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Following God, being one of 
God's people, part of God's 

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nation is not easy and and God 
never promised that it would be 

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easy to faithfully follow God, 
like faithfully. 

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To faithfully follow Jesus is is
fraught with difficulty, 

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challenge, obstacles, even 
opposition, sometimes violent 

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and even lethal opposition. 
Jesus told his followers that 

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when he said things like in this
world, you will have trouble, 

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but take heart, I've overcome 
the world. 

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Or when he said things like if 
you want to follow me, you need 

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to deny yourself, take up your 
cross and follow me. 

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Jacob was learning this as well,
that following God, being part 

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of God's plan for this world is 
a challenge. 

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It's a struggle. 
He was promised even before his 

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birth that he would be the heir 
to the covenant that God had 

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made with Abraham. 
That even though he was the 

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younger of the brothers, that he
would receive the promise that 

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he would rule over his older 
brother. 

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That he would be the one that 
would carry on this line, This 

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promise that God had made. 
That his descendants would one 

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day possess all of that land and
that through his descendants, 

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all the nations of the world 
would be blessed. 

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So it's possible that Jacob, 
having grown up with this story 

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told to him by his mother, and 
then and then taking advantage 

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of his brother's short 
sightedness and his father's 

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blindness, gaining the 
birthright and the blessing that

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Jacob thought, ah, it's going to
be smooth sailing for me. 

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God's on my side. 
God's made these promises to me.

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It's going to be great. 
It's going to be nice, it's 

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going to be wonderful. 
And then the bottom fell out of 

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it all and he spent 20 years of 
his life struggling and fighting

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and battling just to survive. 
Running for his life from his 

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brother, arriving at his, his 
uncle Laban's house, his mom's 

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brother's house, falling in love
with his daughter, his youngest 

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daughter. 
Laban cheated him there. 

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And when he was thought he was 
marrying Rachel, Laban sent Leah

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in to be married instead. 
And then he ended up working a 

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total of 14 years for Laban to 
be married to the one daughter 

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he wanted to be married to, plus
the other daughter that he 

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didn't want to be married to. 
On top of that, he continued to 

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work for Laban for 20 years. 
Jacob spent with Laban and it 

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was a struggle all of the way 
through. 

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This is part of the life that we
have as followers of God. 

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As followers of Jesus, we are 
not promised a Rose Garden. 

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We are not promised an easy 
journey. 

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We are not promised a life free 
from struggle. 

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In fact, we are promised that if
we make this decision, there's a

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good chance we'll struggle more 
than we would if we weren't one 

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of God's followers. 
We have a challenge in our world

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today that that that seems to 
be. 

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We want to insulate ourselves, 
our kids, our grandkids, 

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everyone around us from all of 
the pain and suffering that we 

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possibly can. 
I saw a report this week. 

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I I haven't fact checked it. 
It sounds reasonable to me. 

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So we're going for it's true, 
might not be true. 

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Fact Check me, you know, let me 
know on this, but I don't have 

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time to Fact Check everything I 
hear, particularly if I agree 

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with it. 
So why bother fact checking? 

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But it was a study done of 
playgrounds and there were 

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pictures of playgrounds from 
2530 years ago. 

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You could die on those 
playgrounds. 

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Remember? 
We had a slide at my elementary 

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school on pavement. 
It was like 12 feet up, barely 

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any hand rails at all. 
A metal slide that on hot days 

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was like an iron cast iron 
skillet. 

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We loved it. 
We had swings that you could, we

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jumped out of the swings at 
recess. 

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We had the board seats on them 
rather than the foldy seats. 

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And you could, you could, you 
could jump a long way on those. 

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That was on the gravel on the 
good days. 

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On the bad days it was mud and I
didn't like the mud, so I didn't

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jump out of the swings on the 
bad days. 

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Then they showed a picture of 
current playgrounds where where 

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nothing is taller than this and 
everything is plastic. 

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And the person was making this 
assertion. 

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And this is this is the part 
that I haven't fact checked, but

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it seems reasonable. 
We're going to you, you see, if 

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you think it's reasonable as 
well. 

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He said, you know, obviously we 
don't want our children dying, 

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right? 
He said. 

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But psychologically, children do
better going into adulthood if 

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they've had to deal with actual 
danger where they could get 

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hurt, not dead, but hurt. 
That that learning how to be 

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safe in a dangerous situation is
an important skill for children 

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to have. 
And if they never face a 

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dangerous situation, they never 
learn that skill. 

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Learning how to overcome and 
work through an injury is an 

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important skill for children to 
have. 

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I never got injured badly on the
playground. 

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Not sure how. 
I've been clumsy my whole life. 

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Never got injured bad. 
I did break my finger playing 

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touch football of all things. 
My uncle tagged me a little 

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harder than I was expecting and 
I landed on a finger and it 

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snapped and was in a cast for a 
little while on that. 

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Not a big injury, but an injury.
My brother broke his foot. 

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My son has been to the emergency
room. 

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He was in the emergency room 
more times in the first three 

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years of his life than I've ever
been in the emergency room. 

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We got it. 
Suffering is a part of life and 

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to insulate ourselves or our 
children or our grandchildren 

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from all suffering doesn't 
protect us. 

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It it prevents us from 
developing the muscles, the 

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physical muscles, the emotional 
muscles, the mental and 

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spiritual muscles that grow when
we have to work through and 

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persevere through adversity. 
This, I believe is part of the 

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reason why we get this story of 
Jacob and Leah and Rachel and 

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their long struggle. 
Their long struggle with Laban. 

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Jacob with Laban as his 
father-in-law, Rachel Aleo with 

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Laban as their parent who they 
described as having sold them 

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and then squandered what they 
got from it for them when he 

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sold them. 
I am confident that the life 

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they lived over that 20 year 
period was not the life that 

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they would have preferred, Not 
the life that they had planned, 

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certainly, and probably not the 
life that they had wanted. 

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But they struggled. 
It was a struggle all the way 

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through from the get go dealing 
with the lies and the deception 

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and the dishonesty. 
And then if we take Jacob at his

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word, his father-in-law 
repeatedly changing his wages to

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try to cheat him. 
Oh, you can, you can have all 

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the spotted sheep and goats that
are born this year and those 

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will be yours and and then too 
many are born spotted. 

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So Laban changes. 
No, no, it's the street. 

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Well, no, it's the plane. 
No, it whatever it is just doing

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everything he can to make life 
harder for Jacob. 

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And God did not stop Laban from 
doing that. 

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God did not stop Laban from 
lying. 

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God did not stop Laban from 
selling his daughters. 

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God did not stop Laban from 
trying to cheat Jacob. 

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God did not. 
God did not send down a 

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messenger to threaten Laban. 
God did not wrap Jacob, Rachel, 

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Alia, and bubble wrap to make 
sure they never got any bumps or

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bruises as they went through 
life. 

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Instead, they had to struggle 
through. 

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And they did struggle through 
and they did the best that they 

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could in that struggle, 
including some, some things that

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we now know are just silly. 
We'll eat the mandrakes and 

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that'll make me fertile and make
my husband hopefully amorous 

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and, and and and then I'll have 
a baby. 

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It didn't work out. 
Didn't work out, Jacob. 

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Once Laban started messing with 
his wages, Jacob did all sorts 

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of crazy things. 
I, I don't know. 

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And I checked on this, I did 
Fact Check this, and this 

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apparently was a thing that it 
was believed that that what a, a

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mother sheep or goat was looking
at at the time of conception 

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affected what they gave birth 
to. 

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So. 
So Jacob got sticks and he put 

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stripe sticks out near the water
in the place where the sheep and

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the goats were breeding so that 
the female sheep would see 

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stripe sticks or then spotted 
sticks, all of these kinds of 

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crazy stuff. 
We know that there's no truth to

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that whatsoever, but they were 
doing whatever they could to 

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work through the struggle. 
This is this is the reality that

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we have. 
The long struggle of faith 

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requires patience and 
perseverance through pain. 

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Eugene Peterson, who did the the
The Message translation of the 

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Bible, I don't know if you've 
ever come across that or not. 

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He was not a scholar. 
He was a pastor, an active 

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pastor with what he did through 
his professional career. 

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And he has talked in in his 
books about a long obedience in 

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a single direction, not giving 
up on a thing because it's hard,

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not turning away because it's 
challenging, because we get 

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hurt, because we stumble, 
because we fall. 

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But a long obedience in a single
direction. 

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And this is what Jacob and 
Rachel and Leah we're learning. 

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Following God a long time in a 
single direction doesn't mean 

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always doing the same thing. 
Jacob moved away from home, and 

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then he started a family, and 
then he's moving back to where 

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he left. 
It's not always doing the same 

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thing, but it's always following
God wherever God is leading. 

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And sometimes that looks the 
same over a long period and 

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sometimes it looks different 
over a long period. 

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But it's not turning away to do 
something just because it's 

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easier. 
The Olympics are full of these 

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kinds of stories. 
And, and, and this is true 

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whether you're talking Summer 
Olympics or Winter Olympics. 

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I will confess upfront, I have 
not watched a single minute of 

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the Olympics. 
I don't know whether that makes 

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me unpatriotic or not, but just 
can't get my brain into the 

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Olympics this year. 
So I'm not there. 

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But I've been hearing stories 
and reading some of the stories.

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And the stories behind the games
are, I think, as interesting as 

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the games are themselves 
sometimes. 

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And you would the German ski 
jumper who's afraid of heights 

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and and, and receive 
psychological counselling and 

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training just so he can do what 
he's doing and winning gold 

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medals. 
There's perseverance in that 

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perseverance. 
There's AI believe it was a 

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cross country skier, a woman, I 
cannot remember which country 

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was from. 
She was from did a 10 kilometer 

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race with bruised ribs because 
she had been injured the week 

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before. 
I fell down the steps and stayed

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in my bed for three days. 
I am. 

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I couldn't go 10 kilometers in 
cross country. 

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Skis of my life depended on it. 
Maybe if a bear was chasing me 

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now, he would catch me. 
Ilia Milanin, the American 

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figure skater who has been 
nothing but successful 

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throughout his entire career, I 
read, I believe had won fourteen

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straight competitions before 
something happens and his final 

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round for his long program and 
ends up in 8th place and now 

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having to struggle with what 
comes next. 

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After all of that, the Olympic, 
the men's hockey team, I 

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understand they had two goals 
called back in the early rounds,

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but they're still struggling on 
and persevering and not giving 

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up and not whining and not 
complaining, just continuing to 

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do the work. 
And for all of those folks on 

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00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:27,000
the half pipes and the ski jumps
and the slaloms and the the 

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moguls and all of that stuff, 
for every successful run we've 

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seen, they have fallen and wiped
out 100 times, maybe more. 

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And when you're going downhill 
that fast, it's got to hurt. 

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Every single time you wipe out 
Lindsey Vonn breaking her leg, 

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you know there's pain. 
It was one of the guys I believe

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is from England and men's 
skeleton who has broken his back

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twice. 
The first time he broke his 

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00:12:55,880 --> 00:13:00,160
back, it ended his Taekwondo 
career and so he went into the 

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much safer sport of skeleton. 
I don't get that. 

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00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:07,000
He broke his back again and he's
still racing. 

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He's still racing. 
I always wanted to play 

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professional sports. 
I was never willing to do what 

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it took to play professional 
sports. 

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Just not. 
And what, when I found out, I 

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was like, Oh yeah, no, not going
to happen. 

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00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,280
Not going to happen. 
I don't love it enough to put 

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that much time and energy into 
it. 

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Not going to happen. 
Wouldn't have mattered anyway. 

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But here's the thing. 
Everything good that's worth 

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doing is worth persevering 
through the pain and the 

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heartache and the struggle. 
And I'm convinced of this, that 

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everything that's worth doing 
will involve pain and heartache 

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and struggle, whether it's 
whether it's athletics at a high

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level, whether it's friendship, 
marriage, raising children, 

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caring for elderly parents, 
these things, these things. 

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I'm seeing smiles back there at 
that one. 

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I, you know, these things are 
challenging and they're hard and

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they're filled with pain and 
uncertainty and difficulty. 

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And we make as many mistakes, 
maybe probably more mistakes 

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than there are successes. 
Yeah. 

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We switch Olympics and go to the
Summer Olympics. 

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My gosh, there's those girls 
that do the balance beam and 

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women that do the balance beam, 
how many times they fall and 

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smack their heads and bang their
shins and, and hit their knees 

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working on those balance beams 
before they can do those amazing

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things that they do up there. 
You, you can't get from the 

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beginning to the Olympics 
without pain, without suffering,

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without heartache. 
Paul describes the Christian 

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life as preparing for a race, as
athletics, or preparing for a 

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fight or wrestling match or a 
boxing match. 

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That's the metaphor, one of the 
metaphors that Paul uses to 

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describe life, to say it 
requires training, it requires 

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discipline, it requires 
sacrifice. 

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There will be heartache and pain
and suffering and failure all 

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along the way. 
But the athletes do that for the

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prize. 
And Paul says the prize that we 

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are striving for is so much 
greater than a trophy, so much 

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better than a medal. 
It is life forever with Jesus 

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and the Kingdom of God. 
Now we're only one week out of 

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the most boring Super Bowl in 
history, but I'm going to I'm 

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going to leave the Olympics and 
talk about football because my 

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favorite story of perseverance 
is Rudy Rudiger. 

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Anyone remember Rudy Rudiger 
that made a movie about him a 

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number of years ago. 
True story. 

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Rudy in the movie was played by 
Sam Wise Gangi, and and that was

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interesting. 
He did a great job. 

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OK, so no one got that joke. 
That's all right. 

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Look it up later. 
It's funny. 

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Trust me. 
Trust me, Rudy was a a a small 

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kid with very little athletic 
ability from Indiana and he grew

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up watching Notre Dame football 
and his dream was to play for 

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Notre Dame. 
And his coaches told him you 

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have no chance of playing for 
Notre Dame. 

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And he went to Notre Dame 
anyway. 

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And he discovered he had no 
chance of playing for Notre 

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Dame. 
He wasn't big enough. 

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He wasn't strong enough, and he 
wasn't fast enough. 

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And the simple fact was he 
wasn't smart enough to be a 

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student at Notre Dame and get 
good enough grades to be on the 

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team. 
And everyone around him was 

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telling me to quit, give up on 
this. 

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This is crazy. 
This is nuts. 

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This is stupid. 
This is dumb. 

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And Rudy refused. 
And what he managed to do was 

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get on the practice squad where 
he got the snot beat out of him 

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day in and day out by the 
starters. 

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And he worked and he worked and 
he worked and he suffered and he

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worked. 
And he got a tutor to help him 

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with his school work so he can 
maintain his academics so he 

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could be at Notre Dame. 
And it's, it cost him. 

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There was sacrifice, there was 
suffering, there was pain, there

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was injury, there was heartache 
all along the way. 

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But he did it until finally, and
it was a beautiful thing. 

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In the last game of the of his 
time at Notre Dame College, the 

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coach put him in for one play 
and he got to make a tackle and 

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his dream came true. 
Perseverance. 

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It takes perseverance to achieve
anything worth achieving, to 

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receive anything worth 
receiving, whether that's 

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whether that's a trophy, whether
that's the opportunity to play 

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for your favorite team, whether 
it's a place in the Kingdom of 

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God, It requires perseverance, 
it requires patience, it 

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requires sacrifice through the 
pain. 

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One of the thing I love about 
Rudy's stories, though Rudy's 

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story is that it's also a 
cautionary tale and and further 

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inspirational. 
I don't know if you know what 

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happened to Rudy after college, 
but the bottom fell out of 

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Rudy's life. 
His dream was done. 

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What happens when your dream has
been fulfilled at the age of 

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2223 and the bottom fell out of 
his life. 

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He got into debt, he lost 
everything he had. 

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He was homeless, living in his 
car, and then faith and God and 

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other sources of help intervened
through faith and through God, 

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and he became a motivational 
speaker. 

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And it's done OK for himself. 
It's done well for himself. 

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I like that part of the story 
because one of the things it 

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tells me and I think tells us is
that what our goal is matters. 

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What our dreams are matter. 
And and having the goal of 

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playing college football is a 
great goal. 

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That's a great. 
But one day that goal will 

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either be unfulfillable or it 
will be fulfilled and most of 

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your life will still be ahead of
you. 

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And if we set our goal on a 
thing that that is that we, we 

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will never get and we know we'll
never get, or if we get set our 

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focus and our goals and our 
hopes and our dreams on 

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something that we can get and 
achieve, you know, too early or 

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too soon, then what do we do 
with where does the motivation 

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come from after that? 
Where does the hope come from? 

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Where does the desire to, to 
persevere and to suffer and to 

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strive? 
This is one of the beautiful 

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things about having our sights 
set on Jesus. 

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Is in one respect we'll never 
achieve it, not in this life. 

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It will always be a struggle and
and we can never achieve it on 

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our own. 
But our hope is in the end by 

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the grace of God, we will become
like Jesus because we will see 

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him as he is and all of the pain
and all of the heartache and all

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of the suffering will have been 
worth it. 

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The other good thing in this 
whole thing is that through the 

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long struggle, God accommodates 
our weaknesses and our 

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00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:45,200
frailties. 
God didn't condemn Rachel for 

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00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:50,360
turning to Mandrake's to get 
fertile and pregnant. 

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God didn't condemn Jacob, say, 
oh, well, you know, he's, he 

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should just be praying to me 
instead of putting up those 

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stripe sticks. 
You know, we don't want him. 

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He let him do those things and 
God still blessed him. 

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God still blessed him. 
And in the end God made it clear

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to Jacob, you have a lot of 
sheep, not because you put up 

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00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:18,040
sticks, but because I blessed 
you and I gave you the sheep and

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I gave you the wealth. 
And Rachel, you have a baby, not

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because you ate the mandrakes, 
but because I gave you a baby. 

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God accommodates our weaknesses.
God works with and through us as

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we are combinated. 
Rudy's weaknesses now. 

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We never became a starter for 
Notre Dame, but he learned so 

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much more, struggling with less,
than he ever would have learned 

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had he been gifted with a lot of
natural athletic ability and 

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talent. 
That work of struggling through,

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00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,000
of needing the help, of needing 
the extra, of needing the 

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00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,560
support taught him more than 
easy success ever would have 

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taught him. 
God accommodates us. 

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God recognizes our weaknesses. 
God sees our weaknesses, our 

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00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,000
frailties, whether it's 
physical, mental, emotional, 

356
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:15,160
relational, psychological, 
whatever our weaknesses and 

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00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,840
frailties are got to, I can work
with that. 

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00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:21,320
I can work with that. 
God looks at you, looks at me, 

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00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:23,960
looks at us and says, you know, 
I, I can work with that. 

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00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:29,520
I can do what what we need to do
with that group of folks, with 

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other people. 
And it's not in spite of 

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00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:38,120
sometimes, but even through 
those weaknesses that God makes 

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00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:41,480
his presence and his power most 
known and most clear and most 

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felt. 
God has purpose for all of us in

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00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,920
this world, for us as a church, 
for us as individuals, for our 

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family, for our children, for 
our neighbors. 

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00:22:54,320 --> 00:23:00,480
God has purpose. 
Realizing that purpose will 

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00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:04,960
require struggle, patience, and 
perseverance through the pain. 

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God did not design this world, 
for whatever reason, to insulate

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us from suffering or to insulate
our children from suffering. 

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00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:22,160
God has designed us to grow 
through suffering and through 

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00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:25,440
pain, and we can expect that 
along the way. 

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And that's why Paul says we 
rejoice in our sufferings. 

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I haven't reached that point 
yet. 

375
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,560
I'm just going to be honest. 
I have yet to go. 

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00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:36,560
Oh yeah, more pain. 
Not even once. 

377
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:45,120
Paul's beyond being that I can 
aspire to that we can aspire to 

378
00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:48,200
that at the time when the pain 
isn't too much, we can we can 

379
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acknowledge. 
OK, yes, I see. 

380
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:53,880
I get it, God, that that I don't
like the suffering, but the 

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00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:57,440
suffering is good for me. 
So I'm not able to rejoice in my

382
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,280
suffering, but I'm at least 
willing to for you to make me 

383
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,720
able to rejoice in my suffering.
But one thing Paul and Jesus 

384
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:10,200
make very clear is that trying 
to avoid suffering is no way to 

385
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:13,480
follow Jesus. 
It's no way to live our lives. 

386
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:19,480
It's no way to raise our kids. 
It's giving the opportunity and 

387
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:24,960
the space and the freedom to 
venture, to try to fall, to 

388
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:30,560
fail, to hurt, to suffer, to get
back up and try and venture 

389
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:34,200
again. 
This is this is the hope that we

390
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:38,800
have not a life free of pain and
suffering, but Jesus with us 

391
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,560
through the pain and suffering, 
God accommodating our 

392
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:44,120
weaknesses. 
And in the end the prize that we

393
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:47,680
have is Jesus himself, in Jesus 
name, Amen. 

394
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:48,560
Amen.