You Can't Run From This - Dr. Janiece Williams - TWCC 7-19-26 9:30 am

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the way community church podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name's Ahmed Gordon, I'm the podcast producer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to join us, need prayer or worship through giving, you can find the links in the transcript of this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: This service was recorded during Dr. Hall's sabbatical.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our guest pastor, Dr. Janice Williams, came with the word of, you can't run from this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Coming from the story of Jacob fighting the angel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be your bibles to Genesis chapter 32, verses 24 to 28.

Genesis 32:24–28

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's join our service.

[SPEAKER_01]: Say Jacob, then the man said you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have stripping with God and with humans, and have prevailed.

[SPEAKER_01]: For these few moments that we shared this morning, I want to preach with this thought in our minds.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't run from this.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't run from this.

[SPEAKER_01]: The islands of Hawaii, often known for their breath taking beautiful waters, stunning beaches, and their uncompromisingly delectable cuisine, are equally as notorious

[SPEAKER_01]: for their volcanic activity.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, the Hawaii volcano's national park is often advertised as one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places to visit with its more than 300,000 acres of what one tour guide describes as a natural beauty and geological wonder.

[SPEAKER_01]: A strikingly curious paradox to say the least for a place whose beauty is mysteriously constituted by the very forces that are capable of destroying everything in its path.

[SPEAKER_01]: And no one knows this painstaking reality quite like one 32-year-old anonymous soldier who had made 2019 while stationed at the Skowfield barracks visited one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Kilo Way of volcanoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: known for its consistency.

[SPEAKER_01]: This volcano's rupture-prone reputation was not without calls, having destroyed more than 700 homes just one year prior to this powerful force of nature was truly a sight to behold.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like so many other curious tourists before him, this unnamed soldier found himself standing at the boundary of an overlook into this cradle of devastation, expecting to behold its destructive power against the backdrop of nature's canvas.

[SPEAKER_01]: As he stood there, dissatisfied by it seemingly unevenful state, he makes a split decision that would change the trajectory of his experience there.

[SPEAKER_01]: because while standing and straining to get a better view of the destruction, this soldier climbed over the metal safety railing and began or walking to the edge of the cliff when suddenly the ground beneath him began to give way.

[SPEAKER_01]: An unexpected shift that would send him plummeting 300 feet from the cliff where he would painfully crash onto a narrow ledge approximately 70 feet inside the volcano.

[SPEAKER_01]: His miraculous survival attributed only to that narrow cliff protruding deep inside of the very thing that he should have run away from and why all the rescue team would eventually locate him and pull him back to safety this difficult rescue mission would not happen instantaneously, but for two hours he laid there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Waiting and wrestling with the reality of this unexpected struggle for two hours friends he laid there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Riving and pain from the impact of the crash for two hours he laid there accompanied by the music of the magma, the anticipation of death mocking every breath he took for two hours he laid there.

[SPEAKER_01]: The intensity of the volcanic steam and unwelcome a company meant to an unexpected struggle to survive.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just wonder what he must have been thinking as he laid there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Painfully continuing with the unexpected difficulties that can meet you on your way to what you know has the power to destroy you.

[SPEAKER_01]: wonder what he must have been thinking as he contended with the unexpected pain that met him on the way for the purpose for which he had climbed in front.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think this soldier's experience highlights for us the reality that sometimes the journey towards our expected destination is itself often right with experiences of struggle along the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wish I could tell you that the challenges that you know light up ahead are all the challenges that you will encounter.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wish I could tell you that the difficulties you expect to come on the other side of this would be all the difficulties that you would have to face with the reality is friends that sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: The journey toward your anticipated end will come with some struggles and some strivings that you cannot anticipate.

[SPEAKER_01]: My mother will put it to us like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: If it's not one thing, it's another.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know exactly what it is I'm talking about that you haven't even gotten.

[SPEAKER_01]: to the next phase in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here you are, now having to manage the reality of unexpected loss and anticipated grief that you haven't even gotten to that difficult meeting that's waiting for you at the office.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here you are, having to navigate the rupture in your relationship when y'all got into a fight on your way to church this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Keep looking forward, we haven't even gotten

[SPEAKER_01]: a chance to contend with the realities of an unjustified violation and stripping of the voting rights at Bahir, black Christians are having to navigate weekly and fighting online as if we don't have more important things for us to be focused on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to tell you friends that sometimes life won't let you navigate this journey toward your anticipated end without some struggles

[SPEAKER_01]: preparing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just wonder if this is what Jacob was feeling when he laid there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Alone and anticipating what he believes would be a difficult encounter with his brother, Esau, when all of a sudden the text says that in man and unidentified man wrestles with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is, when we meet Jacob in the text, he is on the run from his brother Isha, who's birthright blessing he has stolen years before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a right if I tell the story a little bit this morning, friends, back in the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isha, the older brother of the two, comes home from hunting and in a moment of weakness and a lapse in judgment, bargains away.

[SPEAKER_01]: birthright blessing to Jacob in exchange for a little part of lintel stew and when their father eyes the grew old and if I sight began to fail him Jacob deceives his father into thinking that he is esauce so that he can bestow upon him.

[SPEAKER_01]: The birthright blessing that rightly belonged to Esau sending Esau into a destructive rage and now friends Jacob has gone on the run and for years Jacob is on the run and while he is on the run he has an encounter with God in chapter 28 who promises him in a dream that God would be with him and would keep him.

[SPEAKER_01]: wherever he goes.

[SPEAKER_01]: God makes a promise to him that God would bring him back to his homeland and that God would never leave him until God has done what God has promised God was going to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And years go by Jacob.

[SPEAKER_01]: Has now gotten Mary Jacob, has now had

[SPEAKER_01]: children Jacob has now accumulated possessions.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's even decided to amicably sever ties with his father and law.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now, as he is ready, to move toward the promise of God, verse 3 says that he sends messengers to his brother, Esau, who he hasn't seen in years, hoping to find favor in his brother's site.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the messages come back friends, they tell him that his brother E.S.R.

[SPEAKER_01]: is on the way to meet him and that he has 400 men coming with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And listen to what the Bible says, friends, the Bible says that Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's greatly afraid and distressed because he believes that his brother is still angry with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's greatly afraid and distressed because he believes that his brother is coming to kill him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is, friends, Jacob knows that God has made a promise to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what he is experiencing now,

[SPEAKER_01]: contradicts the promise that he knows God has made to him and so instead of facing the problem head on trusting that God would do everything that God has promised to do Jacob instead begins to do with Jacob knows to do Jacob but runs away.

[SPEAKER_01]: He runs away, he isolates himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: He divides his camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: He sends his wife and his children and all of his possessions away until the text says that he is left alone one night all by himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while he is waiting for what he believes will be his certain destruction, the frustration of the promise that God has made to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He can't even wait in peace because the text says that the man comes to him

[SPEAKER_01]: with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Watch the progression of the text friends, God makes the promise to Jacob.

[SPEAKER_01]: The imminent arrival of his brother feels like a contradiction to the promise that God has made to him in a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is

[SPEAKER_01]: Vecting God's promise to fail, the Bible says that now he has to wrestle with a random man and it begs the question for you and I.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the value of struggle on the pathway to fulfill man when what you experience already contradicts what God said you should expect?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean,

[SPEAKER_01]: But why do I have to struggle on the way to struggle?

[SPEAKER_01]: If I've already accepted that pain, it's gonna be my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why can't I just be hopeless in peace God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why can't I just accept that it's not gonna work out for me the way that I expected it to work out for me without having to face heartbreak and betrayal along the way?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why can't I just be discouraged in peace God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is it that every time I turn around,

[SPEAKER_01]: Keep on bumping into her after her pain after pain disappointment after disappointment brokenness after brokenness tear after tear headline after headline disruption after disruption god I'm already hurt and why can't I just hurt in peace

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's you in here today, friends, where you've given up and concluding that there's no way anything good can come after this and you are asking God, why it is that you can't seem to catch a break, I came with some good news for you this morning because the text friends indicates that Jacob's struggle is not the end of the story, the text says that Jacob,

[SPEAKER_01]: ultimately prevails in this seemingly random wrestling match, and it is only after this experience that something in Jacob shifts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the next chapter says that when his brother Isar writes, this same Jacob who has spent years running away from difficult experiences, now places himself in front of his wives and children, and the text says that he himself goes to meet Isar head on, and when he gets to where his brother is, he discovers that his brother is not coming to kill him.

[SPEAKER_01]: but that his brother is coming to embrace him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you hear me what I just said, friends?

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, the text indicates that something in Jacob's shifts because the same Jacob who has to be here is running away from difficult situations.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now faces his brother head on, and it's when he stops running away from difficulty that he discovers that his brother is not coming to kill him,

[SPEAKER_01]: Brother is coming to embrace him and y'all, I have to ask the question, what happened between the wrestling and the reconciliation that calls his Jacob to lean into, what he would have previously run away from, because something happens friends are in the midst of that unexpected wrestling match.

[SPEAKER_01]: that shapes how Jacoba now proceeds into the fulfillment of God's promise and friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that Jacob's story teaches us something that you and I need to learn today, and it's that God uses experiences of unexpected struggle to cultivate the necessary capacities that enable us to embrace the promises of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said that too fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll say it again, friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: It

[SPEAKER_01]: that God uses experiences of unexpected struggle to cultivate the necessary capacities that enable us to embrace the promises of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, friends, I came to tell you today that God won't waste your struggle on the way to God's promise that I know it's been one thing

[SPEAKER_01]: Another thing I know it's been heartbreaking after heartbreak.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's been disappointment after disappointment And I know it's been loneliness after loneliness and I know it's been rejection after rejection And I know every time you turn on a TV We came seeing the catcher break and I know you never thought that by now You would have to teach your children how to get pulled over I know you didn't think that by now you would have to teach your children how to pick

[SPEAKER_01]: their friends so that they can come back home from voting trips alive.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that after everything we've been through, we never thought that we would have to resurrect Antibelom's survival strategies in order to face modern-day slave patrols, but

[SPEAKER_01]: For such a time as this friends with all the pain that surrounds us with all the despair That is around this God with all the hopelessness that feels like it's never gonna come to an end I came to tell you friends that I just believe that God still has a plan on the way to God's promise I still believe that God won't waste your struggle on the way to God's promise I still believe that God won't waste your pain

[SPEAKER_01]: We show loneliness and God will wish all disappointment and God will wish all fears and God will wish all rejections I still believe that God won't wish all shrug or the way to God's promise And maybe friends

[SPEAKER_01]: God is calling us in this season to embrace the lessons that come in the context of difficult experiences as a way of God's preparation for the fulfillment of God's promise.

[SPEAKER_01]: I won't be before you long friends, but I believe there are a few quick lessons that this text teaches us about how to embrace God's preparation for God's divine promise.

[SPEAKER_01]: direct engagement reveals internal fortitude.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a lot of words, direct engagement reveals internal fortitude.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the text, text says in verse 24 that Jacob was left alone and a man wrestles with him until daybreak.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob Friends has isolated himself from everyone and everything he has sent away his family and all of his camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now he is sitting alone at night, binding his business when the text says that a man wrestles with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have to be honest friends because I've always been troubled by the imagery in this text.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the text that indicate that there was some kind of conversation that happens before this fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't suggest that there was any form of recognition that we don't know where the man is coming from.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know where he is, who he is or who his people are.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, at this point, the revelation that the man was a divine figure had not yet been revealed.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the imagery of the text is that their Jacob was minding his business when a random man brought a fight to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, this one, no, no ordinary fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: That word, Russell there, is to indicate this idea of an intense grappling to the point of kicking up dust from the ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: It has this sense of pounding away to make the other person small as a result of this pounding in other words that it was a dusty fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a dirty fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a physically forceful fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the text says that while Jacob was alone, the man,

[SPEAKER_01]: wrestles with Jacob.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's this idea that Jacob did not go looking for the fight, but that the fight was brought to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And watch friends with Jacob does when the fight is brought to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And after all, this is Jacob that we're talking about and Jacob friends that has a track record of avoiding

[SPEAKER_01]: disengaging when it feels uncomfortable, but here, this text says that the man Russell's here it is with Jacob.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't miss this because the significance of this text is hidden in translation.

[SPEAKER_01]: This idea that the man Russell's with Jacob sounds like passive language.

[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds as if the man brought the fight to Jacob and Jacob simply passed

[SPEAKER_01]: Experience is this fight, but Dutch biblical scholar Ellen Ben World helps us to understand that the Hebrew there is in what's called the middle voice Which means that this idea of a reciprocity that the subject is not one who simply lets it happen to themselves not one

[SPEAKER_01]: who exerts it on somebody else but that the man is affected by the action in a reciprocal way.

[SPEAKER_01]: So another way of reading this verse is that Jacob was left alone and he entered into a wrestling situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, friends, the fight was brought to Jacob and Jacob

[SPEAKER_01]: choose this to engage in a fight he didn't choose that even though this wasn't something he acts for he did not let what happened to him calls him the sit back and let it happen to him did you catch a friend that he did not ask

[SPEAKER_01]: for this fight, but since the fight was brought to him, he did not run away and it teaches us friends that internal fortitude is only cultivated when we consciously decide to engage in the struggles that we would normally avoid.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody in here you can testify that I didn't know how strong I was until I decided to keep on going with this fight I didn't know how much fight I had in me and till I stopped letting life happen to me and starting to engage I didn't know that I could do hard things until I stopped

[SPEAKER_01]: running away.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know that I could do difficult things until I chose to keep engaging when I would have really wanted to run away.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know how much power was in my voice until I stopped letting people speak over me and speak on my behalf and started using my voice and speaking up for myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody in here this morning that can declare that I may not start the fight but I'm sure he was going to finish it is there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody in here that can testify But I'm not gonna let life happen to me But I'm gonna say in the fight That you picked the right one a day That I still got some fight in me Is there anybody in here that can throw your hand up?

[SPEAKER_01]: Open up your mouth and say, I still got some fight

[SPEAKER_01]: And friends, we need people in these times that we are living in that will not let what is happening to us, calls us to shrink back, and let it happen to us, that in this era of misinformation, we need people who can still speak the truth in this time that we are living in where the name of Jesus is used as a smoke screen to justify racist ideology.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the true hands and see of Jesus Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves to insist on God's justice It's a call for the world where everybody can flourish and everybody can be where we need people Who won't let what is happening to us or happen to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need people who will stay in the fight

[SPEAKER_01]: But we never know how much fight we have in us until we stop letting life happen to us and choose to engage in the struggle.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because direct engagement, friends, reveals internal 42, but then number two, the text teaches us that perseverance exposes the insufficiency of perceived strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: The text says that when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is interesting to me because before this moment, we now know that Jacob, who has a track record of running away when it gets hard, actually got some can't quit in him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And a text says that it is when the man saw that Jacob didn't give up that he strikes him on the hip and throws his hip out of second.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is odd because he already shows the man that he won't give up on this fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what's the point of incapacitating him at this point?

[SPEAKER_01]: As I understand this, I think it's important to contextualize what's happening here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, when the struggle is brought to Jacob, Jacob is caught in between the promise he knows God has made to him and the destruction he believes will get in the way of that promise.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, just a few verses earlier before the wrestling match occurs, Jacob prays to God, and he begs that God would deliver him from the hand of his brother, Esau, because Jacob is afraid that when Esau saw him, it was going to be on sight for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob prays an extra Lord to deliver him from the hand of his brother because he's afraid that when Jacob comes, Jacob is going to kill him which means that the promise that God has made to him is never going to be fulfilled.

[SPEAKER_01]: He prays that God would deliver him and now he finds himself in an unexpected struggle where a random man against whom he has persevered throws his hip out of socket.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's just me, but why would God allow him to be injured when he already knows that Jacob isn't going to give up?

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I find interesting friends that when the man strikes Jacob on the hip, permanently dislocating his hip.

[SPEAKER_01]: He effectively hinders his ability to resort to his natural proclivities beyond this struggle.

[SPEAKER_01]: that we know that Jacob is one who is prone to run away from hard things.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know that Jacob is good and at running away when things get difficult, but now that the man strikes him on the hip, he literally cannot rely on what he's always been able to rely on, but now he has to struggle and wrestle through the breakdown of what he thought was the source of his strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: And not only that, France, but the socket of the hip is the very spot that men would smite an instances of mourning and indignation.

[SPEAKER_01]: That whenever they would experience grief or indignation, they would smite their hip as an external sign of an inward experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: Could it be that by taking away the thing that Jacob perceived to be his strengths, he is now forced to deal with the unresolved grief and anger that was buried beneath the very thing he thought made him strong?

[SPEAKER_01]: that God, in other words, knew that Jacob would not himself deal with his unattended emotions.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so God allows the unexpected struggle to expose to him what he would not have dealt with if he kept on running away.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe the lesson for us friends is that sometimes God's

[SPEAKER_01]: delivering power is experience that not when God delivers us from our experience, but when God delivers us from ourselves that that may be friends that the breakdown of what you thought may do strong is an invitation for

[SPEAKER_01]: you to deal with the unresolved anger and the unresolved feelings of rejection that you would not have run away from maybe the breakdown of what you thought all you could rely on was an invitation for you to face the grief that you spent years ignoring and trying to be strong so that everybody didn't see your vulnerability maybe the breakdown of what you thought will keep you from being hurt as an invitation for you to work through the

[SPEAKER_01]: through the pain and work through the heart of being rejected time and time again of getting your heart broken time and time again maybe God is trying to make you face what you've been running away from.

[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, Jacob shows that he is desire for reconciliation with his brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: When he reaches out to him in the first place, he wants to be reconciled to his brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe God has to break down the thing he thought made him strong along the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that was the very thing that was needed to make room in his heart for the reconciliation that he had been praying for.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because sometimes friends, perceptions of human strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: often mask the unattended emotions that lie at the heart of our frustration.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're not depressed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's not depression that you're wrestling with sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You keep ignoring the grief that you refuse to deal with sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that you're so strong, but sometimes you've been running away from the disappointment of having your heart broken time and time again when you know what God has said to you

[SPEAKER_01]: that deliver us from the situation by first delivering us from I say.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because perseverance exposes the insufficiency of perceived strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, I'm finally on my way to my seat.

[SPEAKER_01]: The text teaches us that human connection is the pathway to God's intended blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 26 says, then he said, let me go for the day is breaking, but Jacob said, I will not let you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Unless you bless me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, Jacob has an interesting relationship with blessings.

[SPEAKER_01]: He first manipulates his brother's vulnerability by coercing him to sell his birthright blessing to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, when the time comes, he steals his brother's birthright blessing and he's been on the run ever since.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now, friends in the text before us, he's refusing to let go of a man with whom he's been in a struggle until the man blesses him.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the difference?

[SPEAKER_01]: between the blessing that he stole and the blessing that he now seeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I suggest to you this morning, friends, that the difference is found in the details of the wrestling match.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: The text says that it was after the man dislocates his hip, that the man tells Jacob to do what Jacob was already good at doing, of letting go and running away.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob knows how to let people leave, like some of us, Jacob knows how to let people walk out of his life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that while he was on the run, he disconnected from his brother, his parents, his father-in-law, his servants, and even his wives and his children, and y'all, Jacob knows how to isolate himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this pattern first began when he stole his brother's blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now on this side of the unexpected wrestling match, the man dislocates his hip and gives him the opportunity to do what Jacob was good at doing and now he refuses to let go.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's striking to me because why does Jacob keep on holding on even when it hurts?

[SPEAKER_01]: could it be friends that though this unexpected struggle and through this unexpected struggle, Jacob discovered something that he did not previously understand about blessings and that is that the difference between the blessing that he had stolen and the blessing that he was now seeking is that while one depended of

[SPEAKER_01]: on what Jacob could do in his own strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: This one relied on what the man could do for Jacob in his weakness, because watch what the man says to Jacob, but when he refuses to let him go, the man says, tell me what your name is, and when Jacob tells him what his name is, the man says, that, well, I'm not gonna let him go.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not gonna call you Jacob anymore, but now your name is gonna be Israel because you have stripping with God and with humans and you have prevailed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is, friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: At this point, Jacob does not yet seem to know that he is having a divine encounter.

[SPEAKER_01]: At this point, he may just believe that he is holding on to another human with whom he has chosen to struggle, which means that

[SPEAKER_01]: others when his natural proclivity is to isolate and run away.

[SPEAKER_01]: He comes to discover that he is in effect holding home to God, that Jacob discovers that a posture of dependency reveals an alternative pathway to experiencing the blessings of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, friends, it's not

[SPEAKER_01]: and isolating ourselves, that we will experience what God intends to bless us with.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not in running people off when they love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's gonna lead you to the blessings of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not in leaving open, unresolved hurts and relationship.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's gonna lead you to God's blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not in tearing one another down online.

[SPEAKER_01]: when we disagree that's gonna lead us into the blessings of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not, and leaving one minority group alone to struggle that will lead us into the blessing of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it is when we learn how to stick with one another in the midst of the struggle that we come to find out that what we're doing is holding on to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You oughta look at your name and say, neighbor, I'm a people holding on to you until God tells what God said God would do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's in the unexpected struggles that we learn that human connection is really how God chooses to lead us into God's blessing friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: As you could probably assess, I love watching documentaries about volcanoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: A couple of weeks ago, I was watching the documentary and I learned that one of the most beautiful and life enabling environments on Earth is the soil that surrounds a place called Lake Tobin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as you can probably guess, Lake Tolber, is one of the most violent volcanoes on the planet.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reason the environment that surrounds Lake Tolber is so beautiful is because the ashes that remain from the volcanic eruption is actually incredibly rich in minerals.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that in order for the soil to get what it needs to produce as diversely and as effectively as it does,

[SPEAKER_01]: only the destruction of the volcano can produce in other words, friends, the very thing that appears to be its downfall in one season.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually the very thing that enables it to thrive in another season and all.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to tell you, friends, is that God can use your seasons of unexpected struggle to equip you with everything you need, when you come into the blessing of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody in here this morning that can testify to the room that was my struggle That prepared me for my blessing It was a pain Learn how to persevere So when I got to the blessing I don't know how to stand flat for it And persevere to the other side

[SPEAKER_01]: I came to tell somebody on my way to my seat That God can use your season of struggle And God can use your season of pain And God can use your season where don't make sense God can use it to compare you for your next You ought to look at your neighbor and tell them neighbor

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't you give up, right here where you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's been one thing after another.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's been heard after her.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's been pain.

[SPEAKER_01]: The pain, but you oughta look at somebody and tell your neighbor, you can't you run from this.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's the wrong neighbor.

[SPEAKER_01]: You oughta look at somebody.

[SPEAKER_02]: And tell your neighbor.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run.

[SPEAKER_02]: They can't run from this.

[SPEAKER_02]: Tell somebody.

[SPEAKER_02]: They can't run.

[SPEAKER_02]: From the mess up.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run.

[SPEAKER_02]: From the breakdown of the K-R-R-R From the time you can't run From the moment you can't run From the moment you can't run From the breakdown of the K-R-R From the breakdown of the K-R-R-R From the loss of the K-R-R-R From the time you can't run From the time you can't run

[SPEAKER_02]: What the fuck are you?

[SPEAKER_02]: I know you can't stop it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know you can't stop it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know you want to walk away.

[SPEAKER_02]: But you want to tell somebody.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run from each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come on and tell somebody.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run from each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: But you can't shoot.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't run.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't.

[SPEAKER_02]: Keep on.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look at me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look at me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look at me.

[SPEAKER_02]: On the other side, on the other side, The answer is in part two.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm stealing the button and leave the bubble.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you can ask for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because you can not give up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because you get the pain and your season.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you can not give up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just because of the cheer.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you can not give up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to

[SPEAKER_02]: Say it, don't cry, tell it, we're dead, we're dead We're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead,

[SPEAKER_02]: In spite of not a shrapnel In spite of the lonely nights In spite of the hurt In spite of the depression In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being In spite of being

[SPEAKER_02]: God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable, God is stable

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[UNKNOWN]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know who I am?

[SPEAKER_02]: But you are looking at your neighbor For the last time this morning And tell your neighbor And tell your neighbor And tell your neighbor And tell your neighbor And tell your neighbor And tell your neighbor And tell your neighbor

[SPEAKER_02]: Save, live with salvation, live with sorculity, live with love, live with grace, live with mercy, say, yeah, say, yeah, you can't give up, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise, but your hands together can't get out of praise,

[SPEAKER_02]: Let me tell you why you're afraid you're praising God right now Because there's good news on the other side You're praising God right now But there's grace on the other side You're praising God Because you can't die For that I don't lie For the other side It's so close to give up And don't you be an idiot Because God won't stand

[SPEAKER_02]: You guys so fast to go, you guys gotta go!

[SPEAKER_02]: That's all you're doing here right now!

[SPEAKER_02]: Here you go, you guys!