speaker 1: between good things and bad things, because that happens. Oh,
Speaker 1: the devil's telling me to do this, but God is
Speaker 1: saying do that. A you haven't been torn between two
Speaker 1: things that are both good. People make stuff sound so
Speaker 1: simple when they tell you advice. Oh, man, just focus
Speaker 1: on your kids. Which one? Because they don't really get
Speaker 1: along together. So now I got to be with one.
Speaker 1: I'm at a time which one? Somebody told me one time.
Speaker 1: Just great parenting advice. Don't miss any of your kids' games.
Speaker 1: But then guess what happened. Graham had a game and
Speaker 1: Abby had a game, both on Saturday, and the coach
Speaker 1: didn't call me and say, now we'll be okay, because
Speaker 1: I know you got to preach on Sunday. Can we
Speaker 1: put it? How many of y'all expect when you come
Speaker 1: to church that I studied the Word of God and
Speaker 1: prepared something to say to you. Would you be cool
Speaker 1: if I got up here and just wing it. Would
Speaker 1: you feel good about that if I said, speak Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: and that's the first time I looked at my Bible. No,
Speaker 1: you expect me to be a good pastor. So here
Speaker 1: comes the pull every week. All right, Lord, I need
Speaker 1: to study and get something ready. But guess what my kids.
Speaker 1: My kids expect some things too, and they should. They're
Speaker 1: my priority. They're my priority. So now I feel pulled.
Speaker 1: I'm not torn between do I abandon my family or
Speaker 1: abandon my church. I'm trying to do both of them well,
Speaker 1: and I'm torn. Just move a little bit, move a
Speaker 1: little bit. Ah ah, And I don't know which one.
Speaker 1: If I knew which one, you know, there's a simple
Speaker 1: solution to this. It's right there in the text. It's
Speaker 1: what the Angel said to Jacob after he wrestled all night.
Speaker 1: He said, uh, let go, Now, this is simple. You
Speaker 1: ever think we'd be holding hands in front of thousands
Speaker 1: of people. We've been through a lot together, come back,
Speaker 1: the angel said. The Angel said, let go. It's that simple,
Speaker 1: Just let go, Just let go. So now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: illustrate that and show you why it's not that simple.
Speaker 1: Which one do I let go of? I'm torn. Just
Speaker 1: trust God. God trosted the Lord? How with all your heart?
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm talking about. I'm asking do I
Speaker 1: give money to my church or put money in my
Speaker 1: kid's college fund, because I think God wants me to
Speaker 1: do both. I'm torn just a little bit. What I'm
Speaker 1: torn like this? And if I let go, something is
Speaker 1: gonna fall apart. And I've been preaching to somebody all
Speaker 1: week in my spirit. I don't know who you are,
Speaker 1: but the Lord showed me you've been torn, and not
Speaker 1: because you don't love the Lord, and not because you
Speaker 1: don't believe all things work together. The thing about it
Speaker 1: is you are between two things and you don't know
Speaker 1: which one to let go of, which one to grab
Speaker 1: hold of, and you're torn, so you're stressed, so you
Speaker 1: can't sleep, So you can't ask people for advice because
Speaker 1: they oversimplified and they say, oh, just trust the Lord.
Speaker 1: But I'm trusting the Lord, but I'm torn. I don't
Speaker 1: know which one let go and let God? Which one
Speaker 1: is God? Because Jacob doesn't know who he's wrestling with.
Speaker 1: It's happening at night. Stay there, let me preach at
Speaker 1: night at night? Why did the Angel wrestle with him
Speaker 1: until the break of day. Why until the dawn, because
Speaker 1: the dawn is not exactly night. But it's not exactly
Speaker 1: morning either, is it. He's not exactly in a nighttime,
Speaker 1: he's not exactly in a morning time. And God blessed
Speaker 1: him there. He's not home yet. He hasn't made it
Speaker 1: to shock him yet. He's not back in his family's
Speaker 1: covering yet. He's in between in the Transjordan. It's not
Speaker 1: a holy place, it's not an unholy place. It's somewhere
Speaker 1: in between. And the Bible says that God blessed him there.
Speaker 1: He's not in Laban's house anymore. He's not in his
Speaker 1: father's house either. He's somewhere in between. You haven't graduated
Speaker 1: from it yet. You haven't quite beat the addiction yet.
Speaker 1: You haven't quite got it behind you yet. You hadn't
Speaker 1: quite deleted it yet. He hadn't quite left you alone yet.
Speaker 1: You'll quite have it under control yet, you'll quite have
Speaker 1: a mess forget, you'll quite have it down yet. And
Speaker 1: you are torn because I'm free, but I still like it,
Speaker 1: because I'm beating it, but it's still breathing down my neck.
Speaker 1: I'm torn It blessed him there at dawn. It's not day,
Speaker 1: but it's not night. It's not home, but it's not ran.
Speaker 1: It's not where he came from, it's not where he's going.
Speaker 1: It's in between. It's in between. And Jacob held on.
Speaker 1: He said, you ain't going nowhere. You're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: And he just said, oh yeah, whoop, and watch, I
Speaker 1: got this. I got this revelation out of this verse.
Speaker 1: I can't believe I never preached this before. Forgive me
Speaker 1: for never preaching this before. Y'all. This is so tender,
Speaker 1: so powerful, but it slips right by you. He says
Speaker 1: that after God blessed him where where? Okay, clean up
Speaker 1: your life. I'll bless you get your act together. I'll
Speaker 1: bless you figure it all out. I'll bless you get smarter.
Speaker 1: I'll bless you read three books. I'll bless you memorize
Speaker 1: a couple verses. I'll bless you get to the place
Speaker 1: you're going. I'll bless you get through the hard time.
Speaker 1: I'll bless you get through twenty twenty two. I'll bless
Speaker 1: y'all if you make it to twenty twenty three, you
Speaker 1: shall be. It shall be in twenty twenty three. That's
Speaker 1: a stupid New Year's sermon. I won't preach it because
Speaker 1: the Bible say that he blessed him where Now watch
Speaker 1: what I never saw In verse thirty two, it's said therefore,
Speaker 1: to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon
Speaker 1: attached to the socket of his hip, because the socket
Speaker 1: of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. Put your
Speaker 1: hand on your tendon. I'm not doing this illustration. You
Speaker 1: can do the owner. He used to be a physical therapist.
Speaker 1: Which tendon did the Angel touch? I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: it all week, y'all. I thought, was it the it band?
Speaker 1: Was it the gloodiest tendon's another one? I mean, all
Speaker 1: that tissue that it could have been. And the Bible
Speaker 1: says that he touched near the tendon. You know what
Speaker 1: that spoke to me that sometimes God will touch a
Speaker 1: place that anybody can tell you. If the ball came
Speaker 1: all the way out of the socket of Jacob's hill,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have ever walked again. But if the ball
Speaker 1: came out of the socket of Jacob's Hill and the
Speaker 1: tendon tore, he could still walk, but he would walk
Speaker 1: different from now on. I love preaching to y'all. And
Speaker 1: you know why y'all are shouting over an anatomy lesson,
Speaker 1: because God's been touching your tendon. He touched your tendon.
Speaker 1: When he touched Jacob's tendon, it didn't mean that Jacob
Speaker 1: wouldn't get there. It just meant that he would get
Speaker 1: their limping. Somebody in this room today has been torn
Speaker 1: by life's challenges, and it wasn't always what the enemy did.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that the angels saw that the only
Speaker 1: way to overpower Jacob was to touch near the tendon.
Speaker 1: And God that has had us in a season of
Speaker 1: our life where you had to touch the tendon. The
Speaker 1: tendon is the tissue that holds it all together. The
Speaker 1: tendon is what connects the muscle to the bone. If
Speaker 1: the tendon is torn, it may not have any strength
Speaker 1: to it. But God said, you can still get there.
Speaker 1: You will have to limp from now on. That's not
Speaker 1: a bad thing. See Jacob's tendency. What's to run his tendency?
Speaker 1: What's to run his his tendency? Oh oh oh, I
Speaker 1: want to retitle the message. I want to call this
Speaker 1: message a trickster learns to trust Because Jacob tricked his
Speaker 1: way all the way to this place, and his like,
Speaker 1: oh bless me, I'll pretend to be Esau. Oh bless me,
Speaker 1: I'll give you some beans. Oh if you're mad at me,
Speaker 1: I'll run and start all over. That's been so of
Speaker 1: you all your life. You have been running from you
Speaker 1: all your life. Not he saw you for the Bible
Speaker 1: said that when God blessed him, he renamed him. His
Speaker 1: name was Jacob, but his name was Israel. Which one
Speaker 1: was it? He's torn One means trickster, one means prince.
Speaker 1: Jacob means he'll grabber because when he was born he
Speaker 1: was grabbing his brother's heel trying to get out burst.
Speaker 1: So he's not grabbing heels anymore. Now his hip has
Speaker 1: been touched. And God said, I'm gonna make you Israel
Speaker 1: a prince. Israel means prince, y'all, he gonna be a prince.
Speaker 1: Tell somebody next to you, you're gonna be a prince.
Speaker 1: Princess madifaya be inclusive? Everybody be inclusive is twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: But you're gonna be Watch this, Watch this. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be a limping prince because you're gonna be reminded for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. That you can't outrun God's plan.
Speaker 1: You can't outrun God's book this. If you make your
Speaker 1: bet in Hell, he's there. If you make your bet
Speaker 1: in the depths of the sea, even there, even there,
Speaker 1: even there, his hand will lead you, and his right
Speaker 1: hand will hold you up. I'm Jacob, I'm Israel. Which
Speaker 1: one will I be? That's what you're deciding every day
Speaker 1: you wake up. That's what you're deciding every situation you
Speaker 1: walk into. Am I gonna walk according to my new
Speaker 1: nature or my old name? And up here holding hands
Speaker 1: with two big, grown, strong men, just to illustrate how
Speaker 1: you have felt in this season of your life, Torn
Speaker 1: but trusting, Torn but trusting. Jacob lived with this limp
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. Do you know how I know?
Speaker 1: Look at Hebrews eleven twenty one. The Bible says, by
Speaker 1: faith Jacob, somebody shout, by faith Jacob, that in itself
Speaker 1: is a miracle. The one who's spent his whole life
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out, the one who's spent his
Speaker 1: whole life running from stuff that he couldn't bear to face,
Speaker 1: the one who's spent his whole life trying to pretend
Speaker 1: to be something else. By the end of his life,
Speaker 1: the Bible says, by faith, Jacob, Jacob isn't running anymore.
Speaker 1: Jacob can't run from himself anymore. Jacob can't run from
Speaker 1: his calling anymore. Neither can you. God has brought you
Speaker 1: to this place, and he's put you in between, and
Speaker 1: he stuck you where you are, and he's not letting
Speaker 1: you go until he blesses you. You hear me, he
Speaker 1: won't let go. It's not you holding on to God,
Speaker 1: it's God holding on to you. God's gonna get some
Speaker 1: of you. A little boot blessing this week, a little
Speaker 1: boot blessing this week, a little booty blessing with a boot.
Speaker 1: He said, don't run from this. You stay right here.
Speaker 1: You receive your calling, you receive your inheritance. You are
Speaker 1: short hair. With Jesus, you are that thing. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you what Jacob, by faith put my verse back up
Speaker 1: he Brews eleven twenty one. By faith, Jacob, when he
Speaker 1: was dying, what he's standing in between life and death,
Speaker 1: And what's what he did in between his life and
Speaker 1: his death. He blessed, he blessed, he blessed, he blessed,
Speaker 1: he blessed. You see the transformation. He's saying, bless me,
Speaker 1: But by the end of his life, he's saying, be blessed.
Speaker 1: That's what God touch his tiken so he could walk different,
Speaker 1: think different, talk different. Can I keep going? Just a
Speaker 1: few more words, Just a few more words? By faith Jacob.
Speaker 1: He's standing between the portals of eternity and the time
Speaker 1: bound frame of his humanity, and he starts blessing. Ready,
Speaker 1: Joseph's sons. Who's Joseph, the son who was thrown into
Speaker 1: a pit, the son he thought he'd never see again,
Speaker 1: the son he thought was as good as dead. His
Speaker 1: heart was torn, his coat was torn. But God wasn't
Speaker 1: through with Joseph. I came to the clare. It's not over.
Speaker 1: You're just in between. Hollelujah, Bye, Thank Joseph. By faith
Speaker 1: Jacob blessed Joseph's boys so he never thought he'd see again.
Speaker 1: This a miracle, This a miracle, This a miracle, This
Speaker 1: a miracle, and worshiped as he leaned on top of
Speaker 1: his staff. He never quit limping, but he never stopped walking.
Speaker 1: Look looking, You're gonna get there, You're gonna get there. Shout, shout,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get there. Shout, shout, You're gonna get there, limping, limping.
Speaker 1: Everybody's tissue is torn, everybody's hip is out of socket,
Speaker 1: all of suddenings falling short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: Everybody that's leaving this church today is limping in some
Speaker 1: area of their life. Everybody is torn. This is a
Speaker 1: fragmented world, This is a fallen world. We are we
Speaker 1: are dust. But in these earthen vessels we have the
Speaker 1: treasure of God's glory. And I want to leave you
Speaker 1: with this. I want to leave you with this. Even
Speaker 1: in his dying breath, his name was still Jacob. He
Speaker 1: never quit limping. Even as he blessed the grandsons of
Speaker 1: the boys who would be the nation of Israel, he
Speaker 1: never stopped being Jacob. So you know what the Lord
Speaker 1: told me we have to do. We have to trust
Speaker 1: through the tearing. When life feels like it's pulling you
Speaker 1: in two different directions and you're not doing very good
Speaker 1: at either, how many have said this week in your life, man,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I'm doing good in any of
Speaker 1: these areas of my life. I'm not doing good at home,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing good at work. I'm spread so thin.
Speaker 1: I've been so busy. Oh if I could just have
Speaker 1: one thing, Oh I could just hold onto that one thing,
Speaker 1: I could just be that one thing. But yet the
Speaker 1: reality of life is not that, is that, It's this,
Speaker 1: It's this. So the Lord said, you got to learn
Speaker 1: how to lean in the places that you're weak by faith,
Speaker 1: he blessed while leaning on his staff. Lord, we lean
Speaker 1: on you today, not our own understanding or our predictions,
Speaker 1: not our own pictures, not our own preferences, but by faith, Jacob,
Speaker 1: and by faith we I speak to everybody who has
Speaker 1: filed of distracted this week, and I speak the peace
Speaker 1: of God over your life. To know that God allows
Speaker 1: these tearings in our lives sometimes, whether it's the tearing
Speaker 1: of your tendon, whether it's the tearing of a relationship.
Speaker 1: We use physical analogies, but we're dealing with spiritual realities.
Speaker 1: The terring usually isn't limited to the physical. The fact
Speaker 1: of the matter is some of you are learning how
Speaker 1: to trust God down a path that you've never traversed
Speaker 1: yourself before. God said, that's why he gave you a
Speaker 1: staff to lean on and a word to hold to.
Speaker 1: This is how it feels to be between. It's not
Speaker 1: quite fal it's not quite summer. I'm not quite here.
Speaker 1: I'm not quite there. I'm not quite holy, but I
Speaker 1: really want to be. God said I got you in between.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get there. You're gonna do it. Come on,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking to you. I don't know who you are,
Speaker 1: but you've been on my heart. You're gonna get there,
Speaker 1: but you won't be strutting. You're gonna be a limping prince.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to learn how to submit these things
Speaker 1: to the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying God won't give
Speaker 1: you victory. I'm not saying some things won't leave your life.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you're always gonna deal with depression on
Speaker 1: this level, but there will always be the mark from
Speaker 1: where he touched your tendon, so that when you get there,
Speaker 1: you will know it was him. It was him. It
Speaker 1: wasn't me, it was him. It was him that did it.
Speaker 1: It was him, it was Grace, it was bye. Well.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.