S3 EP06 | I WALK WITH A LIMP

Antoine breaks down Genesis 32:22-32 where Jacob wrestles with God and what that means for God to truly transform us!

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The reality is God is trying to teach us something. He's trying to instill something new in us. And oftentimes we don't want to do that. Well, we'd rather just wrestle and struggle and tussle with him instead of allowing him to break something that has been embedded deeply in us. That's not like him. Like, let me just throw that in there. Like, the thing that he wants to break within us, the thing that he wants to get out of us, the thing he wants to uproot out of us is the thing that does not look like him. Welcome back to Humble, where we talk about the real stuff. Y'all, I'm so excited to be joining you for another episode of Humble. The fact that you're here, I'm here together, we get to dive into uh just a fun topic today, a fun discussion today. Uh, I can't wait to jump in, y'all. Like this is this is so much fun doing it this way. Uh, if you have not noticed, I'm back at Lux Creative. Uh, such a fun studio uh to record in, and this is just such a dope spot. So if you're looking for a place, if you're a podcaster, if you're looking to get a project off the ground or anything like that, anything production-wise, check out Lux Creative in McKinney, Texas, and they'll hook you up. Like, this is this is such a dope vibe here. Um, so as I've talked about in the past a couple seasons ago, you know, first season, second season, now we're in season three, y'all, which is still crazy to think about. Like we're in season three, y'all. But as you know, with Humble, where we talk about the real stuff, there's a few different avenues with these episodes that we've we've kind of taken together. There's been the avenue where I've tried to do my best to set a culture of vulnerability through sharing my personal story with you. And so there's been aspects of my story that have come out in the different episodes that we've been able to do together through the different discussions and conversations that we've had with one another. And I've shared just, you know, parts of my life that, you know, in a lot of ways, it was the first time I'd really shared publicly about those things. You know, a tight group of people uh in my community, my accountability and close friends and family know. But to be able to share about it and talk about it openly, uh, you know, like my diabetic journey and different things like that, you know, the struggle with my uh with my daddy issues, you know, uh tensions with my father, like I've never really spoken about that stuff publicly until this podcast. So uh it's been fun, but also super vulnerable to do that stuff. So I've been trying to cultivate that through sharing my personal journey. I've also tried to cultivate that through the guests that we have on here. And, you know, we've had a lot of amazing guests come through, and there will be some more to come as well. But I've tried to just set the tone that we really are walking in humility and we're talking about our real journeys as we are transformed by Jesus. Henceforth the name, humble, where we talk about the real stuff. Like this is why we're here, this is what we do. And my prayer is that you, as you're watching these episodes, as we engage together with different topics, uh, even topics of scripture, like what we're gonna dive into today, that we grow together, we become more like Jesus together. So there's the being vulnerable through being vulnerable through sharing my story, being vulnerable through cultivating a space for others to be vulnerable with guests and things like that. And the last one, honestly, is through opening up God's word together. And that's actually what we're gonna do today. This is gonna be less of just kind of taking a topic and breaking it down and just sharing my thoughts. And today we're actually gonna dive into God's word together with a specific concept uh from one of my favorite Bible stories, y'all. Like this is probably, I don't know, I can't rake them because the whole Bible is is is amazing and beautiful and uh just rich with wisdom and knowledge and obviously things for our lives that we can learn to be better, but most importantly, learn more about the care, the character, the nature, and the attributes of God so that way we can become more like Him. Uh but man, this is one of my favorite stories. Like all that being said, this is my favorite stories. So, what we're gonna talk about today is this aspect of the title of this episode that I really want to dive into and I want to get into our hearts. This title today that I want you to rock with me with for the remainder of our time is I walk with a limp. So, you know, maybe just say that. I walk with a limp. Go ahead. Yeah, I'll wait for a second. I walk with a limp. And this story and this concept is something that the Lord gave me uh really uh a c a couple years ago, and it's kind of stuck with me, and that phrasing and that concept really comes from the story out of Genesis chapter 32, uh verses 22 through 32. And this is one of my favorite stories. So, to kind of give you an overview before we dive into scripture today, and I got my Bible Bible because I want to read from God's word, and I love you know just having my real Bible to be able to do that, and as well, I have some notes here just to kind of focus our time together. But to give you a recap, this is right in the middle of Jacob and his older brother Esau, the tensions that they have as brothers. And if you read through Genesis, like I encourage you to do uh do that, to read the whole Bible, but read the story of Jacob and Esau and kind of where we're at as we're gonna be diving into this today, because they were going through some dysfunction, y'all. Like they were going through it, like for real, for real. They were going through it. And Jacob, right in the middle of where we're gonna pick up, he's actually like trying to make amends with his older brother Esau after tricking him and fooling him a couple of times when they were younger. And so at this point of the story, he feels like Esau is on his way to kill him. Like, if I'm honest. And so Jacob sends gifts to him and he's trying to basically play nice and feel him out to see if, hey, are we gonna be nice to each other and we're gonna be able to walk in unity and forgiveness, or are you going to try to kill me? So Jacob's essentially running from his brother right now, and right in the middle of this uh kind of story and this narrative is really where we're gonna pick up for our time today as we talk about what it means to walk with a limp. So I'm gonna read this story to you. Uh again, Genesis chapter 32, verses 22 through 32. Uh if you have your Bible, I encourage you as you're watching this right now, go ahead and grab your Bible or grab your phone, your digital Bible, or your physical Bible, and follow along with me as we read this together. So, again, Genesis 32, verses 22 through 32. I'm gonna pick it up right here, and this is the New Living's uh New Living translation that I'm about to read. So it says, During the night, Jacob got up and took uh his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons, and crossed the uh Jabok River with them. After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions. This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came down and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he wouldn't win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of socket. Then the man said, Let me go, for the dawn is breaking. And Jacob said, I will not let you go until you bless me. Come on, somebody. What is your name? The man asked, and he replied, Jacob. Your name will no longer be Jacob, the man told him. From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men, and you have won. Please tell me your name, Jacob said. Why do you want to know my name? The man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there, and Jacob named the place Penil, which means face of God. For he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared. The sun was rising as Jacob left Penil, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip. And then it goes on to say, Even today, the people of Israel don't eat the tendon near the hip socket because of what happened that night when the man strained the tendon of Jacob's hip. Isn't that good stuff, y'all? Like if you just think about like just everything that happened in that story. It's like, wait, wait, wait a minute. So there's a man that came down and like rest wrestled Jacob, and it says it's a man, but like it says that he wrestled God. What is that all about? Then he he's not Jacob anymore. Now he's Israel. So like what is happening right now? What is going on? Well, I'm so glad you asked because I want to get into what it means to walk with the limp. And we're gonna use this anchor passage as really something that we can we can put our foundation on as we talk about this today, because I think this is an important concept that oftentimes in our Christian walk, we have encounters with God, we have uh, you know, just moments with the Lord where he's trying to teach us something. In fact, he's trying to change something in us. In fact, he's trying to break something that's not like him within us so that way we can be better and be more like him afterwards. Some of you kind of are picking up where we're gonna be headed today. So as we break down this passage of scripture, I got a couple of notes of for the remainder of our time that I just want to just submit to you as we think about this scripture and what it can mean for us as we read this story. So the first thing, I got three things for you today. The first thing is our wrestle should lead to worship. Our wrestle should lead to worship. If you know anything about Jacob's story, this man is known for being a deceiver. Literally, that's what his name means. Like he is a deceiver, he's been running again from Esau. He's really been just been running from his problems. At this point, he's wealthy and you know, he's kind of made a name for himself. But a lot of that has been built on deceiving people. And so when he's at this point in the middle of running from Esau and he wrestles with God, what I think about in my own life and what I think about maybe in your life is sometimes when we're wrestling with something, we don't allow God to actually, you know, heal us from maybe what is trying to take us over or or trying to dismantle us. We will wrestle with that thing or we'll wrestle with God and we won't allow God to actually change us. And so the first point here, the reason why I put put our wrestle should lead to worship is because oftentimes we'll be wrestling with God and we're just mad at God. We're like, why are why are we wrestling right now? Why are we even doing this? Why are we in this interaction right now? And in the reality is, God is trying to teach us something. He's trying to instill something new in us. And oftentimes we don't want to do that. Well, we'd rather just wrestle and struggle and tussle with him instead of allowing him to break something that has been embedded deeply in us. That's not like him. Like, let me just throw that in there. Like, the thing that he wants to break within us, the thing that he wants to get out of us, the thing he wants to uproot out of us is the thing that does not look like him. Our wrestle should lead to worship. Because when we wrestle God, when Jacob wrestled God, it led to him being better on the other side of that wrestle. There was a reverence, there was an awe, there was a respect that he had after the wrestling. Because let's think about this for a second. If you wrestle God, like you're gonna lose. Like this whole like, you know, he was wrestling with him, and you know, it's it's like the way I imagine this, it's like, I wonder if Jacob was like, I'm about to win. It's like, bro, you're not winning. Like, like, you know, and then eventually he gets to the point that scripture, you know, uh accounts, which is he's not gonna let him go until the man or God, as we know, blesses him. And so he recognized the deity, he recognized the presence, he recognized who he was dealing with, he recognized the presence of God. Now, real quick before we keep going, I think it's important to note a couple things here. So uh, as we've now discovered and as we've talked about, many theologians, people that are way smaller, smarter than me and Bible scholars, uh, have highlighted this as either a theophany or a Christophany. Now, if you're wondering what those are, a theophany, a theophany is anywhere in scripture where God the Father shows up uh not necessarily in human form, but just like the essence of God the Father kind of shows up in scripture and you recognize, oh, this is God the Father right now. Uh and there's different passages of scripture that highlight that. Now, a Christophany is more of highlighting the fact that God the Son, Jesus, a pre-incarnate Jesus, actually showed up on the scene. A lot of people go back and forth on this, a lot of Bible scholars go back and forth, but many are inclined to believe that this was actually more of a Christophany. Some believe it was a theophany, but more, I would say more from the research that I did actually believe that this was more of a Christophany, which means Jacob wrestled with a pre-incarnate Jesus. Allow that to mess with your brain for a second. Like Jesus, before baby Jesus, before Jesus was on the earth, before he became a man, grew up, did miracles, died on the cross, rose on the third, the third day, and all you know, authority and resurrection power. Like before he was like in human form on earth, Jesus would show up in different parts of scripture. If you read different parts of scripture, if you see something that says the angel of the Lord, that's talking about a pre-incarnate Jesus, a Christophany. So let's keep going here because I think this is important that we note that Jacob wrestled with pre-incarnate Jesus. So the first thing is our wrestle should lead to a worship, a reverence, an honor that is unto our God. Number two, a new name defines a new narrative. Come on, somebody. A new name defines a new narrative. As we read here, the man or God, right? The Christophany, Jesus, preincart Jesus, gives Jacob a new name. And I think that's significant because what's that, what, what that is signifying is the fact that Jacob, who became Israel, one, there's a lot of implications of just like Israel, you know, the entity of Israel, the people of Israel, and like what that means for scripture. We don't have time to really dive into that today. But Israel represents Jacob no longer being the person or the persona that he exuded to that point, and he's stepping into something new. After wrestling with God, he allowed God to change his name, signifying that he was someone different. So, as that relates for us, if we wrestle with God and we allow God to change us, sharpen us, uh, to take the things that are broken within us and to heal us and to transform us ultimately, he gives us a new name. He gives us a new narrative. Now, you may be thinking, well, actually, I gave my life to Jesus and I actually have the same name. Well, it's not necessarily saying you have to change your government name, but the way in which you live life, maybe the way that people saw you, maybe the way that people viewed your life or your story should be different after an encounter with God. And that's really the point here. After Jacob wrestled with God, his life looked different. After his encounter with God, after his encounter with Jesus, his encounter with pre-incarnate Jesus, his life looked different. So much so that the man, God, gave him a new name. You'll no longer be called Jacob. You will be called Israel. Isn't that amazing? Like, I just want you to take a second to think about your own life and what that means for you. Where are the areas where God has been trying to create something new in your story, and you've been either too afraid or you just don't want to allow him to do that? God's trying to establish something new in your story, in your journey, in your life. He's trying to give you a new narrative, but you're stuck in the old one. What I would encourage you with today, what I would submit to you as you're listening right now and watching, is allow God to create a new narrative in your life. Allow God to give you a new name that represents a new story. Again, it may not mean your government name necessarily changes, but your life changes because of your encounter with God. So to recap, our wrestle should lead to worship. A new name, come on, somebody, defines a new narrative. And finally, Jacob's limp establishes a new legacy. Jacob's limp establish a new legacy. I'll walk with the limp. Like that's what this whole thing is about. Because Jacob had a limp after this. Like after he encountered God, he literally could not walk the same. Come on, somebody. That'll preach all in, you know, by itself, right? Like just the aspect that when we encounter Jesus, when we walk with God, we actually walk different after our encounter with God. Like that right there is enough encouragement for somebody. That after you meet with him, hopefully you walk different. Hopefully you talk different. Hopefully your encounters with people look different. The relationships that you have. You're a better husband, you look different. You're a better wife, you act different. You're a better son and daughter, you act differently. Why? Because you encountered the Almighty God. And because of that, you literally have a different walk. You literally have a different gait about you. And everybody can tell that, man, that's something different about you. I don't know what it is, but you you you literally limping right now. What's what's what's that limp all about? And you could say, it's because I had an encounter with God and my life is forever changed. And that's what we see with Jacob here. As we read God's word, we see that Jacob's life was forever changed. He gave him a new name, but also his walk was different. And I just want to encourage you today that maybe as you're listening to me right now, I think a good takeaway and a good question for you is what's your limp? What's your limp? Like, how are how have you allowed God to sharpen you, to change you, to transform you, to break something literally within you, so much so that you walk different and you talk different and you act differently. What is that for you? We all have that. When we say yes to Jesus, when we come into the presence of God, we cannot help but to leave differently. Why? Because as we enter into his presence within our humanity, as we become more like Christ, that sanctification journey, becoming more like Jesus, we should become more like him after every encounter with him. And there's different ways that that looks. That could be through this time that we're having right now together. As you listen to content that helps you to learn more about him, as you are spending time reading God's word and learning more about the overarching narrative of Scripture, but even specific stories like this one. As you're spending time praying with him in your prayer closet, in your personal time, as you go to church and you're with other believers, exalting the name of Jesus, all of those things should help us to walk differently. So, what is that for you? How are you walking differently today? And I want to say something that, you know, might sting a little bit, but I love you and I I want to see you grow. And I know you want to grow too. Otherwise, you wouldn't be watching this right now. If you find yourself calling yourself a Christ follower, a believer in Jesus, and you've been walking with Jesus for years, but your life doesn't look that much different than when you first said yes to him. I would just ask yourself the question: have I allowed God to truly transform some areas in my life? I said yes to Jesus, he saved me. Yes, I know that I'm going to heaven. I know that I, you know, the salvation experience is real, and my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. I know that. But it's one thing to say that God, and specifically Jesus is my savior. It's another thing to say he's my Lord. Are you allowing Jesus to be your Lord? Or is he just your Savior? That's amazing. We want that. He has set you free. The Bible says it's by grace through faith that we have been saved. Yes, we accept that, we receive that, but also have you allowed him to continue to set you free from the bondage maybe that you're still walking in. What's your limp, my friends? What's your limp? I encourage you to walk with a limp in this season, to walk a little differently in this season because of what God has. Has done because the reality is we've all been marked by God. And we should allow that to be our testimony in every room that we walk into, in every conversation that we're in, with every person that we we talk to, everywhere we go, we should be spreading the love message, hope of Jesus because he marked us, because he transformed us, and because we now walk with a lip. My friends, I hope that this encouraged you today. I hope that this landed on you in such a way that is encouraging. Like anytime I dive into God's word like this, even if it's a little challenging, even if it's a little tough to hear, even if there's elements in here that are like, man, that's this is causing me to have to evaluate some things that maybe I've been ignoring. My hope in that is that this encourages you to take a step towards that change. And literally, you can you can email us here at humblepodcast at gmail.com and we would love to help you navigate. I would love to email you back and you know, maybe give you some tips and tricks on some things that you're you're going through to help you become more like Jesus. But my encouragement is what's your limp? Figure out what that is and walk differently today. So, man, I I hope that you walk away uh feeling encouraged, like I said before. And, you know, content like this where we get to dive into God's word honestly warms my heart. Like this is so fun to be able to do this. Uh, and I hope this encourages you ultimately to want to dig into God's word even more. This is the story, again, Genesis 32, verse 22 through 32. Those verses, such a meaty passage of scripture. And there's so much more that I could have said, but I challenge you to go read it for yourself and to dig more into God's word. Well, listen, that's our time today. And I just want to throw it out there that as you guys have heard me in this episode today, digging into God's word, maybe you're like, you know, I would love to have Antoine be a part of my event or, you know, my leadership panel or to come preach a message at my church or to be a part of anything like that. And listen, I would be so honored to come partner with you to expand the kingdom in whatever sector you're in. So if you're looking for a speaker, if you're looking for a preacher, if you're looking for, you know, someone to come lead uh again, a leadership seminar or conference or anything like that, I'd be so honored to partner with you and to have a conversation about what that looks like to be able to see the kingdom advance in a way uh like we've never seen before. I would be so honored to partner with you in ministry. So just let me know if you're interested in doing that. Again, email uh humblepodcast at gmail.com. I'd love to have a conversation with you. But until next time, listen, I cannot wait for you to join us back for another episode of the Humble Podcast. Again, this is Humble, where we talk about the real stuff. We are talking about our real stories, our real journeys as it relates to us being transformed by Jesus. And I can't wait for you to be back for another episode. Until next time, I'll see you later. Peace. Thank you so much for checking out this episode of the Humble Podcast. And here's my prayer is that something that was shared through the content today resonates with you in a way that changes your life. And I could actually use your help with something. While you're watching this, would you mind subscribing to what we're doing on YouTube? As you do that, that helps other people to be able to see and value what we're doing, just like you do. But also tap that bell icon so you never miss an episode. Next, if you are listening on Spotify and on Apple, leave us a review or comment so that way other people can see what God is doing. And lastly, I would love to invite you into the Patreon community. Simply go to patreon.com slash humble podcast and you can become a patron where you can financially support what we're doing. That gives you access to perks and rewards and like special QAs and different things like that that I'm doing. So that way this community can actually be one where we foster vulnerability and we talk about our real stories and our real journeys with Jesus. Thank you so much for doing that, and I cannot wait to see you next time.