Craig Smith • Everyone Has One • April 24, 2022
Life is a consistent seesaw ride of
of
and
of
…
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up… (Eccl. 3:1-6a)
Life’s “limps” stem from the…
•
injuries
us – “…I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” (Rom. 7:14b-15, 21)
•
injuries
us – “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.” (Titus 3:3)
•
injuries
us – “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:20-21)
• Spiritual enemies
us – “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph. 6:12)
Whatever your limp might be, it will involve two commitments…
After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. (Gen. 25:26a)
•
struggle –“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.” (Gen. 32:24)
• Personal
– “When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” (Gen. 32:25)
With God, your greatest limp can
into your greatest
– “Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.’” (Gen. 32:28)
The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon. (Gen. 32:31-32)
