Torn But Trusting

0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:05.160 Hello Evams, especially our West Coast family. We have an 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:10.600 announcement for you, Elevation Nights twenty twenty two West Coast. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.920 Are you ready for this? October twenty fifth through November third, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.400 We're coming your way so exciting. You can get your 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.160 tickets right now at Elevation Nights dot Com. It's gonna 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:26.400 be me Holly, Elevation Worship. It's gonna be amazing, unbelievable 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.720 these nights. Don't want to miss So if you're in Glendale, Arizona, 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:35.840 Las Vegas, Sacramento, California, Eugene, Oregon, Seattle, Oakland, California, San 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:41.200 Diego and La or anywhere near those areas, we want 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.239 to see you. Elevation Nights dot com. Don't miss it. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.479 Elevation Nights dot com. Get your tickets Elevation Nights dot Com. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.839 Let's go to the message the Lord. Let me the 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.120 Genesis chapter thirty two for our lesson today. I want 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.480 you to find that on your phone and your Bible 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.000 or look on the screen. I want you to see 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.840 this with your own eyes. I've been reading through the 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.319 Book of Genesis with Elijah and Kelsey and it's been 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.200 so fun. We're going real slow we figured out if 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.440 we read the Bible this slow, it'd take us four 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.920 years to get through it. So we're cool with it 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:20.560 because every day we're looking for a lesson. And when 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.520 we came to this passage, I knew I would preach 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.640 it soon because he grabbed me in a new way. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.960 Been years since I've preached about this passage. And we're 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.640 going to see this Bible character, Jacob in a wrestling match, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:41.080 and I reckon, this is my reaction to reflect got 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.080 around all those women, and I'm want to preach a 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.679 wrestling message or something like that. And I was watching 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.360 Jordan Burrows when that seventh Championship the other day. That 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.600 was cool. Did you see that? You didn't see it? 0:01:52.920 --> 0:02:00.600 It was cool. Look at Genesis chapter thirty two one. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:07.480 Let me reado kind of from this this transitional verse. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.680 So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.120 himself spent the night in the camp. That night, Jacob 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.080 got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.080 and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabakh. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:22.640 You see, they're kind of how the ford that he 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.560 has to cross kind of sounds like his own name 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.119 and it's a picture that what he's going through externally 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.760 is really secondary to what he's going through internally. And 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.320 so when we focus on situations that we've got to 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.560 get through, sometimes we miss the point. Because God uses 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.679 situations to deal with issues in you. And if all 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.760 you want God to do is get you through the situation, 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.399 you'll miss the main thing that God wanted to do, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.960 and then you'll recreate the situation that you get through 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.320 because you didn't deal with the issue that caused it 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:01.040 in the first place. That's what's happening in thirty two. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.520 And I know that because Jacob is about to have 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.320 a wrestling match, which is the same thing he was 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.960 doing in his mother's womb. His mother, Rebecca, when she 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:12.919 found out she was pregnant with twins, she knew it 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.000 because she felt them fighting inside of her. And so 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.600 these two boys, Jacob and Esau are we're going to 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.200 see both of them in this passage, mainly Jacob, but 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:27.880 they had been fighting each other now for ninety seven years. 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.079 Ninety seven years, that's how old they are during this 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.400 wrestling match. So but it's not Jacob and Esau here. 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.760 You would think that Jacob is getting ready to meet 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.400 up with his brother Esau, because he's trying to get 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.000 back home. But watch what happens as he's preparing to 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.880 meet with Esau. It says in in verse twenty three, 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.080 after he had sent them all of his sons and 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:56.080 servants and wives, after he had sent them across the stream, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.360 Rachel and Leah and all the different things that he 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.760 had ready to make peace with Esau, he sent over 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:06.320 all his possessions. So Jacob verse twenty four, Jacob was 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:12.640 left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.400 And when the man saw that he could not overpower him, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.160 he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.760 hip was wrenched. Now, I got to say, it's a miracle. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:27.719 He got to age ninety seven, and this is the 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.960 first hip trouble that he had to begin with. But 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.719 it took him this long, so he really did pretty good. 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.800 But his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:38.880 He still don't know who the man is yet. Probably 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:40.960 at this point he might think it's one of these 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.279 river devils that they believed in in the Transjordan. They 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.240 thought that when you're crossing a body of water, there 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.359 were spirits that would come up and fight you. So 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.000 he probably thinks he's wrestling one of these devils. And 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.600 he's in the middle of wrestling his hip goes out 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.680 of socket. And then the man said, verse twenty six, 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.960 let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.000 I will not let you go unless you bless me. 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.919 I'm gonna grab you with these arthritic hands and hold 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.320 on to you. I'm white knuckling this thing. You are 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.080 not going till you bless me. And the man asked him, 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.400 what's your name? Jacob? He answered. Then the man said, 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.719 your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:24.480 you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.320 And Jacob said, please tell me your name. But he replied, 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.160 why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.919 There So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying it is 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.479 because I saw God face to face Pineo means face 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.599 of God. I saw God face to face, and yet 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:50.919 my life was spared. Somebody shout I survived. I survived. 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.240 The sun rose above him as he passed Pinnel, and 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.920 he was limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.160 the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.520 socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.040 was touched near the tendon. And Jacob looked up and 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.960 there was Esau coming with his four hundred men, so 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.600 he got nervous, divided the children among Leah, Rachel, her 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.560 there are two female servants, and put the female servants 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.400 and their children in front, Leah and her children next, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.240 and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. He himself went 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.479 on ahead, bowed down to the ground seven times as 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.960 he approached his brother. Because Esaul was a skilled hunter 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.279 and Jacob was a skilled cook, and that's how Jacob 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.320 got him to eat his beans and trade his birthright, 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.040 and that's why he Sau got so mad he wanted 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.599 to kill him. So when he's a skilled hunter and 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:44.920 you're a skilled cook, you bow down and say, man, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:46.880 can we just get this worked out through our words? 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.360 There's really no need for us to fight. But Esau 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:57.920 ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Wasn't expecting that. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.520 He threw his arms around it neck and kissed him 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.599 and they wept. Wow, isn't that crazy? What he was 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.680 staying up all night worried about God had already worked 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.680 out when he got there. How many things in your 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.160 life have been like that? When you actually did it, 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.080 it wasn't as bad as you thought it was going 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.440 to be. But the verse I want to preach from 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.640 is very simple. Is in verse twenty nine. It says, 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:31.000 then he blessed him there. That's what I wan I 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.600 preach to you about today. And the title of this 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:44.040 message is trusting through the tearing. Trusting through the tearing, 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:46.240 or if you want to stay in the flow of 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.800 what I've been preaching the last few weeks about God's 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.560 got your back, you could turn to your neighbor and 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:58.200 tell them God's got you in between, in between, in between, 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.920 tell somebody else God's got you in between. You may 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:08.200 be seated. What an amazing story, What an epics story 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.280 in that incredible Bible story. Let's put our hands together 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:18.280 for the Bible. That's amazing. You are leaving already, I'm 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:25.760 just starting, all right, see it? Well, I guess they 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.880 got the most important part. They got the scripture. I 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.199 honestly didn't want to bring this up because it sounds 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:35.600 so superficial and the text that I read was so deep. 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.440 But it was so hard for me to figure out 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.800 what to wear to preach today because somebody gave me 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.000 this a couple of years ago, and I saw it 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:48.320 the other day. I was like, I never wore that. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.079 I like it. I want to wear it this week. 0:08:51.000 --> 0:09:01.840 But in the South, seasons are tricky, and we're always 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:06.319 talking in our family, what's your favorite season? Graham says 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:14.320 that spring is off brand fall. That's his theory. Holly 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.920 and I love fall because when we go on our walks, 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.720 we're so boring in a way, but we love it. 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.120 We embrace it. One of our favorite things to do 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.040 is just crunch leaves and see who can crunch the 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.400 lead the loudest, and we're like, we have crunch of 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.240 the day competitions when we go on our walks. It's 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.240 very simple. It's a cheap date, by the way you 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.360 want to use it, and we'll do that. We walked 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.160 out the other day, Holly was all bundle up in 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.800 a hoodie and I'm laughing. I'm in a tank top 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:46.640 because I know our driveway is kind of long. So 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.319 when we were in the shade of our driveway, she thought, oh, 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.800 it's fall because football is on, so it's fall. Soon 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.760 as we got out of the shade, she's peeling that 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.160 hoodie off and we look at each other and we laugh, 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:03.320 and she goes. Fake fall. Fake fall is something you 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.800 may not know about if you aren't in the South. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:13.559 It's when you go outside. It's fifty nine degrees. Everything 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:18.600 tastes like pumpkins in every restaurant. But no, sooner do 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.640 you go back inside to grab that cute cardigan that 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.559 you've been saving all summer and waiting for the fall. 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.400 Then you walk back outside. It's ninety six degrees now 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:34.320 in Charlotte, and it's only been five minutes, and it 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.120 can be refreshing because it can feel hot one moment 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.920 and then God will just blow an air condition like Gabriel, 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.760 just blow in your face and you'll say fall. I 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.200 feel you welcome fall. But don't be deceived. Do not 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.080 be fooled, do not be dismayed. It is only fake fall. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.040 So make sure you pack at least three different outfits 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.880 when you leave in the morning. It's fake fall. Oh yeah, 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.360 football is on, but it's not fall yet. It's fake fall. 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.840 We walk back these people the other day crunching leaves, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.920 and this guy says to us in a very northern accent, 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:06.640 and I'm not gonna impersonate it because it might be 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.880 offensive because I can't do it that good. But he's like, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.040 how about this fall weather? And Holly turns to me 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.640 and goes northern or fake fall? He do no, don't 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.400 tell him, don't tell him. No small it for him. 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.640 He thinks it's just gonna stay like this fake fall. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.200 You'll know what I'm talking about. Fake fall. So I 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.320 didn't know whether to put this on today because it 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.840 feels like fall to me. The kids are back in school. 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:38.600 Chick fil A has this autumn spice milkshake, but I 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.800 don't know really if it's it's it's an in between season. 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.480 It's in between seasons. I'm standing in my closet. I 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.400 can't figure out which one to grab because I've been 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.000 waiting to wear this. But it might be now. We 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.600 keep it fifty seven degrees in the auditorium at elevation 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.560 Valentine to keep y all awake, so I'm not worried 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.679 how it's going to be in the room that's mandated. 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.640 Is that a prayer request? I could turn it up 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.400 hot and preach about hell, and then we'll see what 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:20.520 happens you feel the flame, baby. But to me, there's 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:26.800 nothing trickier than in between seasons. One thing to figure 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.080 out what do I wear? I mean, I could take 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.480 this off if I chose wrong. But there are other things, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:37.319 other things in life, the in between things that can 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:44.679 leave you feeling irritable, unstable, uncertain, like you're having an 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:49.080 identity crisis, like you really don't know which one to 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.640 go with. In between things. The Bible says, and we're 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.400 fond of quoting in Romans eight twenty eight, that all 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:01.960 things work together for the good of those who love 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:07.800 God and are called according to His purpose. All things. 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:12.600 Somebody say things, then it says a little further down 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.760 in the Book of Romans, and I think the thirty 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.920 first verses says, what shall we say in response to 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.839 these things? That God has predestined us, that God has 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.560 called us, that He has justified us, and he has 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.560 glorified us. All of that. In Romans chapter eight, I 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.920 am all of those things. I am called by God, 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:39.280 I am justified by Jesus, I am glorified with him. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.760 I am joined together. I'm a joint heir with Jesus 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.559 Christ me and him hooked up and I got everything 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.040 that he has for me. When I called on his name, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.200 he said he'd come live in me and be with me, 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.800 and would leave me or forsake me. So I'm all 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.160 of those things. Whatever he said I am. That's what 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.000 I am. Whatever he calls me, That's what I'll be 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.400 whatever he calls me too. That's what I'm walking toward. 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.920 Whatever he labels me, that's what I live by. I 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:14.920 am all those things called justified glorified, and yet their 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.600 context of Romans Chapter eight is interesting because it talks 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.760 about the groanings that happen on the inside of us 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.560 as we wait for our adoption and eagerly expect to 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:27.480 be brought into the fullness of what we have the 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:32.120 first fruits of it is Paul's way of saying, we're 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.960 in between things that we know we're called, but we're 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:40.080 often confused. That we know we're justified, but we often 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.920 deal with guilt. That we know we're glorified, but we 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:51.640 often feel gritty because I'm in between things. I'm all 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.640 those things called justified glorified because Christ said I am. 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:01.720 But I'm some other things too. Sometimes I'm some other things. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.800 I can be selfish, I can be rude, I can 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:11.600 be ignorant, I can be compulsive. I'm getting depressed right 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.400 now as I think about the other things. And the 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:21.440 truth is, I'm torn. I'm torn. I was torn to 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.360 figure out what to wear to church today. I was 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.760 torn to figure out what's to preach to you today. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.040 I'm torn in this very moment as I stand before 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.400 you and try to tell you that I'm all these 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.720 wonderful things in Christ, with all of the reminders behind 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:37.640 me of all the ways that I fell short of 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:42.120 the glory of God this week. The truth is I'm torn. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:49.640 That's one of the things about being between things is 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.120 that you can feel kind of torn. I mean, just imagine. 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.200 I'm not going to demonstrate it. Two big, strong guys 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.200 standing on either side of me today, and one is 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.880 pulling me here and one is pulling me there. And 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:10.240 here I am in between two things, in between my 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:18.160 heavenly calling call justified, glorified, right with God, and then 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:25.720 my sinful tendencies, lazy self pity. I can be very. 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.280 I can be very. I can be a very convincing 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:33.960 victim as their fault they didn't they should have can 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:39.680 I can be a lot of things I'm torn. I 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:41.560 knew that starting to sermon this way would be kind 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.400 of interesting, because I think what people are looking for 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.080 when they come to church is for me to talk 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.520 about certain things and then to leave other things for 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:57.320 Monday through Saturday. Problem with that approach to ministry is 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:03.800 it's what happens in between our Sunday meetings. In between. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.760 It will not be sufficient if you write down everything 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.080 I say today and live none of it out until 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:17.040 the next time I see it. It will not be 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.879 sufficient for us to get a Bible lesson today that 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.720 for a few moments maybe tickles our intellect or enlightens 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.119 our senses, or helps us to know something grammatical or 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:27.560 historical about the Word of God. It is what we 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.560 do in between. I'll prove it from the Bible. Faith 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.119 comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. But 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:40.080 faith without works is dead. So Jesus said, a sower 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.879 went out to sow. He started sowing. Some of the 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.760 seed before it even hit the soil got snatched up 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.640 by the bird. Can that really happen? Of course it can. 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.240 In between the release of the seed of the Word 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.719 of God and the fertilization in the soil, even before 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.000 it could hit the soil, let alone Germany, beneath the soil, 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.040 before it even had the opportunity to be what it 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:02.480 could have been, what it should have been, and what 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.840 it really was on the inside, something snatched it in between. 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.080 So you have to be very careful about how you 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.359 spend the first thirty minutes after you hear a sermon. 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.960 You have to beat back birds the first because the 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.600 enemy knows the enemy of your soul. The devil Satan, 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.639 O slew foot Lucifer, that old devil, that old devil 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:27.919 he had. Don't pitchfork devil. He's a little bird. He's 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:29.919 a cute little bird comes up in just as a 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.199 distraction snatches it in between. You can't even get to 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.320 the car and hold on to what has been said, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.199 because we don't know how to be bored anymore. We 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.680 don't know how to sit with anything anymore. We can't 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.840 think about a word, we can't get out of search 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.240 and reflect on it for a minute. So we can't 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.760 germinate because you don't meditate because they got snatched in between. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:55.400 How many feel convicted that we just run from one 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.280 thing to the other and nothing in between. So now 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.800 I have so many any games, and so many apps, 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.800 and so many distractions on my phone that I have 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.320 no time for any creativity. How could God remind me 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.879 of anything? I gave him no space to set up 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:17.680 in between my appointments. And our lives are very crowded, 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.639 because even the Bible itself is full of amazing things 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:26.120 that happened in between. Think about that. If we took 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:31.360 out everything in the Bible that happened as the characters 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.280 were going somewhere else, we would have removed some of 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.639 our best Bible stories, and we would have neutered some 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:45.400 of our best Bible characters, like Moses the burning bush. 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:51.919 If Moses had had data on his phone, he wouldn't 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:56.000 have seen the bush burning, because all he was doing 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:57.600 was trying to go to Horror with the sheep for 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.239 his father in law, Jethra, and then he was going 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.879 to go back to Midian. And in between, this bush 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.480 catches on fire, and God says, by the way, you're 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.159 about to lead a nation out of slavery. That happened 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.520 as he was going to do something else. Now that 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.359 had been me, I'm very sure that I wouldn't have 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.919 looked at the bush, because I'd have been right here 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.600 looking at something else. The enemy is good at filling 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:28.200 the in between spaces, so you don't even see God. 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.480 I see this in the Life of Moses. I was 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.240 thinking about. I guess my favorite Bible story because it's 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.520 the first one I ever preached. How Peter walked on 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:43.280 water to Jesus. You know that happened just as they 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:47.040 were trying to get from Jesus. Jesus didn't set up 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.359 a water walking seminar that day. All they were trying 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:51.960 to do is get from the eastern shore to the 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.440 western shore. And they were going to the western shore 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.880 to do miracles. But they had to leave the eastern 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:58.680 shore to go to western shore. Along the way, here 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.280 comes a storm, and in the middle of the storm, 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.639 here comes Jesus and comes toward Peter. Peter's like, I 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:06.680 want to come toward you, And Peter comes toward Jesus. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:08.640 He falls down. Jesus picks him up, takes him back 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:09.800 to the boat, and they say, truly, you are the 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.240 Son of God. And we love that story. But it 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:18.480 happened in between. It happened in between. You think Mary 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.840 wanted to give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem. You want 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.480 to give birth to Jesus, away from your doctors, away 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:29.000 from your hometown. They were there for a census, and 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.320 the Savior of the world was born. I'm just trying 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.800 to say that some of the best stuff happens in between. 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.240 I want to remind you of that, some of the 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.320 best things in your life while you're so focused on, Oh, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.200 when I get through this, when I get through that, 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.080 Oh when I just get I just want to get 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:53.760 to the end of twenty twenty two. You've been saying 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.280 that for the last forty seven years. About this time 0:21:57.320 --> 0:21:59.640 every year, you start thinking, if I could just get 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.480 through the year, I'm just waiting for a new year, 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.200 and here it is fall. Okay, just a few more months. 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.960 If I could just get through twenty twenty two, If 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.320 you could just get through twenty twenty two, you were 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.199 gonna take twenty twenty you into twenty twenty three, and 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:20.679 twenty twenty two ain't gonna kill twenty twenty you. I 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.320 got stuck in the trap at one point in my 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:26.480 life of just surviving between Sundays as a preacher, and 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.800 at that time we were doing Saturday night services. I 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.000 haven't forgot about Jacob. I'm setting this up. Okay, I 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:35.199 haven't forgot about it, but I'm gonna tell you something 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:39.000 in between. I read my scripture. Now I'm gonna illustrate. 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:40.959 Then I'm gonna go back to Jacob. I used to 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:45.000 just think, if I could just get to Sunday and 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:50.639 get another sermon, study, pray, beg plead, offer my children 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:55.360 on the altar. What do you want? And a scary thing. 0:22:55.560 --> 0:23:00.399 It's a scary thing. Y'all's expectations are really high. It is, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:04.560 y'all really do have high expectations. Be serious, be funny, 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:10.040 be youthful, be wise. You want a lot, speak for God, 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:16.480 keep it real. Torn. I'm so torn. If you can 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:21.280 see me right now, I mean I might be holding 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:25.240 together on the outside, but on the inside. So I 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:28.200 just try to get to Sunday, and then I think, 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:30.200 if I could just get through Sunday. So wait a minute, 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:36.760 your whole life is getting too and getting through and 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:44.159 you are missing so many things in between. Oh, if 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.840 I can get this degree, what do you think that 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.760 degree is gonna do? What do you think that degree 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:54.320 is really gonna do? It's gonna open doors? What's on 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:57.320 the other side of a door? What do you think 0:23:57.359 --> 0:23:59.359 is on the other side of the door, a massage table. 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:02.840 You think it's a beach on the other side of 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:05.160 the door. The degree open the door. Then you gotta 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:07.119 do the stuff that they taught you to do. That 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:09.600 isn't really what you gotta do, because they don't really 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:11.480 teach you in school what you gotta do. What do 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:19.920 you think that degree is gonna do for you? Somebody 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:25.280 shout I'm in between. You didn't shout it convincingly because 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:27.679 it's not sexy. Oh watch this, Watch this, somebody shout 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:31.679 I made it. You see how much better you did that. 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:36.480 Shout this, I'm gonna do it. Come on, shout it 0:24:36.560 --> 0:24:43.200 from your chest. But that in between things you didn't 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:47.200 say that too good. Won't practice that. We don't practice 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:49.040 that in between. We don't really know how to be 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:53.240 in between. We really don't know how to be in between. Oh, 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:57.280 we definitely know how to think about the future, just 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:00.880 we know how to in our minds. I Jacob, he's 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:04.320 going to meet with Esau. He's like, okay, Now when 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.199 you get there, you give him a first gift, and 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:08.880 then you give him a second gift. So it won't 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:11.040 kill me. You give him a third. He's out there 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:13.800 in the future. He's really good at sending stuff ahead. 0:25:14.000 --> 0:25:16.359 He's sending everything ahead, so he thinks it'll be all 0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:19.320 right when he gets there. He's sending everything ahead. By 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:22.000 the way, He's come a long way. He just got 0:25:22.000 --> 0:25:24.960 back from Mahinim, where the angels of God met him, 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:27.600 where the angels of God attended to him, where the 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:30.120 angels of God show up. So he's seen a lot 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:33.800 of wonderful things behind him. But now we see Jacob 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:38.359 in a very interesting place. He's not in Shechem yet 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:41.400 where he's going. But he can't go back to Laban's 0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:44.240 house either. That's his uncle who he's been living with 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:48.119 for twenty years. An angel of God tells him, you 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:50.520 got to get up, you gotta go, You gotta move 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:52.719 right now. You don't have time to think about it, 0:25:52.840 --> 0:25:55.440 you don't have time to strategize it. The only problem 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:58.400 is if he leaves Laban, he has to deal with Esau, 0:25:58.720 --> 0:26:01.879 and the last time he saw Esau had blood in 0:26:01.920 --> 0:26:06.000 his eyes. Now we meet Jacob in Genesis chapter thirty two, 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:09.000 and the Bible says that the angel of God begins 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:12.840 to wrestle with him at night and wrestles with him 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:18.240 all night, all night long. Jacob is struggling with something 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:21.000 that he doesn't know what it is. But this is 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:24.080 nothing new to Jacob. You see, he's been practicing this 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:27.879 since the womb. He's been manipulating situation since he was 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:31.880 old enough to calculate. He's been moving here and moving there, 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:34.879 and doing this and doing that, and scheming things and 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:38.320 plotting things. Not only did he steal his brother's birthright, 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:42.520 he stole his blessing to by pretending to be his brother. 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:45.399 And now he's got to face the one that he 0:26:45.480 --> 0:26:48.480 pretended to be, who wanted to kill him the last 0:26:48.480 --> 0:26:51.080 time he saw him. But I can't stay with Laban, 0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:55.040 but I can't deal with Esau. I'm standing here needing 0:26:55.080 --> 0:26:58.359 the help of God. And so God comes not to 0:26:58.480 --> 0:27:05.440 help him, but to wrestle with him. And it's interesting 0:27:05.440 --> 0:27:08.439 to me that it didn't happen when he got to 0:27:08.640 --> 0:27:16.680 Esau the fight. Esau gave him a hug, and God 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:22.040 gave him a broken hip. I'm confused. I thought you 0:27:22.080 --> 0:27:26.800 asked God to bless you, Jacob, and he said bless me, 0:27:27.920 --> 0:27:30.480 bless me. I'm not letting go to bless me. Let's 0:27:30.520 --> 0:27:34.040 read the text again. This is Wow. Wow, this is 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:37.399 just unbelievable. For everybody who's in between right now, for 0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:40.359 everybody who's torn between what you believe that God has 0:27:40.400 --> 0:27:42.639 spoken that you really are and what you feel like 0:27:42.680 --> 0:27:45.640 from time to time. Everybody who's torn right now, how 0:27:45.640 --> 0:27:48.480 many of you are in a seasonal shift in your life? 0:27:48.600 --> 0:27:50.600 Was very difficult for you to comprehend where you're at 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:54.080 because I'm forty two. How many y'all think that's young? 0:27:55.440 --> 0:28:02.760 How many y'all think that's old? I'm torn. I'm torn. 0:28:04.800 --> 0:28:09.679 I'm torn. Graham's hand went up so high when I said, oh, 0:28:09.760 --> 0:28:11.800 and half this section, I don't know what's going on 0:28:11.840 --> 0:28:13.960 over here in this section, y'all said it was really young. 0:28:15.640 --> 0:28:20.200 I'm torn. I don't know which one to believe. Life 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:26.399 is tricky because life will intersect in betweens. So you 0:28:26.560 --> 0:28:34.400 raise teenagers, but you're also a tween ager because he's 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:37.639 about to turn fifteen. I'm close to turn of fifty. 0:28:38.520 --> 0:28:42.680 Both of us are in the middle of something and 0:28:42.720 --> 0:28:43.880 I don't know what I'm in the middle of and 0:28:43.880 --> 0:28:45.880 he doesn't know what he's in the middle of. And 0:28:45.920 --> 0:28:48.680 so now I'm trying to raise somebody as I walk 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:52.040 through something that I haven't seen the end of yet myself. 0:28:52.520 --> 0:28:54.440 And look back at what he's in the middle of. Well, 0:28:54.440 --> 0:28:55.840 I'm in the middle of mine. And tell him about 0:28:55.840 --> 0:28:57.160 the middle of his and bring him safely through it 0:28:57.160 --> 0:29:00.800 and don't get him killed. And he's stubborn. So when 0:29:00.800 --> 0:29:02.880 he wants to learn how to drive, watch this. He 0:29:02.920 --> 0:29:07.160 doesn't have enough money to afford a car, but he 0:29:07.160 --> 0:29:09.360 doesn't have enough humility to listen to me when I'm 0:29:09.360 --> 0:29:16.160 teaching him how to drive it. I'm just kidding, Graham, 0:29:16.200 --> 0:29:20.880 You're still perfect. He's gonna be a great driver. I prophesied, 0:29:20.920 --> 0:29:25.040 I declare it, i'd decree, I plead the blood. But 0:29:25.120 --> 0:29:27.880 that's what I mean by in between, is Jacob knowing 0:29:28.080 --> 0:29:31.160 I can't stay with Laban where he met his his 0:29:31.280 --> 0:29:36.120 wife Leah and his other wife Rachel, and he married 0:29:36.160 --> 0:29:39.840 one and thought he was marrying the other. This dude 0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:44.360 has a lot of problems at night. Jacob needs to 0:29:44.360 --> 0:29:46.760 put a nine pm curfew on himself because he gets 0:29:46.760 --> 0:29:49.120 in trouble at night. He went and slept with the 0:29:49.160 --> 0:29:52.120 wrong sister at night, woke up. The Bible's so funny. 0:29:52.200 --> 0:29:54.360 The Bible says he thought he laid down with Rachel 0:29:54.400 --> 0:29:57.320 that's who he wanted to marry. He commits to her father, 0:29:57.320 --> 0:29:59.440 I'm gonna work seven years so I can marry Rachel. Okay. 0:29:59.440 --> 0:30:01.480 At the end of seve in years, the father Laban 0:30:01.600 --> 0:30:04.800 slips in Leah, the other sister who has what we 0:30:04.880 --> 0:30:11.120 say the good personality. Leah has a good personality. Jacob 0:30:11.160 --> 0:30:13.760 goes to bed thinking it's Rachel, wakes up and there 0:30:13.880 --> 0:30:18.400 the Bible says, there was Leah. So funny, this is 0:30:18.480 --> 0:30:21.600 kind of like that because everything in the text. Watch 0:30:21.680 --> 0:30:23.800 this is what drew me to the text when I 0:30:23.880 --> 0:30:28.080 was thinking about being in between things. Nobody's calling me 0:30:28.120 --> 0:30:31.360 the young pastor anymore, but nobody thinks I'm an old 0:30:31.440 --> 0:30:34.320 sage either. Oh God, what am I? I am not 0:30:34.400 --> 0:30:37.960 a spiritual Bible quote and tongue talking Christian all the time. 0:30:38.280 --> 0:30:40.680 But I'm not trying to cuss people out either and 0:30:40.760 --> 0:30:43.360 start fights because I've learned too much to be ugly 0:30:43.440 --> 0:30:45.000 all the time. And no, I'm gonna have to clean 0:30:45.040 --> 0:30:48.080 up messes after I make them. So I'm too saved 0:30:48.120 --> 0:30:51.240 to be angry and too fleshly to be perfect. And 0:30:51.280 --> 0:30:58.400 I'm stuck in the middle feeling like ah Tar because 0:30:58.440 --> 0:31:00.760 I could handle it if I had this self control 0:31:00.880 --> 0:31:03.520 to just pray for people, that would be one thing. 0:31:04.320 --> 0:31:07.280 If I was just worldly and I knew jiu jitsu, 0:31:07.600 --> 0:31:11.680 I could handle it that way. But it's in between, 0:31:12.000 --> 0:31:17.600 so it's nighttime. Jacob is heading to what he thinks 0:31:17.720 --> 0:31:23.560 is his appointment. He's leaving what has been his refuge, 0:31:23.720 --> 0:31:31.520 and God meets him in between. The Lord said to 0:31:31.560 --> 0:31:36.520 tell you today, he's trying to meet you in between, 0:31:37.880 --> 0:31:45.320 and he's got you in between for a reason. He's 0:31:45.360 --> 0:31:48.560 got you in between for a reason. Jacob never could 0:31:48.600 --> 0:31:51.040 have known when he was sending his wives and his servants, 0:31:51.040 --> 0:31:53.520 and his donkeys and his camels and his gifts across 0:31:53.560 --> 0:31:57.040 the Jabak to meet with his brother Esau, that God 0:31:57.120 --> 0:31:59.440 was leaving him there, stripped of all of his appointments 0:31:59.440 --> 0:32:01.760 and all of his acomplishments, and all of his affiliations, 0:32:01.960 --> 0:32:05.040 so that he could show him something he never could 0:32:05.080 --> 0:32:08.120 have known. That. He never could have known while he 0:32:08.160 --> 0:32:11.240 was wrestling who he was wrestling with. He never could 0:32:11.240 --> 0:32:13.320 have known while he was wrestling what the outcome would be. 0:32:14.000 --> 0:32:18.960 But he wouldn't let go. He wouldn't let go. He 0:32:18.960 --> 0:32:23.880 held on for dear life. And when the angel, the 0:32:23.920 --> 0:32:28.160 Angel of God, who theologians would say is a pre incarnate, 0:32:29.880 --> 0:32:35.160 a pre incarnate revelation of Jesus Christ himself. When Jesus 0:32:35.200 --> 0:32:40.640 came to wrestle with Jacob, Jacob held on so tight 0:32:41.840 --> 0:32:49.640 that the angel said, boop, I'm going to put your 0:32:49.760 --> 0:32:57.640 hip out of joint so you can see who I am. 0:32:57.680 --> 0:33:02.160 That's not very nice, that's not very christ like. But 0:33:02.240 --> 0:33:07.600 it's Christ. I'm torn. This doesn't seem like something God 0:33:07.640 --> 0:33:11.240 would do. Usually, when we hear about God touching someone, 0:33:11.320 --> 0:33:15.479 something good happens. After God touched the blind man, his 0:33:15.560 --> 0:33:18.760 eyes were open. Holly preached about that Friday night. Well, 0:33:18.760 --> 0:33:21.720 what about poor Jacob. Jacob's eyes didn't open, he didn't 0:33:21.760 --> 0:33:24.120 get a testosterone boost, he didn't grow hair back in 0:33:24.160 --> 0:33:28.240 a bald patch. None of this happened when God touched him. 0:33:28.400 --> 0:33:32.040 The Bible says something interesting. It said he touched the 0:33:32.160 --> 0:33:38.960 socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched 0:33:39.480 --> 0:33:42.120 while he wrestled with the man. And go all the 0:33:42.160 --> 0:33:47.480 way down to verse twenty nine. He said, please tell 0:33:47.520 --> 0:33:49.880 me your name, but he replied, why he asked my name? 0:33:50.000 --> 0:33:55.440 Then he blessed him there. That's important. He blessed him 0:33:56.040 --> 0:34:00.400 there where in the place in between where Ja had 0:34:00.480 --> 0:34:03.040 left and where he was going. I'm trying to get 0:34:03.040 --> 0:34:06.400 you to see that God puts the blessing in the 0:34:06.400 --> 0:34:09.480 in between moments of your life, and if you are 0:34:09.640 --> 0:34:14.160 so focused on Esau in the future or Laban in 0:34:14.239 --> 0:34:17.440 the past, you will not receive what you need to 0:34:17.560 --> 0:34:21.880 receive in between that will strengthen you for what's ahead. 0:34:22.560 --> 0:34:25.560 For the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen 0:34:25.680 --> 0:34:28.479 short of the glory of God. But the Bible also 0:34:28.600 --> 0:34:31.719 says that all things work together for the good of 0:34:31.760 --> 0:34:35.840 those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Now, 0:34:35.960 --> 0:34:38.920 at certain points in your life, that verse will be 0:34:39.040 --> 0:34:41.879 tested as to whether you believe it's true. You will 0:34:41.920 --> 0:34:45.080 experience moments in your life where Romans eight twenty eight 0:34:45.160 --> 0:34:48.080 appears to be a flat out lie. So now you're 0:34:48.120 --> 0:34:50.480 trying to hold on to a truth that you're read 0:34:50.520 --> 0:34:53.560 in the Bible that all things work together for the good, 0:34:54.040 --> 0:34:57.279 and you're being held by something in your life that 0:34:57.440 --> 0:35:00.840 is dragging you into a place of doubt, being dragged 0:35:00.880 --> 0:35:04.600 all around standing there in between. But in these moments, 0:35:04.680 --> 0:35:07.719 God wants you to know that in the in between 0:35:07.880 --> 0:35:11.040 moments of your life the truth that you've heard, the 0:35:11.040 --> 0:35:14.239 truth that you've received, the truth that you believed, and 0:35:14.280 --> 0:35:19.000 the tearing that you've experienced. These are not always bad places. 0:35:19.560 --> 0:35:22.720 These are not always moments that God wants to deliver 0:35:22.840 --> 0:35:28.160 you from. Sometimes the in between place is the blessed place. 0:35:28.719 --> 0:35:32.560 And if all your focus is on getting through, getting to, 0:35:33.360 --> 0:35:37.400 getting through and getting too, you will miss the blessing 0:35:37.480 --> 0:35:42.440 that God has in a place called there. By the 0:35:42.560 --> 0:35:45.480 time he got to Esau, it was already done. You 0:35:45.520 --> 0:35:48.480 can keep your camels, you can keep your gifts. Doesn't 0:35:48.480 --> 0:35:52.320 need any of it, because that's not where God met 0:35:52.520 --> 0:35:58.759 Jacob to reveal himself. He met him in between. This 0:35:58.840 --> 0:36:00.560 is a word. I said, A wouldn't do it. But 0:36:00.640 --> 0:36:02.680 come here, chunks, come here, buck. This is a word, 0:36:02.719 --> 0:36:04.879 both of y'all. I don't have time. I don't have time. 0:36:04.920 --> 0:36:07.080 You gotta hurr, you gotta hurry, but I gotta show you. 0:36:07.200 --> 0:36:09.040 This is a word. Now, don't pull me too hard, 0:36:09.160 --> 0:36:11.239 don't pull me too hard, but I'm gonna hold you. 0:36:11.239 --> 0:36:13.000 You go that way, you go that way. This is 0:36:13.040 --> 0:36:14.719 a word. Go the other way, Buck, go the other way. 0:36:14.840 --> 0:36:16.399 This is not too hard, not to art, not too hard, 0:36:16.440 --> 0:36:19.759 not too hard, to shoulder. I'm forty two. Man, you 0:36:19.760 --> 0:36:23.400 can't pull too hard. This is a word when you 0:36:23.440 --> 0:36:27.440 feel torn. This is how you've been feeling lately. Not 0:36:27.560 --> 0:36:32.360 always stand still, y'all being too tense. This is a word. 0:36:33.400 --> 0:36:35.040 This is a word not only when you feel torn 0:36:35.080 --> 0:36:39.040 between good things and bad things, because that happens. Oh, 0:36:39.080 --> 0:36:40.920 the devil's telling me to do this, but God is 0:36:40.920 --> 0:36:45.040 saying do that. A you haven't been torn between two 0:36:45.040 --> 0:36:49.520 things that are both good. People make stuff sound so 0:36:49.640 --> 0:36:52.360 simple when they tell you advice. Oh, man, just focus 0:36:52.360 --> 0:36:58.640 on your kids. Which one? Because they don't really get 0:36:58.640 --> 0:37:00.400 along together. So now I got to be with one. 0:37:00.400 --> 0:37:03.640 I'm at a time which one? Somebody told me one time. 0:37:03.960 --> 0:37:07.400 Just great parenting advice. Don't miss any of your kids' games. 0:37:08.280 --> 0:37:11.400 But then guess what happened. Graham had a game and 0:37:11.440 --> 0:37:15.560 Abby had a game, both on Saturday, and the coach 0:37:15.600 --> 0:37:18.440 didn't call me and say, now we'll be okay, because 0:37:18.440 --> 0:37:20.920 I know you got to preach on Sunday. Can we 0:37:20.920 --> 0:37:22.719 put it? How many of y'all expect when you come 0:37:22.760 --> 0:37:25.239 to church that I studied the Word of God and 0:37:25.280 --> 0:37:28.799 prepared something to say to you. Would you be cool 0:37:28.800 --> 0:37:32.160 if I got up here and just wing it. Would 0:37:32.200 --> 0:37:35.400 you feel good about that if I said, speak Holy Spirit, 0:37:35.440 --> 0:37:37.360 and that's the first time I looked at my Bible. No, 0:37:37.800 --> 0:37:40.839 you expect me to be a good pastor. So here 0:37:40.920 --> 0:37:43.120 comes the pull every week. All right, Lord, I need 0:37:43.120 --> 0:37:45.520 to study and get something ready. But guess what my kids. 0:37:46.600 --> 0:37:49.640 My kids expect some things too, and they should. They're 0:37:49.640 --> 0:37:55.520 my priority. They're my priority. So now I feel pulled. 0:37:55.800 --> 0:38:01.319 I'm not torn between do I abandon my family or 0:38:01.360 --> 0:38:04.120 abandon my church. I'm trying to do both of them well, 0:38:04.160 --> 0:38:05.680 and I'm torn. Just move a little bit, move a 0:38:05.680 --> 0:38:13.759 little bit. Ah ah, And I don't know which one. 0:38:13.800 --> 0:38:18.080 If I knew which one, you know, there's a simple 0:38:18.080 --> 0:38:23.080 solution to this. It's right there in the text. It's 0:38:23.120 --> 0:38:26.600 what the Angel said to Jacob after he wrestled all night. 0:38:27.400 --> 0:38:32.400 He said, uh, let go, Now, this is simple. You 0:38:32.440 --> 0:38:34.080 ever think we'd be holding hands in front of thousands 0:38:34.080 --> 0:38:38.080 of people. We've been through a lot together, come back, 0:38:40.719 --> 0:38:46.320 the angel said. The Angel said, let go. It's that simple, 0:38:46.400 --> 0:38:50.279 Just let go, Just let go. So now I'm gonna 0:38:50.280 --> 0:38:52.080 illustrate that and show you why it's not that simple. 0:38:53.080 --> 0:38:58.520 Which one do I let go of? I'm torn. Just 0:38:59.000 --> 0:39:06.359 trust God. God trosted the Lord? How with all your heart? 0:39:06.560 --> 0:39:13.480 That's not what I'm talking about. I'm asking do I 0:39:13.560 --> 0:39:16.319 give money to my church or put money in my 0:39:16.400 --> 0:39:19.040 kid's college fund, because I think God wants me to 0:39:19.080 --> 0:39:22.600 do both. I'm torn just a little bit. What I'm 0:39:22.640 --> 0:39:26.680 torn like this? And if I let go, something is 0:39:26.719 --> 0:39:30.000 gonna fall apart. And I've been preaching to somebody all 0:39:30.040 --> 0:39:32.799 week in my spirit. I don't know who you are, 0:39:33.120 --> 0:39:36.960 but the Lord showed me you've been torn, and not 0:39:37.239 --> 0:39:41.279 because you don't love the Lord, and not because you 0:39:41.360 --> 0:39:45.439 don't believe all things work together. The thing about it 0:39:45.520 --> 0:39:49.239 is you are between two things and you don't know 0:39:49.320 --> 0:39:52.880 which one to let go of, which one to grab 0:39:52.920 --> 0:39:57.279 hold of, and you're torn, so you're stressed, so you 0:39:57.360 --> 0:40:01.400 can't sleep, So you can't ask people for advice because 0:40:01.440 --> 0:40:05.200 they oversimplified and they say, oh, just trust the Lord. 0:40:05.680 --> 0:40:14.760 But I'm trusting the Lord, but I'm torn. I don't 0:40:15.239 --> 0:40:22.520 know which one let go and let God? Which one 0:40:22.640 --> 0:40:29.839 is God? Because Jacob doesn't know who he's wrestling with. 0:40:30.239 --> 0:40:33.200 It's happening at night. Stay there, let me preach at 0:40:33.360 --> 0:40:38.399 night at night? Why did the Angel wrestle with him 0:40:38.840 --> 0:40:45.000 until the break of day. Why until the dawn, because 0:40:45.080 --> 0:40:52.200 the dawn is not exactly night. But it's not exactly 0:40:52.360 --> 0:40:58.920 morning either, is it. He's not exactly in a nighttime, 0:41:00.040 --> 0:41:03.880 he's not exactly in a morning time. And God blessed 0:41:03.960 --> 0:41:10.799 him there. He's not home yet. He hasn't made it 0:41:10.880 --> 0:41:13.680 to shock him yet. He's not back in his family's 0:41:13.719 --> 0:41:18.799 covering yet. He's in between in the Transjordan. It's not 0:41:18.920 --> 0:41:23.279 a holy place, it's not an unholy place. It's somewhere 0:41:23.680 --> 0:41:28.480 in between. And the Bible says that God blessed him there. 0:41:30.080 --> 0:41:33.319 He's not in Laban's house anymore. He's not in his 0:41:33.400 --> 0:41:39.000 father's house either. He's somewhere in between. You haven't graduated 0:41:39.040 --> 0:41:41.720 from it yet. You haven't quite beat the addiction yet. 0:41:41.840 --> 0:41:44.120 You haven't quite got it behind you yet. You hadn't 0:41:44.160 --> 0:41:47.320 quite deleted it yet. He hadn't quite left you alone yet. 0:41:47.440 --> 0:41:50.080 You'll quite have it under control yet, you'll quite have 0:41:50.239 --> 0:41:53.279 a mess forget, you'll quite have it down yet. And 0:41:53.320 --> 0:41:59.200 you are torn because I'm free, but I still like it, 0:42:04.320 --> 0:42:07.640 because I'm beating it, but it's still breathing down my neck. 0:42:08.000 --> 0:42:18.600 I'm torn It blessed him there at dawn. It's not day, 0:42:19.280 --> 0:42:23.000 but it's not night. It's not home, but it's not ran. 0:42:23.520 --> 0:42:26.440 It's not where he came from, it's not where he's going. 0:42:26.719 --> 0:42:34.120 It's in between. It's in between. And Jacob held on. 0:42:35.200 --> 0:42:38.840 He said, you ain't going nowhere. You're not going anywhere. 0:42:39.640 --> 0:42:45.160 And he just said, oh yeah, whoop, and watch, I 0:42:45.200 --> 0:42:47.680 got this. I got this revelation out of this verse. 0:42:48.960 --> 0:42:53.640 I can't believe I never preached this before. Forgive me 0:42:53.680 --> 0:42:56.720 for never preaching this before. Y'all. This is so tender, 0:42:57.120 --> 0:43:00.319 so powerful, but it slips right by you. He says 0:43:00.320 --> 0:43:05.840 that after God blessed him where where? Okay, clean up 0:43:05.840 --> 0:43:08.080 your life. I'll bless you get your act together. I'll 0:43:08.120 --> 0:43:10.760 bless you figure it all out. I'll bless you get smarter. 0:43:10.880 --> 0:43:13.960 I'll bless you read three books. I'll bless you memorize 0:43:13.960 --> 0:43:16.359 a couple verses. I'll bless you get to the place 0:43:16.400 --> 0:43:18.680 you're going. I'll bless you get through the hard time. 0:43:18.760 --> 0:43:21.480 I'll bless you get through twenty twenty two. I'll bless 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:24.080 y'all if you make it to twenty twenty three, you 0:43:24.200 --> 0:43:27.120 shall be. It shall be in twenty twenty three. That's 0:43:27.120 --> 0:43:31.920 a stupid New Year's sermon. I won't preach it because 0:43:31.960 --> 0:43:38.000 the Bible say that he blessed him where Now watch 0:43:38.040 --> 0:43:42.600 what I never saw In verse thirty two, it's said therefore, 0:43:42.600 --> 0:43:44.920 to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon 0:43:45.880 --> 0:43:50.360 attached to the socket of his hip, because the socket 0:43:51.680 --> 0:43:57.799 of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. Put your 0:43:57.800 --> 0:44:00.480 hand on your tendon. I'm not doing this illustration. You 0:44:00.520 --> 0:44:02.400 can do the owner. He used to be a physical therapist. 0:44:04.719 --> 0:44:09.319 Which tendon did the Angel touch? I've been thinking about 0:44:09.320 --> 0:44:13.680 it all week, y'all. I thought, was it the it band? 0:44:15.080 --> 0:44:22.160 Was it the gloodiest tendon's another one? I mean, all 0:44:22.239 --> 0:44:26.640 that tissue that it could have been. And the Bible 0:44:26.640 --> 0:44:33.000 says that he touched near the tendon. You know what 0:44:33.080 --> 0:44:36.920 that spoke to me that sometimes God will touch a 0:44:36.960 --> 0:44:40.120 place that anybody can tell you. If the ball came 0:44:40.200 --> 0:44:42.160 all the way out of the socket of Jacob's hill, 0:44:43.680 --> 0:44:48.319 he wouldn't have ever walked again. But if the ball 0:44:48.400 --> 0:44:51.600 came out of the socket of Jacob's Hill and the 0:44:51.680 --> 0:44:58.879 tendon tore, he could still walk, but he would walk 0:44:58.920 --> 0:45:13.880 different from now on. I love preaching to y'all. And 0:45:14.000 --> 0:45:16.240 you know why y'all are shouting over an anatomy lesson, 0:45:17.560 --> 0:45:24.600 because God's been touching your tendon. He touched your tendon. 0:45:25.800 --> 0:45:29.359 When he touched Jacob's tendon, it didn't mean that Jacob 0:45:29.400 --> 0:45:32.160 wouldn't get there. It just meant that he would get 0:45:32.160 --> 0:45:39.680 their limping. Somebody in this room today has been torn 0:45:40.920 --> 0:45:47.160 by life's challenges, and it wasn't always what the enemy did. 0:45:48.960 --> 0:45:53.640 The Bible says that the angels saw that the only 0:45:53.719 --> 0:45:58.560 way to overpower Jacob was to touch near the tendon. 0:45:59.640 --> 0:46:01.440 And God that has had us in a season of 0:46:01.480 --> 0:46:05.920 our life where you had to touch the tendon. The 0:46:05.960 --> 0:46:08.719 tendon is the tissue that holds it all together. The 0:46:08.760 --> 0:46:11.640 tendon is what connects the muscle to the bone. If 0:46:11.640 --> 0:46:14.240 the tendon is torn, it may not have any strength 0:46:14.320 --> 0:46:16.560 to it. But God said, you can still get there. 0:46:18.200 --> 0:46:21.759 You will have to limp from now on. That's not 0:46:21.880 --> 0:46:30.080 a bad thing. See Jacob's tendency. What's to run his tendency? 0:46:30.680 --> 0:46:40.160 What's to run his his tendency? Oh oh oh, I 0:46:40.200 --> 0:46:42.680 want to retitle the message. I want to call this 0:46:42.760 --> 0:46:49.200 message a trickster learns to trust Because Jacob tricked his 0:46:49.320 --> 0:46:51.600 way all the way to this place, and his like, 0:46:51.800 --> 0:46:54.920 oh bless me, I'll pretend to be Esau. Oh bless me, 0:46:55.080 --> 0:46:57.480 I'll give you some beans. Oh if you're mad at me, 0:46:57.520 --> 0:47:00.279 I'll run and start all over. That's been so of 0:47:00.320 --> 0:47:05.040 you all your life. You have been running from you 0:47:05.520 --> 0:47:09.320 all your life. Not he saw you for the Bible 0:47:09.400 --> 0:47:13.319 said that when God blessed him, he renamed him. His 0:47:13.640 --> 0:47:18.200 name was Jacob, but his name was Israel. Which one 0:47:18.480 --> 0:47:25.840 was it? He's torn One means trickster, one means prince. 0:47:27.440 --> 0:47:30.759 Jacob means he'll grabber because when he was born he 0:47:30.920 --> 0:47:35.040 was grabbing his brother's heel trying to get out burst. 0:47:36.440 --> 0:47:40.120 So he's not grabbing heels anymore. Now his hip has 0:47:40.160 --> 0:47:43.720 been touched. And God said, I'm gonna make you Israel 0:47:44.360 --> 0:47:49.480 a prince. Israel means prince, y'all, he gonna be a prince. 0:47:50.520 --> 0:47:52.560 Tell somebody next to you, you're gonna be a prince. 0:47:53.600 --> 0:47:59.680 Princess madifaya be inclusive? Everybody be inclusive is twenty twenty two. 0:48:03.040 --> 0:48:06.120 But you're gonna be Watch this, Watch this. You're gonna 0:48:06.160 --> 0:48:12.440 be a limping prince because you're gonna be reminded for 0:48:12.520 --> 0:48:16.439 the rest of your life. That you can't outrun God's plan. 0:48:18.200 --> 0:48:21.399 You can't outrun God's book this. If you make your 0:48:21.400 --> 0:48:24.439 bet in Hell, he's there. If you make your bet 0:48:24.480 --> 0:48:27.120 in the depths of the sea, even there, even there, 0:48:27.440 --> 0:48:32.160 even there, his hand will lead you, and his right 0:48:32.160 --> 0:48:38.000 hand will hold you up. I'm Jacob, I'm Israel. Which 0:48:38.000 --> 0:48:40.960 one will I be? That's what you're deciding every day 0:48:40.960 --> 0:48:43.920 you wake up. That's what you're deciding every situation you 0:48:44.000 --> 0:48:47.160 walk into. Am I gonna walk according to my new 0:48:47.239 --> 0:49:01.200 nature or my old name? And up here holding hands 0:49:01.200 --> 0:49:05.440 with two big, grown, strong men, just to illustrate how 0:49:05.480 --> 0:49:09.240 you have felt in this season of your life, Torn 0:49:10.239 --> 0:49:18.560 but trusting, Torn but trusting. Jacob lived with this limp 0:49:19.000 --> 0:49:22.920 the rest of his life. Do you know how I know? 0:49:23.320 --> 0:49:26.839 Look at Hebrews eleven twenty one. The Bible says, by 0:49:26.960 --> 0:49:33.480 faith Jacob, somebody shout, by faith Jacob, that in itself 0:49:33.560 --> 0:49:36.840 is a miracle. The one who's spent his whole life 0:49:36.880 --> 0:49:39.400 trying to figure it out, the one who's spent his 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:42.560 whole life running from stuff that he couldn't bear to face, 0:49:42.920 --> 0:49:45.440 the one who's spent his whole life trying to pretend 0:49:45.480 --> 0:49:48.440 to be something else. By the end of his life, 0:49:48.560 --> 0:49:53.719 the Bible says, by faith, Jacob, Jacob isn't running anymore. 0:49:54.000 --> 0:49:57.600 Jacob can't run from himself anymore. Jacob can't run from 0:49:57.640 --> 0:50:01.000 his calling anymore. Neither can you. God has brought you 0:50:01.080 --> 0:50:04.160 to this place, and he's put you in between, and 0:50:04.239 --> 0:50:07.320 he stuck you where you are, and he's not letting 0:50:07.360 --> 0:50:13.160 you go until he blesses you. You hear me, he 0:50:13.280 --> 0:50:16.560 won't let go. It's not you holding on to God, 0:50:16.920 --> 0:50:26.960 it's God holding on to you. God's gonna get some 0:50:27.080 --> 0:50:29.719 of you. A little boot blessing this week, a little 0:50:29.800 --> 0:50:33.040 boot blessing this week, a little booty blessing with a boot. 0:50:33.239 --> 0:50:36.040 He said, don't run from this. You stay right here. 0:50:36.239 --> 0:50:40.200 You receive your calling, you receive your inheritance. You are 0:50:40.440 --> 0:50:46.080 short hair. With Jesus, you are that thing. I'm telling 0:50:46.160 --> 0:50:52.040 you what Jacob, by faith put my verse back up 0:50:52.080 --> 0:50:56.680 he Brews eleven twenty one. By faith, Jacob, when he 0:50:56.920 --> 0:51:01.720 was dying, what he's standing in between life and death, 0:51:02.000 --> 0:51:04.400 And what's what he did in between his life and 0:51:04.440 --> 0:51:09.560 his death. He blessed, he blessed, he blessed, he blessed, 0:51:09.960 --> 0:51:13.520 he blessed. You see the transformation. He's saying, bless me, 0:51:13.920 --> 0:51:17.080 But by the end of his life, he's saying, be blessed. 0:51:17.560 --> 0:51:23.800 That's what God touch his tiken so he could walk different, 0:51:25.080 --> 0:51:30.440 think different, talk different. Can I keep going? Just a 0:51:30.480 --> 0:51:34.360 few more words, Just a few more words? By faith Jacob. 0:51:34.600 --> 0:51:38.800 He's standing between the portals of eternity and the time 0:51:39.000 --> 0:51:42.840 bound frame of his humanity, and he starts blessing. Ready, 0:51:43.360 --> 0:51:47.479 Joseph's sons. Who's Joseph, the son who was thrown into 0:51:47.560 --> 0:51:50.640 a pit, the son he thought he'd never see again, 0:51:51.040 --> 0:51:54.040 the son he thought was as good as dead. His 0:51:54.280 --> 0:51:58.880 heart was torn, his coat was torn. But God wasn't 0:51:58.920 --> 0:52:03.160 through with Joseph. I came to the clare. It's not over. 0:52:03.680 --> 0:52:16.080 You're just in between. Hollelujah, Bye, Thank Joseph. By faith 0:52:16.800 --> 0:52:22.280 Jacob blessed Joseph's boys so he never thought he'd see again. 0:52:22.480 --> 0:52:24.640 This a miracle, This a miracle, This a miracle, This 0:52:24.800 --> 0:52:34.400 a miracle, and worshiped as he leaned on top of 0:52:34.480 --> 0:52:41.040 his staff. He never quit limping, but he never stopped walking. 0:52:45.640 --> 0:52:51.520 Look looking, You're gonna get there, You're gonna get there. Shout, shout, 0:52:51.560 --> 0:52:58.840 You're gonna get there. Shout, shout, You're gonna get there, limping, limping. 0:53:00.280 --> 0:53:04.600 Everybody's tissue is torn, everybody's hip is out of socket, 0:53:05.440 --> 0:53:07.439 all of suddenings falling short of the glory of God. 0:53:09.400 --> 0:53:13.680 Everybody that's leaving this church today is limping in some 0:53:13.840 --> 0:53:18.799 area of their life. Everybody is torn. This is a 0:53:18.840 --> 0:53:25.000 fragmented world, This is a fallen world. We are we 0:53:25.120 --> 0:53:31.680 are dust. But in these earthen vessels we have the 0:53:31.719 --> 0:53:39.440 treasure of God's glory. And I want to leave you 0:53:39.520 --> 0:53:43.040 with this. I want to leave you with this. Even 0:53:43.080 --> 0:53:49.799 in his dying breath, his name was still Jacob. He 0:53:49.920 --> 0:53:57.000 never quit limping. Even as he blessed the grandsons of 0:53:57.040 --> 0:54:00.200 the boys who would be the nation of Israel, he 0:54:00.360 --> 0:54:05.399 never stopped being Jacob. So you know what the Lord 0:54:05.440 --> 0:54:08.480 told me we have to do. We have to trust 0:54:09.160 --> 0:54:13.680 through the tearing. When life feels like it's pulling you 0:54:13.719 --> 0:54:15.879 in two different directions and you're not doing very good 0:54:15.920 --> 0:54:19.160 at either, how many have said this week in your life, man, 0:54:19.320 --> 0:54:21.000 I don't feel like I'm doing good in any of 0:54:21.040 --> 0:54:23.839 these areas of my life. I'm not doing good at home, 0:54:23.880 --> 0:54:26.239 I'm not doing good at work. I'm spread so thin. 0:54:26.520 --> 0:54:28.560 I've been so busy. Oh if I could just have 0:54:28.640 --> 0:54:31.120 one thing, Oh I could just hold onto that one thing, 0:54:31.320 --> 0:54:33.200 I could just be that one thing. But yet the 0:54:33.239 --> 0:54:35.440 reality of life is not that, is that, It's this, 0:54:36.480 --> 0:54:40.879 It's this. So the Lord said, you got to learn 0:54:41.840 --> 0:54:47.720 how to lean in the places that you're weak by faith, 0:54:48.800 --> 0:54:56.439 he blessed while leaning on his staff. Lord, we lean 0:54:56.480 --> 0:55:01.800 on you today, not our own understanding or our predictions, 0:55:03.000 --> 0:55:08.440 not our own pictures, not our own preferences, but by faith, Jacob, 0:55:09.760 --> 0:55:14.799 and by faith we I speak to everybody who has 0:55:14.880 --> 0:55:20.879 filed of distracted this week, and I speak the peace 0:55:20.880 --> 0:55:24.719 of God over your life. To know that God allows 0:55:24.800 --> 0:55:29.200 these tearings in our lives sometimes, whether it's the tearing 0:55:29.239 --> 0:55:32.520 of your tendon, whether it's the tearing of a relationship. 0:55:32.560 --> 0:55:36.200 We use physical analogies, but we're dealing with spiritual realities. 0:55:37.719 --> 0:55:42.760 The terring usually isn't limited to the physical. The fact 0:55:42.760 --> 0:55:44.360 of the matter is some of you are learning how 0:55:44.440 --> 0:55:48.120 to trust God down a path that you've never traversed 0:55:48.120 --> 0:55:53.400 yourself before. God said, that's why he gave you a 0:55:53.520 --> 0:55:56.680 staff to lean on and a word to hold to. 0:55:58.600 --> 0:56:02.600 This is how it feels to be between. It's not 0:56:02.719 --> 0:56:06.359 quite fal it's not quite summer. I'm not quite here. 0:56:06.440 --> 0:56:10.239 I'm not quite there. I'm not quite holy, but I 0:56:10.320 --> 0:56:16.000 really want to be. God said I got you in between. 0:56:18.840 --> 0:56:23.600 You're gonna get there. You're gonna do it. Come on, 0:56:23.719 --> 0:56:25.279 I'm speaking to you. I don't know who you are, 0:56:25.320 --> 0:56:27.680 but you've been on my heart. You're gonna get there, 0:56:30.920 --> 0:56:34.960 but you won't be strutting. You're gonna be a limping prince. 0:56:36.800 --> 0:56:39.040 You're gonna have to learn how to submit these things 0:56:39.040 --> 0:56:41.319 to the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying God won't give 0:56:41.360 --> 0:56:43.719 you victory. I'm not saying some things won't leave your life. 0:56:43.800 --> 0:56:46.080 I'm not saying you're always gonna deal with depression on 0:56:46.120 --> 0:56:49.600 this level, but there will always be the mark from 0:56:49.640 --> 0:56:54.399 where he touched your tendon, so that when you get there, 0:56:55.600 --> 0:56:58.759 you will know it was him. It was him. It 0:56:58.840 --> 0:57:02.560 wasn't me, it was him. It was him that did it. 0:57:02.560 --> 0:57:08.359 It was him, it was Grace, it was bye. Well. 0:57:08.400 --> 0:57:10.480 If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of 0:57:10.520 --> 0:57:14.200 things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, 0:57:14.480 --> 0:57:17.480 and review this podcast. 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