Gen 32:1-12 "

So we've been in a series in John.

We are going to take a break from that today, and we're going to do a Grace and Peace 101, one of the one of a sort of a core message for our church.

We're going to be in Genesis chapter 32, verses 1 through 12.

Genesis 32:1–12

If you have a Bible, take a second and flip there.

If not, we do have the text on the screen.

And while you do that, I'm stalling.

Okay, let's pray before we begin.

God, I pray that you would speak to us right now.

I pray that you would speak to the troubled heart.

I pray that you would speak to the deepest parts of us, that we would experience the peace that comes with faith.

And more so, that comes with faith in the one true God.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So in our family, um we have uh we have two types of fun.

Um I I don't know if you've my my wife made this up.

She's gonna write a whole book on it, apparently.

Um so type one fun is fun while it's happening.

So for those of you who like going to Disneyland, you go to Disneyland, it's fun while you're there.

Type 2 fun is fun when it's over.

Uh something like a hike in the rain.

Oh, that was fun now that it's over.

I'm in the warm car and uh I took off my wet socks.

Now it's fun.

It wasn't fun while it was happening.

Well, um a few years ago, we actually uh discovered a third type of fun, um, which is it's fun because you didn't die.

And um we discovered this on something that is uh affectionately and traumatically known in our family as Death Drive 2020.

And uh what happened on Death Drive 2020 is we uh it was during the lockdown, and um my wife was literally crawling the walls.

We had to get out, we had to go somewhere.

So we we rented a house up in Crested Butte and we did some of the outdoorsy things up there.

And so we we have uh for those of you who don't know, we have five kids, and um, and so we we went on a wildflower hike one day, and it was it was like peak wildflower season, it was very beautiful, and we had a plan that we were gonna go from this wildflower hike to a deserted, like a ghost town in the mountains, which sounded boss.

And um, and we're like, okay, so we have to go along kind of like this bumpy road for like 20 miles to get to this ghost town.

But as we're coming off the trail, there was an area map posted of all of the trails and roads in the area, and it indicated something that wasn't showing up on our maps is that there is a a four-wheel, a four by four trail that cuts like a 20-mile loop off of this bumpy ride to go to this ghost town.

And so we had a suburban, you know, like a good, it's it's one of the few things that fits a family size.

I had four-wheel drive, and so we're like, all right, let's do this.

And to be honest with you, I like that sort of thing, you know, just go taking a like it feels very macho, you know, where you're like, oh, there's a rock, I went right over it, no problem, in my four-wheel drive.

And um, and so we're having a good time and bumping along on the four-wheel road.

But then the trees that were on our left were suddenly not there, and they were replaced by a cliff that went down hundreds of feet.

And uh and the the road started to get narrower um to where it was maybe just you know one and a half cars wide, and I was like, um, what if a car comes the other way?

That would be bad.

I really hope this is one way.

Um, and then you know, to our right, it's just like a mountainside with a bunch of shale coming down uh sometimes over the road.

And I I began, as the road was getting narrower and narrower, I began to experience the unmistakable symptoms of anxiety and fear, which I am kind of prone to.

And, you know, my shoulders are start creeping up.

I'm like, well, I wasn't Talladegan, I don't know what to do with my hands.

Um I was starting to do that, and you know that feeling you get where you start to feel a little lightheaded when you're getting really anxious?

I was starting to do that, but I was okay.

I was I was holding it together, and and my anchor in these situations is my highly adventurous wife, because by the time I'm starting to freak out, she's starting to have fun.

She's like, I'm so alive, you know, while I'm like, okay, this is getting dicey.

Now, this road insisted on getting narrower and narrower until it was only as wide as the wheelbase of our car.

And at a certain point, Sharon just goes, I think we made a mistake coming this way.

And I really, my my anchor goes then, and I just stop the car and I put it in park, and I said, Really?

She's like, Yeah, I'm scared.

And I was like, Me too.

And she said, she said, can you drive backwards?

And I said, I said, under no circumstances can I drive this road in reverse.

No, not happening.

And our kids started to be really unhelpful.

My son, you know, was much, he was 12 years old at the time.

He was on the left side, and he says, Boy, that's a long way down.

I'm like, shut up, boy.

Not helping.

And I kid you not, I'm not making this up.

Soji, who was our youngest, who was two years old at the time, she started going, dying, dying, dying.

And Sharon and I were looking at each other and we're like, oh my gosh.

Is she does she know somehow what's gonna happen?

We actually considered just getting out and leaving the car there.

We didn't know what to do.

I was terrified to go forward on this road.

I didn't I didn't know what was ahead.

I was, you know, because when you're when you're frozen with fear like that and you get to a place where you're like not gonna die, you just kind of stay there.

That's what fear does, is it freezes you in this mentality of just survive.

And the hardest thing to do when you find yourself afraid is take a step forward.

And the irony, of course, is that the only way through the fear is that way, forward.

Right?

Like we we couldn't just we couldn't leave our we're mountain folk now.

This is where we live, children.

Enjoy.

Um we had to, but couldn't.

Now that doesn't that's not just true when you're physically afraid.

It it's true, you know, if you've been wrecked in a relationship, you gave your heart and it didn't go well, and you're damaged.

Trying again, right?

That forward motion.

Oh, I've I'm I'm in this stuck state.

I'm kind of I'm kind of in my survival mode, and I'm really hesitant to give my heart to somebody else because it's a fearful thing.

Well, maybe we had a horrible experience in church.

A lot of people who come to grace and peace, like what they're coming in the door with, is a really painful experience in their past with the church, and they're they're understandably hesitant to re-engage.

Or maybe it's getting sober from substance or something else.

Because, you know, like like an addiction, whatever it is you're relying on and leaning on, like it's helping you survive, it's helping you deal and return to normal from that fear.

And and the thing is, is is imagining life without it of truly getting sober, moving forward, is a fearful thing.

It's scary to consider.

It might not be any of those things, it might be that you're being called to some new endeavor.

You know, uh God is calling you, or it's clear that career-wise you've got to make a change, something like that, right?

That you're gonna take a risk of some kind, and you you're you find yourself unable to come up with the courage to do it, to pull the trigger.

Because what if, what if, right?

You can't move forward because fear holds us back.

It might be that there's a relationship or two in your life that is really sideways, and you know what it takes to move forward to resolve this is making that phone call that you don't want to make.

What if it doesn't go well?

What if it gets worse, right?

The fear holds us back.

It may be that right now you're in some sort of financial or professional crisis.

You know, uh it when when a bunch of circumstances has you worried about your survival, for a lot of us, for some of us it gets us moving forward, but for a lot of us, it gets us frozen in place.

Like people will just stick their head in the sand and be unable to do what needs to be done, to deal with, to move past the fear, right?

When fear takes over, it just freezes us in this moment of survival.

How can we move forward through fear when that's the scariest thing in the world?

I couldn't think of anything scarier than putting the car in drive and continuing on that road, right?

But that's what had to be done.

How do we do it?

Well, in the story of Genesis, in chapter 32, this is the part of Genesis that follows Jacob, who is the grandson of Abraham.

Now, Jacob, he is he's a Mr.

Kandu.

Okay?

Jacob, first of all, he's very physically strong.

One of the first things we see him do is move a stone lid that took four men to move.

Okay, so he's he's physically strong.

He's hardworking.

He ever any situation he comes up against, he he figures out how to thrive, how to deal with it.

And he's not above a uh pulling out a couple tricks from his sleeve to get what he wants.

I think of him, if you, you know, uh the Odyssey, everyone's familiar with it now.

But in the book of the Odyssey, Odysseus, he's a real trickster.

He's always got a wheeze or a plan of some kind, you know, as well as being physically tough.

That's that's kind of how Jacob is.

He'll figure out by hook or crook, and a lot of crook, it must be said, um, how to deal with whatever's in front of him.

Now, he, in chapter 32, he's returning from 20 years of living outside of the land of Canaan.

Why, you ask, was he living outside of the land of Canaan?

Because one of his clever wheezy's is that he pulled on his older brother to steal his birthright and his inheritance, uh, that brother Esau uh has maybe made a heartfelt commitment to murdering Jacob.

And so Jacob got scarce for 20 years, but then God says, go back.

Right?

And so Jacob obeys God.

And the main question on Jacob's mind is when I go back, is Esau still mad?

How does one find this out?

And so we pick up uh verse one.

It says Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's camp.

So he called the name of that place Mahenam.

Now, that's a good sign when you're headed back and God is with you, right?

That's clear.

Um, and so Jacob puts together a plan as you would expect him to do.

It says, Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, thus you shall say to my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and Stets, their uncle, and stayed until now.

I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, female servants, I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I might find that I may find favor in your sight.

Now, what's his plan here?

Okay, he's gonna find out and answer from these messengers.

And he is, he's he's trying to sweeten the pot a little bit.

Right?

This, what's implied in this, I have a lot of wealth, that's what he just said, right?

They didn't have cash money, they had property and you know, animals and that sort of thing.

He's saying, he's saying, I've got all this stuff, I am your servant, meaning I will give you some to make things better between us.

Sound like a good plan?

Yeah, bribery typically works.

Um, you know, not that I'm saying you should do it.

I can't have I'm just messing around.

Um so yeah, he Jacob has a plan as he always does.

And let's see how it goes.

In verse 6, the messengers returned to Jacob saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he's coming to meet you.

Okay.

And there are 400 men with him.

Okay.

What do you think of that answer?

If your main question is, does Esau still, is he still planning to carry out his vow to kill me?

You've sent messengers to say, hey, Jacob's back, he'll give you stuff.

You know, like typically you'd give a message to the messengers.

Does Esau do that?

What does he say?

He didn't say anything.

You know what he did?

He signaled to his guys.

You have to imagine that that guys like Esau, Jacob, Abraham, these are minor warlords.

They're like mayors of small towns, or kings really, of small towns, like little traveling tent cities.

Every fighting age man is a soldier, right?

Like one guy's like milking a goat or something, and he's like, okay, here we go.

I grabbed my sword or spear and here we go.

So he brings 400.

What do you need 400 guys for?

In ancient Near Eastern terms, 400 is a mid-sized army.

Okay, he's Esau is returning with no answer, just a mid-sized army.

Jacob gets it.

He's never slow on the uptake.

Verse 7, it says, Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.

He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two camps, thinking, if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.

So here's Jacob's plan now.

Take everything, my kids, my my all my stuff, we're gonna make two camps and we're gonna go in different directions, right?

And he can only get half of my kids' wives property and so on.

What do you think of that plan?

Does that sound like a desperation plan?

Yeah, because that's what it is.

This is a guy who has no clever ruses to get out of this.

This is a guy, this is Mr.

Can Do who can't do right now.

This is a guy who always thinks his way out or works his way out or whatever, who's got nothing.

He is in abject terror.

He's reached this point in his journey where he's come to the end of his ability and he's terrified.

So how does he move forward through this fear?

You know what's interesting?

In verse 9, starting in verse 9 here, Jacob is gonna do something that he has not done.

Six chapters so far in his story.

He's gonna do something he's never done.

You know what he does?

He prays to God.

This is the first time you see him do it.

Tells you something, doesn't it?

Look at what he prays.

He moves forward, he begins moving forward through this fear by what?

By faith.

Look at verse 9.

He says, Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good.

So what's his faith in?

Because sometimes we talk of faith like it's a thing in and of itself.

I'm a person of faith, yada yada.

It makes no sense.

Faith is just something that that attaches to something, right?

So faith is only as good as what it's in.

Make sense?

He has faith in who God is.

You see, he doesn't just say, oh universe, oh vague everythingness.

He says, what?

He says, God of my father Abraham, the one who told me this, right?

Specifically, God God, the one true God.

He knows who he is.

His faith is in who God is.

How does knowing who someone is help us in fear?

It makes actually a huge difference.

I want you to do a little thought experiment with me.

I want you to imagine that you are in Rio de Janeiro, notoriously tough town.

Very beautiful, I understand, but also tough.

At say 1:30 a.m., you've been very irresponsible tonight, you bet you're out late.

And now you're at a bus stop and you're gonna get the bus uh back to your hotel.

As you are waiting, a shifty shady guy comes up to you and tells you to run your wallet.

Are you afraid?

I am.

I I mean, right, like 1:30 a.m., Rio de Janeiro, and you're being robbed.

That's a fearful situation.

But I want you to not be afraid because Pollyanna Viana's with you.

There you go.

Doesn't that feel better?

Pollyanna Viana, guys.

You don't know who she is?

Well, let me describe her for you.

She stands about 5'2 at about 120 pounds.

Feel better?

No, you don't, do you?

You still don't know who she is.

Pollyanna Viana is also an MMA fighter who is from Rio de Janeiro and was robbed one night standing at a bus stop at 1.30 a.m.

in Rio.

And in 12 seconds of self-defense, she hospitalized the guy who tried to rob her.

Now, Pollyanna Viana's with you.

Do you feel better?

Yeah, you do.

Why?

Now you know who she is.

You see how knowing who someone is makes all the difference to your fear.

Because a lot of the time, we conceive of God as like, well, there's just an unknown, mysterious force out there of some kind.

That's what a lot of people understand God to be.

But the thing is, a God you don't know, an unrevealed God, a purely mysterious God, does not do anything for your fear.

Because that God could not care about you, that God could be hostile to you, that God could be powerless to help you.

It is only by knowing who God is, by faith in who God is, that we can move forward through fear.

Who is God revealed to be?

Like we we have now, Jacob obviously encountered angels and that sort of thing, but we actually have a lot more of God revealed through the story of Scripture and what God has done in history than even he did.

God has been revealed to us in the New Testament as Father, as the one who cares about you.

Now I know for some father that triggers some issues, but you know what a good father is supposed to be like, too.

Right?

You have a father, Jesus says, who knows when a sparrow falls from a nest and cares about you far more than a sparrow does.

You have a father who's with you.

You're not an orphan in the world.

That God is with you.

God is revealed as Jesus.

God became flesh and dwelt among us, who looked at you and I and thought us precious enough to lay down his own life to buy us out of slavery to sin.

That's who God is.

God is revealed as the Holy Spirit, the one who indwells us, the one who is committed to transforming us into the image of Christ.

Right?

You don't have an unknown God.

You have a God who's made himself known, and that God is with you.

And it is only by faith in who God is that we can move forward through fear.

The next thing we see is that Jacob moves forward by faith.

In what God has done.

Verses ten and eleven, he says, I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.

For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers, with the children.

Okay, so in his fear, what does he what does he what does he latch on to?

Where does his faith go?

This God who had been faithful to him.

Right?

He had fled for his life 20 years before, nothing but the staff in his hand, and God had been faithful to him.

Right?

He had seen what God has done, and that helped, and so he is able to move forward by faith in what God has done.

So I'm uh, as a lot of you guys know, I'm a I'm a huge and insufferable Lakers fan.

And um there was one one of the great moments in Lakers history that you're gonna have to listen to, is uh in the 2001 Western Conference Finals, which the Western Conference, if you won that, you were basically gonna win the championship because the East was sorry that year.

And we were going for a three-peat, three championships in a row, and it was not looking good.

Game four of the Western Conference Finals, we were down two games to one to a really good Sacramento Kings team, okay?

And at the with just maybe four or five seconds left, we were down two points.

I remember sitting there just you know, like this.

Just I I was gripped with fear.

And so they the the they inbound the ball, and it goes to someone you've heard of, Kobe Bryant.

You all know who Kobe, yeah, okay, great.

And Kobe, you know, all-time superstar, he shakes his defender, and it looks like he's got a layup for two points, tie the game, but it dribbles off the rim.

No matter, because our other all-time superstar, Shaquille O'Neal, gets a hand on the ball to tip it in, which, you know, he he usually can do, but that too just drips off the rim.

And one of the guys on the Kings just slaps the ball, right?

Thinking as there was only like a second left, so just slap the ball, it'll go to mid-court, and time will expire.

Kings when Lakers don't repeat.

But the ball bounces right into the hands of a guy most people have never heard of named Robert Orie.

Robert Orie had a nickname, Bake Shot Bob.

He was a role player, never made an all-star team, they never made a commercial with him in it.

But he made, if, if the game was on the line, the pressure couldn't be higher, and you had one shot to win it all, the one person you would want taking it is that guy.

And here's the extent to which this guy was clutch.

If you watch, and I have watched this many times and repeat, if you watch Kobe Bryant's base, you see him miss the layup, and then you see him see Shaq miss the tip, and then you see when it gets slapped out, he's just got this, he's like, ah, and then you see him look and see who catches the ball.

And you know what he does?

Before the shot is even up, he just raises his arms like victory.

Robert's getting the ball, and of course, you know, bottom it hits, they win it, they win the championship, everything.

Yay! You're all happy for me.

Why did Kobe have his arms up before he even sees the shot?

Because he knew.

He knew.

Game on the line, all the marbles, pressure couldn't be higher.

This is when this dude does this.

He's big shot Bob.

He's seen what he's done in the past again and again and again.

We need to move forward by faith in what God has done.

When you find yourself in a place where you can't move forward because you're afraid.

Do you ever stop and just think back?

When have I been in this situation before?

Like finances.

I a few of us are Rothschilds, I guess, but you know, most of us have sweated our finances at one time or another.

You hit a point where you're like, I don't, I don't know how.

I don't like I don't have the money for this.

I don't know how we're gonna keep a roof over our head, I don't know how I'm gonna get food on the table, right?

The last time that happened, and you were terrified and you didn't know what to do, what happened?

Did you starve to death?

Everybody say no, you're alive.

You did not starve to death.

Did I mean in a lot of cases, did did just provision come from somewhere?

You found a way somehow, some way?

Kooky crazy, huh?

Almost as if almost as if you have someone who cares for you.

What about uh, you know, that difficult conversation you know you need to have?

And you're like, uh, I can't do that.

Well, have you ever had to have a difficult conversation with someone before?

And you prayed about it and then you you you opened that can of courage and you did it?

How did it go?

You ever sorry that you did it?

Most of the time, does do things go actually pretty good?

Yeah, like God has shown up for you in these things in the past, right?

Can you point to a bunch of places in your life that if God didn't show up here, I'd you know, I don't know what would have happened.

God's been faithful to you in the past, yes?

Yeah.

He's shown up for you, right?

You've gotten to where you are because of the grace of God.

And yet, when we face the new situation, we're like, but will God do it last time?

You know, almost as if that those things never happened.

And that is the nature of fear, right?

It does freeze you in the present, it freezes you, you know, uh a tunnel vision on right now, and you forget about the future, you forget about the past.

But we need to remember, we need to move forward by faith in what God has done.

But you know, you can only do this next part, what we see, what we see Jacob also do with the first two.

So it only makes sense.

It doesn't make sense by itself, but he moves forward by faith in what God has promised to do.

Look at verse 12.

He says, But you said, I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

He's pointing to a as yet unfulfilled promise from God.

He's saying, you know, that this promise was made to his grandfather Abraham and then repeated to him.

You know, it's gonna be hard for me to be a multitude if me and all my kids are dead.

You know, that's his point.

It's like I've got plot armor here.

You know, you've made a promise, and thy faith is in that.

We need to move forward by faith in what God has promised to do.

Now, real quick, I like to do this sometimes because it's so obvious, um, but I think we easily forget it.

You know, when our faith gets shaky.

We forget these sorts of things.

So I like to I like to remind you of them.

All right.

God's track record of fulfilled promises that are publicly verifiable.

You ready?

In the 1400s BC or thereabouts, circa, it was it was foretold that the God of Abraham would be worshipped over all the world, that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.

Okay?

Now, I'm not a betting man, but if I was, and I could bet on which God from the ancient Near East was going to be worshipped over all the earth in 3,500 years, I would not have picked this one.

I mean, think about who you had to choose from back then.

You had the Babylonians.

The Babylonians were like, Babylon was like the greatest city in the world for hundreds of years.

They had Marduk, he was cool in some ways.

I mean, he didn't require child sacrifice like the Canaanite gods.

Or you had Egypt, how they had style.

Could we say the alligator head gods had style?

I mean, right?

You'd pick one of those, wouldn't you?

Or the Assyrians, the kind of brutal Nazi superpower of the ancient world.

You might go with any of those.

You know who you wouldn't pick?

The god of a slave people that didn't have their own land, and for goodness sake, you couldn't even make a statue of this god.

You couldn't represent him in any way.

That's a PR nightmare for an ancient deity.

Right?

That does not have legs in the market.

And yet, here we are.

Right?

Anybody worshiping Marduk nowadays?

Maybe like one weird internet fringe person, right?

Like, I'm a Marduk follower.

Okay, that happened.

It was foretold.

Are you getting this?

1400 BC happened, is true currently on planet Earth, people all over the globe worshiping the God of Abraham.

Yes?

Okay.

How about in the sixth century during the exile, when there really wasn't a nation, uh, you know, a nation of Judah or Israel, it was prophesied there would be a Messiah that would come.

A Messiah that would suffer for the sins of his people.

I don't remember right now.

Did that happen?

That happened?

Yeah, that happened.

It did happen.

Okay?

So here's another.

Jesus promised that the church would last until the kingdom.

Now we have not seen the kingdom yet, but we're 2,000 plus years on from that promise, and there were a few close calls in the fourth century.

But here we are, right?

Like, would you call that an impressive track record?

Yeah.

What does God promise?

Now, none of us are Jacob, right?

Like, you don't have a promise that a great nation's gonna come from you, although it might.

Um, but God's promises to you, just a couple, everything, including what you're afraid of, must work together for the good of those who love him.

No, he doesn't say it's gonna make you comfortable.

That's not promised, but your ultimate good, yeah.

That's a promise.

That whatever it is that you're going through, whatever it is that has you frozen in fear, the result is going to be you become more like Jesus, you become more whole, you become more joyful.

How about this one?

You are promised that you will, your death will be undone just like Jesus' was.

That as he is risen, so we will rise.

So let's say the thing you're afraid of, you know.

What if I never get a job again and I starve to death?

Well, that would be sad.

Um, that would be tragic, it really would.

But also, your death will be undone.

You are promised by this same God who has yet to mit that you will rise.

You are promised that God is always with you.

Right?

Whatever it is that you fear, those three promises, and I'm sure that, you know, if you guys put your heads together, you can come up with a lot more promises to God's people.

Those are just a couple.

We need to move forward through fear by what God has promised to do.

The outcome of this, whatever situation you're dealing with, is not your destruction, but your good.

It is eternal life, not death.

It is not God abandoning you, it is God walking with you through it.

So, how do we move forward through fear?

It is by faith in who God is, his past faithfulness, and his future promises.

One of my kids, whose I will not name, I will just say her, because that's four of them.

So she has an interesting combination of character traits.

One, she will not rest until she gets the hang of something and she wants to get the hang of everything.

Two, she's afraid of every single one of them.

And uh, and so you can imagine there's some friction between those two.

Um, it's it's taken some some mean mean I've had to learn some coaching.

And and one time we were in Southern California, and uh, you know, we were just the waves were decently, especially the shore wash was pretty pretty big that day.

And um and she saw me, I I surfed and all those things, so I'm very comfortable in the ocean.

She saw me just dive under a big wave and pop out the other side while she's getting like clobbered by these things.

And she's like, Dad, how'd you do that?

And I said, Well, it's actually easy.

I'll show you how.

And I don't know if you guys know this, but any wave, it doesn't matter how big, if you go under, you will you just kind of bypass it.

You like you don't get do you guys know that?

Everybody knows that?

Some of you guys didn't know that.

Some of you guys just learned, and you're gonna be like, I'm gonna try this.

All right, and so she said, Well, you could just show me how.

I said, it's easy, just wait till the wave comes and then you dive, you go right for the bottom, under.

And so she doesn't.

She dives right into the wave and goes, right?

And she says, Dad, that didn't work, and and I don't want to try again, is the long and short of it.

I said, Okay, look, can we think back on learning to catch a football?

Remember when you wanted to learn to catch a football and you were afraid for the ball to hit you?

And I said to you, I said to you, just just cradle your arms out and I'll I'll throw it to you.

And it, yeah, it might hurt a little, but it's not really gonna hurt.

And do you remember you did it finally?

And what happened?

She's like, I learned how to catch a football.

I'm like, exactly.

I said, Do you remember learning how to swim and you would not you would not let go of the side that I told you you're gonna be fine, right?

Just just let me let me help let me help you learn how to how to swim, and and you you wouldn't do it, wouldn't do it, wouldn't do it.

And then you finally did it, and what happened?

She's like, I learned how to swim.

I was like, exactly.

As I remember learning how to ride a bike, and you wouldn't let me let go of the of the the seat, and when I finally did, and you finally had the courage to do it, what happened?

She's like, I was able to do it.

I was like, exactly.

So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to wait until a wave comes, and then you shout, woo-tang, and you just go.

She's like, why do I have to say woo-tang?

I was like, it helps, just trust me.

Right?

So I was saying, okay, I know you're afraid.

You can do this.

Trust me.

Because, right?

Like she knew me.

We had had past uh past experiences of this together, and she could trust my promise that this would be okay.

Right?

We need to move forward through fear by faith in who God is, his past faithfulness to us, and his future promises.

Please pray with me.

God, I pray that you would speak to those of us who are facing a situation that has us frozen with fear.

Whether it's relational, professional, uh, that we're we're hesitant to respond to your call, we're hesitant to get sober, we're hesitant to get help, we're hesitant to move forward through this fear because where we are right now is a sort of survival.

I pray that you would set us free, that you would mind us who you are, what you have done, and what you have promised to do.

In the name of Jesus, amen.