The Revelation of Struggle | Kenneth Carpenter

turn with me to the book of genesis chapter 29. and verse number 31 genesis chapter 29 and verse number 31 and while you're looking for that passage of scripture i want to make the announcement that tomorrow evening the elite group of first apostolic church the elite group that's the trendsetters we'll be having a special time a special time of fellowship in the events center and it begins at 6 6 p.m tomorrow evening and if you fall into that elite age group you're welcome to come and we're going to have a great we're going to have a great time tomorrow evening at six o'clock in the event center but tonight is tonight how many is ready to hear from the word of the lord how many is glad that you're a part of the plan and when the lord saw that leah was hated he opened her womb but rachel was barren leah conceived and bear a son and she called his name reuben for she said surely the lord hath looked upon my affliction now therefore my husband will love me she conceived again and bear a son and said because the lord hath heard that i was hated he had therefore given me this son also she called his name simeon she conceived again and bear a son and said now this time will my husband be joined unto me because i have bore him three sons therefore was his name called levi and she conceived again and bear a son and she said now will i praise the lord therefore she called his name judah and left bearing may take me just a few moments to get to the subject maybe i'm the only one i may just be preaching to myself tonight but i want to minister on the revelation of struggle the revelation of struggle does that relate to anybody here tonight the revelation of struggle father i love you this evening i thank you god for your love and for your mercy i thank you for all the wonderful people tonight that are here people that have come to lift up your name i thank you for the children's choir tonight out of the mouth of children you said you have perfected praise lord i ask you tonight for the next few moments to let us go into your throne room and let your word god find us let your word heal us let your word inspire us we'll give you praise in jesus name i pray amen you may be seated the revelation of struggle the revelation of struggle what is what is struggle all about i think if we can understand something and be transparent with each other tonight we would all say that struggle is a part of life struggle is a part of life there are times that god will give you something to struggle with there are times when uninvited that life will give you something beyond your control life will give you something to struggle and there are times that we have actually invited things into our lives that we later we later struggle with now as we read bible stories sometimes they're a little bit hard to comprehend and things are said that in our culture today doesn't seem to make a lot of sense there's this man named jacob in the bible and he happened upon this man named laban's farm when he came on the farm he met laban's baby daughter rachel she was very beautiful although there are some things about the introduction i don't understand says she was very beautiful but it also says that he kissed her and lifted up his voice and cried i don't know about you but the first time i kissed sister carpenter on the second floor of sears at west town mall i remember that she didn't start crying neither did i but he met her and she was beautiful he kissed her and got to squalling later on he uh would talk to laban his father-in-law and he would want to marry her and laban said and this is just different things different cultures he says if you want to take a wife my daughter you got to work for me seven years and so he worked for seven years and at the end of seven years uh they were supposed to have their honeymoon night and his father-in-law decided that it wasn't right to give the youngest in marriage first so now we're introduced to rachel's sister leah i don't know many people have tried to paint her as a a non-attractive woman i i don't know what tender i'd mean i don't know if it meant when you saw her you got tender eyes i don't i don't know i i just i just don't know all right but for whatever reason um jacob didn't fall in love with her but laban thought a little trickery and instead of sending rachel to the dark tent he sent leah to the tent in the morning jacob woke up and it was leah now that's where i would have cried all right that's where that's where i would have cried he comes out of the tent and he talks his father-in-law and his father-in-law says look jacob he wasn't right for me to give the baby first and work for me another seven years he did something happened though the bible tells us that leah was hated by jacob leah was hated by jacob what a struggle what a struggle leah must have felt what a struggle to know that he really loves rachel i'm really not his first pick i'm really not his pick at all what a struggle that she must have been given can i tell you something about struggle tonight is god always has a purpose anytime we struggle there's a lesson to be learned there's a lesson to be learned in the book of job chapter 8 we'll come back to this in a moment but in the book of job chapter 8 verse 11 job is in the midst of intense struggling he's lost his wealth he's lost his health he's lost his children he's in the midst of intense struggle and these words came can the rush grow up without the mire can the flag grow up without water now a rush was a plant is a plant excuse me the rush is a plant that is used to make paper it's paper that history is recorded upon it's uh we really can't place a value on paper thank god for paper we have history we have the word of god that's written on paper thank god we got the record of creation from paper we got the ways of god from paper yet the rush what job said the rush needs the mire in order to grow you can't have that plant without meyer meyer is a wet damp dark place the place of which i would say is a place of struggle a place of feeling forgotten but without the rush without the rush plant the history of great victories and great struggles of god's people can never be recorded can the rush grow without the mire you can't have the plant without the struggle you can't have the recorded history without the struggle we would not know many of the heroes of the bible they went through the mire many of the heroes of the bible went through the mire it's in psalm 69 and verse 2 it simply says i sank in deep mire where there is no standing i am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me talking about struggle he said i am in the deep mire the floods overflow me psalms 69 and verse 14. deliver me out of the mire oh that's what happens when we get in struggle we want one prayer on our lips right we want to be relieved from the struggle deliver me from the struggle deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink let me be delivered from them that hate me wait a minute we're talking about struggle yeah sometimes a struggle is people that hate you he says let me not sink let let me be delivered from them that hate me out of the deep waters the deep waters meant i'm being hated but i'm also going to be forgotten the deep waters are going to swallow me up but we also understand from paper that there were those such as psalms chapter 40 and verse number one hang on every word of this i waited patiently for the lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up also out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my going and he had put a new song in my mouth watch this now even praise unto god many shall see it many shall see it and shall fear and trust in the lord so now the psalmist says sometimes trump struggle is not about you but it's about the people who are watching you sometimes struggle's not about you you're you're just going along fine serving god fine doing everything obeying his commandments living for god and all of a sudden you find yourself in struggle and you understand this struggle isn't about me i've got somebody watching my life i've got somebody that said let a few dark days come their way and they'll walk away from that church i've got somebody watching me saying it won't be long they're not going to stay there long it'll wear off of them can i tell you tonight there is a revelation that is in struggle and i want to find it out there is a revelation a struggle leah and rachel are married to the same man the same man rachel was the pitch leah was the deception the bible just simply says that leah was hated leah was hated i cannot stress to you enough tonight in this message i cannot stress enough in this message that you need to always remember that god sees you and that god has the final say i tell you i would have throwed him the towel a long time ago if i didn't believe in the fact that god sees me god sees his sons and his daughters he's a good father he's a heavenly father i've never seen the righteous ever forsaken nor the seed begging for bread so you know what i need to do i need to make sure i'm always staying in the role of a son and you need to remember to stay in the role of a daughter because always remember i don't care how many is against you i don't care how the odds are stacked up against you i don't care how much you struggle and how impossible it seems if you will remain god's son or god's daughter god sees you and god is able to act on your behalf go back to genesis chapter 29 and verse number 31 go back to genesis 29 verse number 31 and when the lord isn't this amazing and when the lord saw that leo was what struggling when the lord saw it he opened her womb but rachel he made barren you see our god that we serve has got a way of balancing the scales out he says i know you got beauty rachel but you don't have the ability to give birth and i know that leah doesn't have beauty but she's got the ability to give birth and so the first son came along and she called his name reuben she said the lord sees me the lord look listen that'll help you in the struggle you want some help in the struggle just understand that god sees you just just understand god sees me when i can't see myself god sees me when i when i don't know where i'm going i'm glad there's a god that knows where i'm going and oh she knows sooner got reuben born i mean she's conceiving day and night i mean she's you you saw it there you probably thought something and she can see it again and she can see it again she can see it again she conceived again and she said oh not only has the lord seen me but the lord has heard me i'll call his name simeon because the lord has heard me he didn't only see me in my struggle but he heard me in my struggle he saw me when i started crying on my way to work he saw me when i sat down at my desk and i said god i can't make it another day i know none of you you cool folks have ever ever gotten that shape i i know y'all just float into the prayer room you don't just float through life and you all are just like the pictures on facebook and and all of that i mean you're just like you're just like all of that but can i tell you god sees you when your bottom lip begins to quiver and you try to talk to somebody and you get choked up because you're in the midst of a struggle isn't it good to know that god not only sees you but god heard that prayer that you prayed tonight god heard you say lord i need some help lord i just need some help and a simian got born now now oh leah struggle with one thing now again this is a culture thing that don't happen with us but olia struggled with something because oh jacob oh jacob he was always going to lead us he was always going to rachel's tent he was always he come from the field lee is standing there in her tent door and and uh oh oh jacob he'd always go into the beautiful tent he's always going to the to the tent of rachel but you see that levi or leah got to giving birth to kids and if you're a loving daddy there's one thing you want to see you don't see your kids and she gets she conceived again and the bible said i now i got a i got three children i got reuben god sees me i got simeon god hears me and now i got levi and she said now will my husband be joined unto me that man's gonna come to my tent to play with these kids that man's gonna come around me to play with these boys and she called his name levi which means to be joined unto and then the bible says she conceived again and she just simply says now will i praise the lord now would i praise the lord now now isn't it amazing now rachel begins to struggle you see it doesn't matter where you're at in life struggle has found you or if i could just make more money no i remember a few years ago brother and sister dotson went to blairsville started the church and we were having some fellowship with him one night and he said to sister carpenter he said when will i ever get around the corner will when i ever get around the corner in other words he was saying when will i ever get this thing going and when will i get around the corner uh and it not be such a struggle and she said brother dotson when you go around the corner of one struggle there'll be another corner of struggle don't be deceived tonight if you're poor that you would think if you could become rich you won't struggle there's wealthy people in this room tonight that would say i struggle there's poor people in here tonight that say i struggle so don't think that you're ever going to get things just like just right in life for there not to be a struggle god has designed struggle so now rachel begins to struggle and in psalms 30 and verse number one and when rachel saw that she bear jacob no children rachel envied her sister isn't that amazing miss beautiful is envying miss tendered boy god has a way of turning things around she envied her sister and said unto jacob give me children or else i die now jacob loved her evidently that first kiss he got so overwhelmed that he started crying but enough is enough and verse 2 says and jacob's anger was kindled against rachel you know what is she all that beautiful mr jacob and jacob his anger was kindled against rachel and he said am i in god's stead who hath withheld thee from the fruit of the womb and she said behold my maid bilhah my maid bihar in other words she had a maid named bill hall and i looked up brother nolan the name because names mean things in the bible you know reuben i looked at you simeon i heard you levi i'm joined judah i praise bill hall means something would you like to know what it means trouble trouble and she said behold my maid trouble go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees that i may also have children by her you know what there's a lot of truth to that there's a lot of times prosperity won't move us but trouble does sometimes blue skies doesn't move us to a intimate relationship with almighty god but let it go completely dark let the doctor say i found a spot on your lung let the doctor call you up and say hey that that test that i put you through there's some things i don't like and you'll see a lot of people show up at church i'm not knocking that i'm glad you know where to come to but there's just sometimes it takes trouble to give birth to some things in our lives she said you need to take bill you need to take my trouble go into my trouble i may have children by her and she gave him bill hall verse 34 verse 4 excuse me and she gave him bilhah she gave him trouble she gave him her trouble to wife jacob went in unto her and trouble conceived and bear jacob a son and rachel said god have judged me and hath also heard my voice and have given me a son therefore she called call therefore called she his name dan and you know what dan means dan means judged god gave a judgment she said i have given my trouble i've given my trouble away and god has judged me faithful for giving my trouble away can i tell you tonight your trouble belongs on the altar your trouble belongs to god don't nurse it don't hide it don't mask it don't mascara it don't hide it away you need to learn how to come to church and say god here is my trouble here is my trouble and bill hall verse 5 conceived again and bear jacob the son now here she bears again and rachel said god had judged me and hath also heard my voice and given me a son therefore his name shall be called dan which means judge verse seven and bill hall trouble and bill hall bill hall rachel's made conceived again and bear jacob a second son and rachel said with great what's this word here with great what what's that word wrestling with with great wrestling have i wrestled with my sister and i have prevailed and she called his name nephitella nephiteli becomes one of the 12 tribes the name nephiteli simply means to wrestle to wrestle there are some things that will never give birth in your life we will never have a struggle-free church a struggle-free family if we're real transparent tonight we struggle when we're single single people said i'm just struggling so much well if i can just get married no you're gonna come on now you struggle when you're single you struggle in elementary school you struggle in junior high school you struggle in high school you struggle in college you struggle when you're single you struggle when you get married and god knows we struggle when we have children struggle struggle oh i've just got perfect children no you don't every child that's ever been born we've struggled with in some form or a fashion you struggle with them but you understand if you can handle the struggle you can produce a pretty good child it's that when you train the child the struggle is just a part of life an aspirin won't do appeal won't do you got to take your struggles of life to an altar to a relationship with jesus christ you got to have a prayer meeting in your life you got to have daily bible study you got to have daily prayer time you got to learn how to take your struggle oh you got to take your struggle to god i don't want my kids to take my their struggle to the world i don't want a psychiatrist to peel them up i don't want the world to give them a happy hour i want our struggles to be real uh so she gives birth to this second child trouble gives birth to the second child nephitelli his name means wrestling wrestling struggling it's interesting remember nephitelli one of the 12 tribes he's going to be given a land oh yes each each tribe was given a partial of land so nephitelli along with zebulun zebulun was one of the twelve sons of jacob and zebulun is given a land now the name zebulum because names mean something in the bible the name zebulun zebulun means exalted exalted he was given a partial of land brother perdue he was given a partial of land zebulun exalted was given a partial of land nephiteli means to struggle to wrestle do you know that nepatelli's partial of land butts up against zebulun's partial of land so when you look at an arrow of you you have on one side exalting and on the other side struggling wrestling and i believe those two pieces of property go together because you can't be exalted without a struggle nobody has ever been exalted unless they first went through a struggle the sweeter the struggle the stronger the exalting now this is interesting this is interesting matthew chapter 4. can i preach a little bit more matthew chapter 4. verse number 13. john the baptist has just been beheaded things are not going good john the baptist has been beheaded in matthew 4 13 and the bible says jesus leaving nazareth the word nazareth means guarded guarded it was there at nazareth that jesus christ grew up it was his hometown it's where he was guarded the bible said in leaving nazareth he came and dwelt in notice what he does sometimes it's easy to leave nazareth it's real easy to leave nazareth because nazareth didn't have a good reputation don't you remember when they said that jesus christ was jesus of nazareth what did they say can anything good come out of you know sometimes it's easy to leave the place that people don't have a popular opinion of and he came to capernaum and he dwelt in capernaum well the name capernaum means comfort no wonder you won't live in capernaum oh we didn't visit capernaum we didn't stay for two nights in capernaum we love our comfort don't we church we love to be oh yeah we do everything from the car we drive to the house we live in to the mattress we lay on to the pillow we buy from mr pill of man i mean all the way through all right we love comfort we love comfort but god knows sometimes prophecy can't be fulfilled in our lives when we live in comfort the bible said leave in nazareth he came and dwelt in capernaum which is upon the seacoast in the borders of zebulun and nephitella wrestling comfort is up against exalted and wrestling watch verse 14 now that it might be fulfilled jesus has come to this area that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by isaiah the prophet saying the land of zebulun and the land of nephitellum by the way of the sea beyond jordan galilee of the gentiles the people which set which set in darkness saw great light and of them which set in the region of the shadow of death light is sprung up no wonder he decides to begin his ministry where in the land of struggle he decides i'm going to start my ministry john the baptist has been beheaded where do i start my ministry i'm going to start it at the dark place of struggling can the rush grow up without the mire where do i want to start my ministry not from the steps of the roman coliseum and not from the steps of the temple in jerusalem where do i want to start my ministry jesus says let me go down to nephitellum let me go down where people are wrestling and people are struggling can i tell you tonight if you are struggling and you won't hide it tonight jesus christ will come to where you're at and he will begin to help you in the midst of your struggling oh could you give him praise right now struggle god and life presents us with struggles but this isn't a bad thing if we have a revelation of struggle if we realize god has a purpose for struggle as a matter of fact god is even giving you things to struggle with some of you might have been born with something that you struggle with for example exodus four and ten exodus four and ten moses said unto the lord o my lord i am not eloquent neither here to four nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant watch this but i am slow of speech and of a slow tongue uh you you you don't understand i was born with a struggle i was born with a slow speech and a slow tongue and we could go into all different areas of what that was whatever it was it was slow speech and a slow tongue notice what god says and the lord said unto him who hath made man's mouth or who maketh the dumb or death or the seeing or the blind have not i the lord you know what he was saying he said i made you that way and i made you that way for a reason i want your struggle to help you to depend upon me i want your struggle to attach you to me i'm telling you folks i want to preach a revelation of a struggle because we don't need to be delivered from a struggle we need to understand why we are struggling have not i have not i made i made you i made you to struggle i made you this way look at ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 ephesians 6 and 10. finally my brethren be strong in the lord in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil the schemes of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places therefore taken to you the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand and in in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore what he's trying to tell you church what i want to tell you from the word of the lord we're an army we are in a battle there are spiritual demonic forces that are working through entertainment that are working through whatever systems they can work through demonic spirits destructive spirits working through governments working through entertainment and it's all to destroy the faith of the church it's not time for you to be in your vacation close it's time for you to put on your war clothes it's time to put on your boots it's time to put on your helmet it's time to fight the good fight of faith you say brother carpenter i just struggle my kids are turned off at the church don't say that don't say that it's a struggle but aren't your kids worth fighting for hell is trying to get a hold of their mind i'm going to stand and i'm going to proclaim to hell you're not getting my children you're not getting my grandbabies you're not getting my youth group i'm going to fight for you it's a struggle could you give god some praise right now would you just give god some praise it's a struggle it's a struggle it's a struggle jacob it's a struggle it's a struggle it's interesting tonight in genesis chapter 27 verse 24. this man called jacob he struggled he struggled to want to be blessed he struggled to the point that he decided that he could be blessed through dishonesty you see satan will always give you a way out he will always give you a glimmer of prosperity if you would just give up your devotion to god so a plan is schemed by jacob and his mother jacob dresses up like his brother esau he wears esau's garment he wears the garment of deception he goes into his dying father to do one thing struggling people want one thing blessed blessed we want one thing jacob covers himself in a garment of deception and in verse 24 and he said art thou his dying father is blind dying father says art thou my very son esau he lied and he said i am and he said bring it near to me and i will eat of my sons of innocent my that my soul may bless thee and he brought it near to him and he did eat and he brought him wine and he drank and his father isaac said unto him come near now and kiss me my son and he came near and kissed him and he smelled the smell of his raiment and blessed him and said see the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the lord had blessed now watch the blessing now therefore god give thee the dew of heaven the fatness of the earth the plenty of corn and wine let people serve thee nations bow down to thee be lord over all thy brethren let thy mother sons bow down to thee curse be everyone that curseth thee and bless be he that blesseth thee can i tell you what's wrong with this blessing it never includes a relationship with god only material things we have got to understand there's more to life than material things your life is not all about getting a newer bigger better your life is about cause when it all comes to an end when it all comes to an end and you lay on your death bed and the doctor has said death will be in a matter of hours it doesn't matter what car you drove it doesn't matter how many cds you've got in the bank it doesn't matter what you're going to leave they they asked one of the most wealthiest men in the world years ago j.p morgan he died in a newspaper reporter asked a secretary in his office he said how much did mr morgan leave behind and the secretary said all of it that's exactly right can i tell you tonight and your struggle to get bigger better bigger houses more money thinking that if i can just get a better bracket i'll get out of this struggle you'll learn to find out it doesn't matter if you make forty thousand a year or four thousand four hundred thousand a year you're still going to be struggling until you line yourself up with the will and the call of the almighty god and god says i want to write a history about you i want you to be the paper that i write your life story your son needs to read about you your grandchildren need to be read about you the community needs to read about you they need to read that when you fell into struggle you didn't give up you didn't quit you kept on going and you became an overcomer what will your children remember about you what will be told about you oh i don't want him to say daddy was a quitter i don't want to whisper behind her my the back and say dad quit i wanted to say i know mom and dad are not perfect but let me tell you something about my mom and dad they loved god they struggled they might have got knocked down none of y'all ever got knocked down they might have got knocked down they may have got the breath knocked out of them but let me tell you my mom and dad got back up they might have got hurt they might have been hurt but my mom and dad walked back in there and they lifted up their hands and they began to magnify god that's the story that i want somebody to write about my life not one thing is said no wonder a few years later jacob needs to meet his past and in genesis 32 22 he's got to meet his past genesis 32 22 and he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two women sir women's servants and his 11 sons remember that were 11 sons and passed over the brook jebuk and he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over that he had and jacob was left alone boy right here's what we don't like doing we don't like to be alone we got to get in our car and turn some news on we not only have satellite tv we got satellite radio we got to have something going all the time get in the car turn something on come home turn something on be sitting in the office have something turned on you know why i believe that is we don't we don't really like being alone because alone seems to remind us of who we really are but that sometimes we can never get the blessing that god wants to bless us until we get along he was left alone and there you see this with me he was left alone and there wrestled a man with him into the breaking of the day and when he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled now let me some of us think that he tried to knock him off of him he's going to touch him i'm going to knock you off because jacob will not let go of this angel some something well the angel is trying to hit him to knock him off i got news for you if the angel wanted to knock jacob off the angel could have done it with the flip of a finger the angel's not trying to knock him off jacob has just graduated from struggle school and every person that ever struggles has a sign upon them that they've been to struggle anybody you see them limping you see people in the church that have struggled and overcome the struggle they have got some form on them that tells you i struggled but i became an overcomer i struggle with some things i might have a limp but i'm going to tell you i might have a lip but i've been a man that's overcome struggling i've overcome struck stay with me just for a few more moments he was left alone there wrestled a man with him unto the breaking of day he smote his thigh and his thigh was out of joint as he wrestled him watch verse 26 and he said unto him and he said let me go for the day breaketh and jacob said i will not let thee go except thou blessed me wait a minute jacob you've already been blessed no that was a deceitful blessing that was a phony blessing that was a fake blessing i got to have a real blessing i will not let you go until you bless until you bless me i will not let you go and he said what is your name he said my name is jacob and he said your name thy name shall be called no more jacob but israel for as a prince has thou power with god and with men and have prevailed can i tell you the bible likens a name to anointment the bible likens a name a person's name to an ointment just understand this tonight we can live in such a way where our name is a stench in somebody's nostrils we can live in such a way that our name is a stench just the mere mention of the name replays the action but we can connect with our god jesus christ and we can get in a relationship with jesus christ until at the mention of our names somebody doesn't remember what made your name distinct they remember what made your name to triumph they remember that person became an overcomer that person became i've told this little story i read it years ago there were twin boys homeless in a midwestern town these two boys were left to the streets to beg and to steal they couldn't be trusted in the general store these two boys would steal anything they would get their hands on finally one day the town decided it was back years ago when cruelty was such but they decided that these little boy these boys needed to have a mark on them they needed to have a mark branded on them like cattle a mark that would easily identify them when they walked into any general store so they held those those boys down and they branded brother nolan an s on their forehead that s stood for steal they will steal they will steal from you one of the boys could not live with the stigma he could not live with the stigma he bowed his head every place he went but when he would walk into the store they would say look up here at me son you get out of this store that boy one of the boys could not stand the stigma and late one night he took a rope tied it to a bridge and hung himself the other little boy with the s on his forehead he was determined that he was going to do good he was going to attend church he was going to do deeds because he believed that if he would do enough good that enough good could override the bad season of his life they said that little boy group grew to be an elderly man and at his funeral the man was in his 80s at his funeral he lay there in the casket the branded ass was still on his forehead people gathered around the casket and they got in a discussion what does that s mean does anybody here know what that s means does anybody know what that s means and finally a person spoke up and said i believe i know what it means i believe it stands for saint saint you see that young boy had decided that he would struggle his way to victory that young boy decided that i will not let struggle be my tombstone i will turn around and take struggle and i will turn around and make something good out of my life did you catch on did you catch the word said he sent over his 11 sons he sent over his 11 sons didn't he have 12 sons yeah he did but the 12th son was not born until he got a blessing from on high and when the 12th son was born there was a little division you remember that sweet rachel rachel gives birth to the 12th son but as rachel is giving birth the midwives say we're losing you she's dying rachel is literally dying and she did die during childbirth but the last thing rachel did was she named him she said call his name binio vinio called his name mineo which means son of my sorrow he's the son of my sorrow but jacob stands there a man that's overcome struggling a man that knows he limps he drags one leg behind him he knows what it's like to have his name changed he knows what it's like to overcome trouble and jacob said no no no no no you're not going to call him any old son of sorrow you're going to call him benjamin son of my right hand son of power and son of authority can i tell you tonight not literally but there's a 12th son in you there's a 12th son in you tonight under the sound of my voice tonight there's people struggling in all areas of your life can the rush grow without the mire i'm here to tell you that i am going to take the dark damp smelly places of my life and i'm going to let a beautiful rush spring up from that and somebody's going to come and tear it down and they're going to turn it into paper and they're gonna write he kept the faith he finished the fight he finished the course he made it all the way home setbacks in our lives oh yes but i am bound to determine i will struggle until the day that i become what he is now i become the son of god you become the sons and daughters of god that you know that you can be would you stand with me tonight would you begin to offer up a prayer if you're struggling in this building tonight would you just begin to say over and over again lord help me lord help me god oh god help me lord oh there's a revelation in the struggle oh there's a revelation in the struggle god oh god they're struggling here tonight lord they're struggling there's wrestling going on here tonight oh there's people god that are wrestling and struggling with their faith oh they're wondering is it even worth it to keep on trying seems like the more that i come the more things fall apart seems like the more that i give up the more things fall apart you want to hear what they're saying about me you want to hear the untrue words you ought to hear these things can i tell you tonight in the name of jesus christ struggle on struggle on wrestle on fight on go on pray right now lord i love you oh god i worship you tonight lord oh god i worship you tonight lord lord help them god you know the struggle that i have lord lord you know the struggle that i have god god you know the burden that i carry god the struggle god how the struggle god lord use the struggle god that i carry with the souls of men and women that are here tonight oh god oh god jesus jesus jesus jesus come on church come on lift up your voice tonight come on lift up your voice it's a struggle it's a struggle but there's a revelation behind the struggle there's a there's a revelation behind the struggle that's right that's right son that's right son that's right that's right that's right so anybody else who will walk down the aisle and put your face in the carpet when's the last time you got alone with god when's the last time where's the last time you found a place to put your face in the carpet around here was the last time you wasn't worried about when to go home or what time it is you just simply want a revelation to your struggle when's the last time jesus jesus jesus jesus holy spirit leads to the heart of jesus there is nothing we come on church why don't we find a place there will be no formal dismissal tonight why don't you find a place to bury your face why don't you find a pew to pray in right now god what is this struggle all about god did i bring it on lord god i believe you could even take my my bringing the struggle on and work it out god oh mighty god mighty god mighty god