Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: Be sure to.
Speaker 3: Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week.
Speaker 1: I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 4: I do want to just take a moment and say
Speaker 4: to each and every one of you, you know that
Speaker 4: I don't wear a red hoodie for just anything. Fall season,
Speaker 4: holiday season. God is going to give us a very
Speaker 4: strong end to this year.
Speaker 1: How many are believing for that? How many you.
Speaker 4: Got some catching up to do because this has been
Speaker 4: a really weird year so far. We're gonna believe God
Speaker 4: that every blessing that you haven't received that you're supposed
Speaker 4: to receive this year, God would compress it into these
Speaker 4: next few weeks for you. I'm believing that He's going
Speaker 4: to give you supernatural guidance, wisdom, his reflexes, his response.
Speaker 4: In fact, that's what I want to preach about today.
Speaker 4: I want to preach about the blessing that God wants
Speaker 4: to give you. And sometimes these things do come in
Speaker 4: unexpected ways, So prepare for it and just tell your
Speaker 4: neighbor real quick, get ready for it, Get ready for it.
Speaker 4: I want to share some time with you today in
Speaker 4: Genesis chapter thirty two, and remain standing for the reading
Speaker 4: of God's word greeting to all of our campuses and
Speaker 4: our epham around the world. Let's thank God for all
Speaker 4: who are joining us today that they would receive the
Speaker 4: flow of this anointing right where they are. Come on elevation, Valentine,
Speaker 4: put those hands together. Let's welcome our worldwide Epham.
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter thirty two.
Speaker 4: Had a hard time deciding how much of this to
Speaker 4: read to you, but I decided that we should go
Speaker 4: from at least verse seven. So buckle in, and this
Speaker 4: passage of scripture. Wow, it's really for those of you
Speaker 4: who are wrestling with something and you've been struggling because
Speaker 4: you're wrestling. You've been struggling to rest in what you
Speaker 4: have and who you are because of what you're wrestling with.
Speaker 4: That's who I'm preaching to today. Genesis chapter thirty two,
Speaker 4: verse seven, the Bible says, in great fear and distress,
Speaker 4: Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,
Speaker 4: and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought,
Speaker 4: if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that
Speaker 4: is left may escape. Now, for everybody who is kind
Speaker 4: of a control freak you can relate to this. You
Speaker 4: start making all of these plans and backup plans for
Speaker 4: your backup plans, and all of these ways that you
Speaker 4: start working and out.
Speaker 1: You know. But Jacob is doing that because it said.
Speaker 4: In verse eight that Esau was coming to attack him
Speaker 4: his brother. But look at verse nine, this kind of
Speaker 4: a turning point in the passage. Then Jacob prayed, so
Speaker 4: watch this verse eight, he thought. Verse nine, Then Jacob pray,
Speaker 4: You know, the devil shouldn't have let you get here
Speaker 4: today because he's had you in your head and you've
Speaker 4: been thinking about the attack. But the moment that you
Speaker 4: started braising God today and lifted your eyes to him,
Speaker 4: come on, I declare a level.
Speaker 1: Change in your situation.
Speaker 4: Then Jacob prayed, Oh, God of my father Abraham, God
Speaker 4: of my father Isaac, Lord you who said to me,
Speaker 4: go back to your country and your relatives, and I
Speaker 4: will make you prosper. I am unworthy of all the
Speaker 4: kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had
Speaker 4: only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now
Speaker 4: I have become two camps. Save me, I pray from
Speaker 4: the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid
Speaker 4: that he will come and attack me, and also the
Speaker 4: mothers with their children.
Speaker 1: But you have said, but you have said.
Speaker 4: I will surely make you prosper and will make your
Speaker 4: descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.
Speaker 4: He spent the night there, and from what he had
Speaker 4: with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna read you the whole list, all right, just
Speaker 4: so you can see how blessed Jacob was. Two hundred
Speaker 4: female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred us and
Speaker 4: twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows,
Speaker 4: and ten bulls.
Speaker 1: Oh boys, doing pretty good, he said a few verses ago.
Speaker 4: I started with just a staff, look what God gave him,
Speaker 4: and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
Speaker 1: He put them in the care of his servants.
Speaker 4: Each heard by his health, and said to his servants,
Speaker 4: go ahead of me and keep some space between the herds.
Speaker 1: He instructed the one in the lead.
Speaker 4: When my brother Esau meets with you and asks who
Speaker 4: do these belong to? Where you go and who owns
Speaker 4: all these animals in front of you, then you are
Speaker 4: to say they belong to your servant, Jacob. They are
Speaker 4: a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is
Speaker 4: coming behind us. He also instructed the second and the
Speaker 4: third and all the others who followed the hers. He's
Speaker 4: covering all his basis for this thing that he's got
Speaker 4: to deal with. The next day, you are to say
Speaker 4: the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and
Speaker 4: be sure to say your servant, and Jacob.
Speaker 1: Is coming behind us.
Speaker 4: For he thought, I'll pacify him with these gifts I'm
Speaker 4: sending on a head later when I see him, perhaps
Speaker 4: he will receive me. So Jacob's gifts went on ahead
Speaker 4: of him, but but.
Speaker 1: He himself spent the night in the camp.
Speaker 4: That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives,
Speaker 4: his two female servants, and his eleven sons that would
Speaker 4: keep you up all night, all of it, the eleven sons,
Speaker 4: the two wives, all of it that would give me indigestion,
Speaker 4: and then saw me they don't make a little Nesta
Speaker 4: strong enough for the situation, and your brother might want
Speaker 4: to kill you.
Speaker 1: This is what he's dealing with.
Speaker 4: He took all of that and crossed the ford of
Speaker 4: the Jabe. After he had sent them across the stream.
Speaker 4: He sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone,
Speaker 4: and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. And when
Speaker 4: the man saw that he could not overpower him, he
Speaker 4: touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip
Speaker 4: was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. And I'll
Speaker 4: stop here for now. Then the man said, let me go,
Speaker 4: for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not
Speaker 4: let you go unless you bless me. I want to
Speaker 4: speak to you today on the subject the blessing of
Speaker 4: letting go, the blessing of letting go, And let's pray
Speaker 4: one more time. Father, Your word is eternal. It produces
Speaker 4: what you send it to produce. It accomplishes what you
Speaker 4: intend for it to accomplish. May it be so we
Speaker 4: call it done in the lives of these your children.
Speaker 4: And today, when the harvest comes from this word, will
Speaker 4: give you all the praise because.
Speaker 1: You deserve it.
Speaker 4: In Jesus' name, Amen, on your way to your seat,
Speaker 4: tell your neighbor, yes, I'm blessed, Yes, I'm blessed.
Speaker 1: Say it convincingly.
Speaker 4: Now that first time you sounded like you were saying
Speaker 4: it under compulsion. You sounded like I sent you to apologize,
Speaker 4: like your mom.
Speaker 1: Made you say that I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I just won look at them like you need to
Speaker 4: sell something to eat tonight and say yes, I'm blessed,
Speaker 4: because I mean, even the most basic reading of this
Speaker 4: Bible story is confusing.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to get.
Speaker 4: Into all of the nuances of wait a minute, God
Speaker 4: broke a guy's hip.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to get into that to be confused.
Speaker 1: You could be just confused. Okay, there's one verse in that.
Speaker 4: This one verse is confusing just by itself, the one
Speaker 4: that I stopped on where Jacob says to this guy
Speaker 4: who turns out to be like an angel of God
Speaker 4: or an appearance of God, but he doesn't know that
Speaker 4: at the time, because it's not always obvious that it's
Speaker 4: God when you're going through things. I said, it's not
Speaker 4: always obvious that it's God when you're going through things.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you will give the devil credit for something that
Speaker 4: God is actually doing, so you'll be like, the Devil
Speaker 4: is testing me, No, God is you, And at the
Speaker 4: very end of the passage we'll find out that it
Speaker 4: was God with Jacob. But the confusing thing and I
Speaker 4: want to know if it confused you to is that
Speaker 4: after reading that whole list of rams, bulls, goats, donkeys,
Speaker 4: all of those things that God gave Jacob, he turns
Speaker 4: around and says to this.
Speaker 1: Whatever he's wrestling with, that he doesn't really know what
Speaker 1: it is yet. He says verse twenty six, I will
Speaker 1: not let you go unless you bless me. Isn't he
Speaker 1: already blessed? Just asking the obvious? How many donkeys was it?
Speaker 1: Were you counting them? I wasn't counting them.
Speaker 4: There were so many donkeys I lost count so much livestock,
Speaker 4: I mean Hebrew culture, the proof of blessing was life,
Speaker 4: so having eleven sons which would later go on to
Speaker 4: be the tribes of Israel. Benjamin isn't born yet, but
Speaker 4: after Benjamin, it completes the roster, the starting lineup for
Speaker 4: the nation of Israel, and all of that is traveling
Speaker 4: with him, and he's blessed.
Speaker 1: If you were to ask Jacob is he blessed? He'd
Speaker 1: say yes.
Speaker 4: He even said to God when he was praying, you
Speaker 4: know you've done so much for me. I don't deserve it.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at a life that I couldn't imagine, and
Speaker 4: now I'm living in something that I never would have
Speaker 4: imagined through the lens of my past. It reminded me
Speaker 4: of a conversation that I had with a great entrepreneur.
Speaker 4: He was sharing with me about the pressure that he
Speaker 4: faces on a daily basis, and his solution was, I
Speaker 4: just need to be more grateful. God has given me
Speaker 4: so much, I just need to be more grateful. And
Speaker 4: we went through a list of some of the accomplishments
Speaker 4: that he had seen, and at the end of him
Speaker 4: talking about how he felt so guilty because he wasn't
Speaker 4: more greatful. Ask him a question, and it's a helpful
Speaker 4: question that I want to ask you as well.
Speaker 1: I said, you keep saying.
Speaker 4: That you're not as grateful as you should be for
Speaker 4: everything that God has given you. But I wonder if
Speaker 4: what you're calling a lack of gratitude in your life
Speaker 4: really isn't just the load of pressure that you feel
Speaker 4: because of the blessings that God has given.
Speaker 1: And so I don't think it's necessarily.
Speaker 4: That you aren't grateful for everything that you just listed
Speaker 4: that you know God has given you. I think it's
Speaker 4: that at times you realize that, yes, I'm blessed. But
Speaker 4: and so look at your neighbor again and say yes,
Speaker 4: I'm blessed, but say it in that little high voice
Speaker 4: like that. Look at him again, look at him again,
Speaker 4: say yes I'm blessed. But I wanted to call this message.
Speaker 4: Yes I'm blessed, but because when you came to church today,
Speaker 4: you brought your blessed but sympathy laughs, come on, its
Speaker 4: pastor appreciation.
Speaker 1: Mine.
Speaker 4: It's amazing to me how Jacob could be so blessed
Speaker 4: that God has done so much, that God has given
Speaker 4: so many things. But the Bible says he was terrified,
Speaker 4: he was threatened, he was uncertain, and on the same
Speaker 4: prayer that he's telling God, you promised me that you're
Speaker 4: going to create something great out of my life, he's
Speaker 4: reminding God that he has a brother named Esau who's
Speaker 4: about to kill. So he looked up one night and
Speaker 4: he saw all of the blessings God had given him,
Speaker 4: But he also saw Esau. Not physically now, but he's
Speaker 4: imagining this brother.
Speaker 1: Do you know about Esau. Esau is the brother who
Speaker 1: was the first born of Isaac, who was supposed to rightfully.
Speaker 4: Carry the birthright to bring forth the nation of Israel.
Speaker 4: But Jacob tricked his father into giving him the birthright
Speaker 4: and the blessing because Isaac was going blind.
Speaker 1: So Jacob dressed up like he was Esau.
Speaker 4: It was his mom's idea to do it, and she's like,
Speaker 4: I got some of his clothes, I can make some food.
Speaker 1: We can take it into Isaac and Isaac.
Speaker 4: Won't know the difference, and we can get him to
Speaker 4: bless you instead, because she kind of liked Jacob and
Speaker 4: Isaac kind of liked Esau, and so they switched it
Speaker 4: up and bamboozled Isaac to get Jacob bless And that
Speaker 4: is the background of this story, is that Jacob is blessed, but.
Speaker 1: Blessed. But it's been twenty years since he's seen.
Speaker 4: He saw, He's been a lot of places, He's seen
Speaker 4: a lot of things. He lived with Uncle Laban for
Speaker 4: most of those twenty years in a foreign land.
Speaker 1: He got two wives.
Speaker 4: He read about that in the text, Rachel and Leah.
Speaker 1: Rachel was beautiful, Leoh.
Speaker 4: Was had a good personality. And now he's going back
Speaker 4: with everything that God has blessed him with.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna preach this. I'm gonna preach this. I'm
Speaker 1: anapreach this because I feel it. He's blessed, but.
Speaker 4: He's got a thousand reasons to be thankful. He's got
Speaker 4: a thousand reasons to be confident. He's got Exhibit A, A, B, C, D, E, F,
Speaker 4: G H, I JK that God keeps his promises. But
Speaker 4: he knows the story how God told his father, well
Speaker 4: not his father, his grandfather Abraham, I will bless.
Speaker 1: You and you will be a blessing.
Speaker 4: He knows all of that so well that he can
Speaker 4: rehearse it in a prayer back to God in perfect
Speaker 4: prose and remind God of how far he's come. It
Speaker 4: is not wasted on him what God has done for him.
Speaker 1: He's very blessed.
Speaker 4: But it is important for us to realize as we
Speaker 4: bring God our praise for.
Speaker 1: The blessings that we have received.
Speaker 4: And I need all the blessed people to take a moment,
Speaker 4: clap your hands.
Speaker 1: And thank God that He blessed you, because.
Speaker 4: If He hadn't a blessed you.
Speaker 1: You probably wouldn't be here. Three people, If.
Speaker 4: He hadn't blessed you, kept you, fed, you led, you sown,
Speaker 4: you crowned, you clothed, you walk you through you wouldn't
Speaker 4: be here if you.
Speaker 1: Weren't so blessed. High fire. Somebody say, yes, I'm blessed,
Speaker 1: but but i'm blessed. I'm blessed. God gave me kids.
Speaker 1: We struggle through infertility for three years. God gave us kids.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed. Children are blessing.
Speaker 4: But can't talk to you about this in church. We
Speaker 4: talk about it later, talk about later. In fact, I
Speaker 4: don't talk to anybody about it because.
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to.
Speaker 4: See my butt. You cain't talk about my butt. I'm
Speaker 4: gona cover my butt. I'm gonna show you my blessing.
Speaker 4: I'm'a cover my but I'm gonna post my blessings. I'm'a
Speaker 4: cover my butt all up on Instagram. It's all my blessings.
Speaker 1: You will see my butt on Instagram.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: The thing about the passage that I need you to realize.
Speaker 4: Is that the presence of the blessing does not mean
Speaker 4: the absence of pressure. Sometimes we get confused about the
Speaker 4: things that we feel. Sometimes we get confused about the
Speaker 4: thoughts that we have. Because I'm blessed, and I know
Speaker 4: that I should trust God, because I know that I've
Speaker 4: seen him come through before. I am blessed. I have
Speaker 4: seen so many times that He came through for me.
Speaker 4: But I'm waking up lately at three in the morning,
Speaker 4: and it's not just because of my liquid intake. I'm
Speaker 4: working through scenarios right now that I can't figure out
Speaker 4: how to sort.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed.
Speaker 4: I mean, don't get me wrong, man, I'm not in
Speaker 4: here to complain to you. I'm blessed. But I got
Speaker 4: to go back to the doctor next Wednesday. And he's
Speaker 4: my healer. God is my Jehovah rapha. But I still
Speaker 4: kind of wonder what this doctor is gonna say to
Speaker 4: me when I go see them on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I'm describing scenarios. These aren't my scenarios. These are just
Speaker 1: these are the butts.
Speaker 4: You brought to church, the man who told me, I'm
Speaker 4: so grateful that God will allowed me to open this restaurant.
Speaker 4: But I've got this pain in my shoulder right now,
Speaker 4: and I'm coming in and I'm getting here at four
Speaker 4: in the morning, And will you pray for me, pastor,
Speaker 4: because I trust God, but my shoulder.
Speaker 1: And God has.
Speaker 4: Blessed me with so much, but this hurts. I'm waking
Speaker 4: up with this pain in my body. I'm not able
Speaker 4: to sleep at night. Would you just pray for me?
Speaker 4: Because I love God, I trust God. I'm blessed, and
Speaker 4: don't get this confused. The load that I carry does
Speaker 4: not mean that I don't love God, nor does it
Speaker 4: mean that I doubt his love for me. I'm blessed.
Speaker 4: Yes I'm blessed, but this addiction is kicking my butt.
Speaker 4: Yes I'm blessed, but I still can't understand why I
Speaker 4: emotionally eat, and so every diet that I try, it
Speaker 4: fails because there's something driving me back to that eating
Speaker 4: and I don't even know what it is.
Speaker 1: And yes, I'm blessed, and I'm not.
Speaker 4: Complaining because I know that there's somebody somewhere who doesn't
Speaker 4: even have food to eat. So I'm not comparing myself
Speaker 4: and saying that I don't appreciate what God gave me.
Speaker 4: And I know that overeating is kind of like an
Speaker 4: American blessed people problem anyway to have, but I still
Speaker 4: have it. I'm blessed, but I can't control this and
Speaker 4: I don't know how to control it because I'm wrestling
Speaker 4: with something I can't see. And I'm forgiving of my sin,
Speaker 4: but I don't feel free from it yet. I know
Speaker 4: that it's under the blood, but it's still going on
Speaker 4: in my house. And I can say the right words
Speaker 4: to you, when I can sing the right songs with you.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed, but but you probably want to hear about this.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed but and this is what I feel sometimes
Speaker 1: when people.
Speaker 4: Say, boy, it must be wonderful to know that God
Speaker 4: uses you to help thousands of people through your preaching.
Speaker 1: That must be a blessing. It is a blessing, y'all.
Speaker 1: Don't want to hear about that.
Speaker 4: No, it's just the Holy Spirit just flows and I
Speaker 4: just let him say what he wants to say, because
Speaker 4: it's his work, not my work, and it's his way
Speaker 4: not my way.
Speaker 1: And I believe that. But sometimes I want to get
Speaker 1: up and say what I said last week, do it
Speaker 1: and walk off the stage. You like that, Lord, I
Speaker 1: like that. The Lord said he liked that. Now about
Speaker 1: this wrestling match.
Speaker 4: Let me give you another verse that to me, it's
Speaker 4: not confusing, but it just really shows what Jacob is
Speaker 4: going through in this passage. It says that when verse
Speaker 4: twenty four comes around and he's, you know, sent everything
Speaker 4: across the stream because he's got to deal with Esau,
Speaker 4: and he thinks Esau is the enemy that he.
Speaker 1: Has to face. And so what happens is he has.
Speaker 4: A fight that he didn't plan for as he's getting
Speaker 4: ready for the fight that he's not going to have
Speaker 4: that he thinks he's going to have.
Speaker 1: This is kind of what worry does to you.
Speaker 4: It gets you fighting battles that probably aren't even going
Speaker 4: to happen, to deplete you of the strength that you
Speaker 4: need to do the things that you can do to
Speaker 4: affect what you can affect, to impact what you can impact.
Speaker 4: But the Bible says that after Jacob was separated from
Speaker 4: all of these blessings, donkeys, camels, what else did he
Speaker 4: have use and Rachels and Leah's and Simeon's and Levi's
Speaker 4: and all of these tangible expressions of blessing After those
Speaker 4: have all gone, it says in verse twenty four. So
Speaker 4: Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him
Speaker 4: till daybreak.
Speaker 1: Now, I have been in an.
Speaker 4: Nostalgia hole all week watching nineteen ninety one, nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety three wrestling matches. I don't mean the kind
Speaker 4: where they compete on a collegiate level. I'm talking about
Speaker 4: the Four Horsemen. And I'll be honest, I even went
Speaker 4: past because I quit watching wrestling when I was about
Speaker 4: thirteen or fourteen. I even went past when I stopped
Speaker 4: watching wrestling, and I watched when Hulk Hogan became a
Speaker 4: bad guy, and that was heartbreaking because when I was
Speaker 4: growing up, he was telling me to eat my vitamins
Speaker 4: and say my prayers. And I had a little Hulk
Speaker 4: Hogan workout cassette tape and I listened to that thing
Speaker 4: and to watch hul Hogan Hulk Hogan look at the
Speaker 4: crowd and say shove it. I'm like, shove it. You're
Speaker 4: our guy, You're our hero. How could you do this
Speaker 4: to me? I was watching it all week long, but
Speaker 4: I was watching it in the lens of Jacob. I
Speaker 4: was trying to figure out what that had to do
Speaker 4: with Jacob, and I realized it right here. It's because
Speaker 4: you know, they have a lot of arguments about is
Speaker 4: wrestling fake or is it real? Is it fake or
Speaker 4: is it real? And I heard one wrestler say something,
Speaker 4: He's like, let me slam you, and then you can
Speaker 4: see how real it feels or how fake it feels.
Speaker 4: So when the Bible says that he was wrestling, and
Speaker 4: he was wrestling alone, it lets me know two things.
Speaker 4: One is that no one else got to see how
Speaker 4: he struggled. No one else saw this struggle. And number two,
Speaker 4: he wrestled at night, which means that even he couldn't
Speaker 4: see what he was struggling with. And is that the
Speaker 4: nature of the real things we wrestle with. I'm not
Speaker 4: talking about where the issues show up in our lives.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about.
Speaker 4: The source of the issue, and the source of the
Speaker 4: issue determines the strategy for the battle. So if you
Speaker 4: live your whole life thinking, oh, well, I'm wrestling against them,
Speaker 4: I'm fighting against them, I need to convince them if
Speaker 4: they would just appreciate me, you are.
Speaker 1: You are making them the source of your struggle.
Speaker 4: If they are the source of your struggle and they
Speaker 4: are a person, if they're external, if it's an issue,
Speaker 4: if it's the source of your struggle, then the source
Speaker 4: of your strength is also external. Because the source of
Speaker 4: your struggle will determine the source of the strength.
Speaker 1: That you need to defeat that struggle. I'm going to
Speaker 1: make it plain in.
Speaker 4: Just a moment when I'm fighting with something that I
Speaker 4: can see, I need to fight with things that I
Speaker 4: can see. If I'm fighting against something that is visible,
Speaker 4: I need to fight with something that is visible. But
Speaker 4: what do I do when the fight is happening at night?
Speaker 4: What do I do when the fight is happening in
Speaker 4: a place in me that I can't even really tell.
Speaker 1: You about it?
Speaker 4: And I'm not even really sure you want to hear
Speaker 4: it anyway? Because I'm blessed, but I'm thankful, but.
Speaker 1: I've come so far. But and I told God.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to preach this message to you because
Speaker 4: the yes, I'm blessed thing works so much better on
Speaker 4: Sunday without the plot. But when you come to this church,
Speaker 4: as long as I get to be the pastor, you
Speaker 4: can bring your bliss. But in this church every single Sunday,
Speaker 4: what does that mean you could come I'm in confused?
Speaker 4: What does that mean? You can come in conflicted? What
Speaker 4: does that mean? You can come in crying? You can
Speaker 4: leave crying. You don't have to shout, you don't have
Speaker 4: to clap, you'll have to say men.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have a highlighter. You don't have
Speaker 1: to know thirty five scriptures.
Speaker 4: You don't have to know how to quote the apostles creed.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be born in the right place
Speaker 1: at the right time.
Speaker 4: You can be conflicted and still come in this church.
Speaker 4: You can bring your blessed, but you can come in
Speaker 4: here with questions and not even leave with answers, but
Speaker 4: throw up your hands and say, I'm.
Speaker 6: Met with God fresh and the Angel told me it's
Speaker 6: gonna be ay.
Speaker 4: You're blessed, but you're blessed, but you struggle. You're blessed,
Speaker 4: but you wonder. You're blessed, but you're still not completely
Speaker 4: healed from it yet. It happened fifteen years ago. I'm blessed,
Speaker 4: but there's a part of me that still can't forgive
Speaker 4: what they did to me. I'm blessed, but I still
Speaker 4: replay it in my mind. I'm blessed, but I still
Speaker 4: run back to it when the pressure's on. I'm blessed,
Speaker 4: but I still can't make sense out of it. I'm blessed,
Speaker 4: but I still don't feel ready for it.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed, but I still feel exhausted when I go
Speaker 1: to it. I'm blessed.
Speaker 4: God has given me so much, but I spend so
Speaker 4: much time wondering can.
Speaker 1: I keep it up?
Speaker 4: Because God gave it to me, but I can't keep
Speaker 4: it up.
Speaker 1: But here's the good news.
Speaker 4: If he started it, then the pressure is on him
Speaker 4: to finish it. You need to remember that the source
Speaker 4: determines the strategy, and if the blessing comes from you,
Speaker 4: then it's on you to keep it going.
Speaker 1: But if it comes from God.
Speaker 4: So I learned this in my life. When I give
Speaker 4: Him praise, it takes off pressure. Somebody said to me,
Speaker 4: y'all praise God at Elevation Church very externally and very openly,
Speaker 4: and it's kind of shocking. And I'm like, why is
Speaker 4: this shocking? The world is crazy externally and verbally. So
Speaker 4: if it's crazy externally and verbally, then when I'm fighting
Speaker 4: back against the craziness.
Speaker 1: I need to fight it externally and verbally.
Speaker 4: So if the devil is telling me Esau is gonna
Speaker 4: kill you, I need to speak back and say to God,
Speaker 4: you promised I have your word on this, I have
Speaker 4: your assurance on this.
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of your purpose.
Speaker 4: And so Jacob, who I love, the story is so
Speaker 4: amazing because Jacob, all of his life has been blessed
Speaker 4: by grabbing on.
Speaker 1: To what he wanted. Oh, he's a go getter. Jacob
Speaker 1: sets his mind out to do something. This is how
Speaker 1: ambitious Jacob is.
Speaker 4: When he was born, Esau was coming out first, and
Speaker 4: he came out.
Speaker 1: Y'all, don't run the punchline for me. Oh, your bible nurse.
Speaker 4: He came out grabbing the heel of his older brothers
Speaker 4: so he could be first.
Speaker 1: And so they saw him doing.
Speaker 4: That, and they're like, we need to call him Jacob
Speaker 4: because Jacob means heel grabber. What amazing creativity. And then secondly,
Speaker 4: what an amazing picture of the way he lived the
Speaker 4: rest of his life and the way so many of
Speaker 4: us do, grabbing for something that God wants to give him.
Speaker 4: And you be honest with you, we live in a
Speaker 4: time where it's very easy to confuse.
Speaker 1: Christianity with discipline.
Speaker 4: To be a good Christian in many of our minds
Speaker 4: means that this is how much I'm gonna read the Bible,
Speaker 4: this is how much I'm going to pray. And I
Speaker 4: hope that you read the Bible and pray a lot
Speaker 4: and more and more every day. And I hope you do,
Speaker 4: and I hope I do, and I hope we all do.
Speaker 4: That isn't what makes you a Christian. That isn't what
Speaker 4: makes you a better Christian. That isn't even what makes
Speaker 4: you a strong Christian. Just by how much you pray,
Speaker 4: how much you read the Bible. That is not how
Speaker 4: to be blessed God's way, the Gospel way. And the
Speaker 4: reason that I know that in my life is because
Speaker 4: I've spent too many of my years thinking that the
Speaker 4: blessing of God was something that I had to hold
Speaker 4: on to or it would get away from me and
Speaker 4: for all of the Christian control freaks, which is an oxymoron.
Speaker 4: Because God, I give you my life as long as
Speaker 4: I'm married by age twenty three. God, I give you
Speaker 4: my life as long as this job opportunity opens up
Speaker 4: in the right market. And I like the climate as
Speaker 4: well as the school educational scene. God, here's our children.
Speaker 4: We devote them to You. And Lord Jesus, I believe
Speaker 4: that she would make a great worship leader in the church,
Speaker 4: just like that girl Tiffany. And she's just sing just
Speaker 4: like that. And I know she's not blonde, but will
Speaker 4: dye her hair. Lord, and she could be just like
Speaker 4: that girl Tiphany, And that would be wonderful, but I
Speaker 4: give them to you Lord. And so the interesting thing
Speaker 4: for me has been in my life how to have
Speaker 4: a real commitment to Christ without trying to control His
Speaker 4: will in my life.
Speaker 1: How to be serious.
Speaker 4: About my relationship with God whilst being surrendered to the
Speaker 4: God who I'm in relationship with. This is not as
Speaker 4: easy as it seems, because you will find yourself often
Speaker 4: really really committed to trying to get God to bless you.
Speaker 4: Committed to I'm really gonna get my life together, committed
Speaker 4: to I really want to be free from these patterns.
Speaker 1: Committed to. I want to be an.
Speaker 4: Example, make a difference, have an influence, make a mark,
Speaker 4: fulfilled purpose, really committed to that. But then commitment becomes control,
Speaker 4: and you cannot follow Christ and have control. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I want it to be where you can. I want
Speaker 4: it to be where Jesus lets you code him, where
Speaker 4: you get to give in the commands and you get
Speaker 4: to give in the thing.
Speaker 1: But every time I read in the Bible, He's given
Speaker 1: the commands.
Speaker 4: Every time in my life he brings me into something new,
Speaker 4: he takes me through something scary. Every time in my
Speaker 4: life he sets me free from something that I don't
Speaker 4: want to give me something that I do want. I
Speaker 4: cannot reach toward what He's giving me without letting go
Speaker 4: of what I held.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of us who.
Speaker 4: Are not going to get what we need from God
Speaker 4: in this season until we let go of what we
Speaker 4: held to in the previous. There are some blessings that
Speaker 4: only come through holding on. I'm telling you sometimes you
Speaker 4: have got to get around a promise from God and say,
Speaker 4: I don't care how many things blow against it.
Speaker 1: I don't care how many things shake it up. I
Speaker 1: don't care how many years pass. I am holding on
Speaker 1: to what God said.
Speaker 4: There are blessings that only come from holding on. That's Jacob.
Speaker 4: He's like, no, you're not leaving until you bless me.
Speaker 4: I need a blessing. I got a fresh battle, resh blessing.
Speaker 1: I got a fresh test. I need a fresh blessing.
Speaker 1: You are not leaving. I am not going to let
Speaker 1: you go unless you bless me.
Speaker 4: And then God says, but I cannot bless you unless
Speaker 4: you let go, let go of the way you thought
Speaker 4: it was supposed to go. Let go of your comparison
Speaker 4: to other standards that have nothing to do with who.
Speaker 1: The sovereign God called you to be let go.
Speaker 4: Of the expectations of perfection that you have for yourself
Speaker 4: that can only be satisfied through the perfect work of
Speaker 4: Jesus and has already applied to your account.
Speaker 1: Let go.
Speaker 4: There are some blessings that you can get by holding on.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Jacob was blessed. His blessed him. He got
Speaker 4: the blessing of the firstborn, double inheritance, the blessing of
Speaker 4: the firstborn, the naming rights of the children, the patriarchy
Speaker 4: of the whole nation. He got blessed by Isaac. But
Speaker 4: he didn't get blessed yet. Ask who he really was.
Speaker 4: So you say, wait a minute. You read me a
Speaker 4: scripture and you said that the key to being blessed
Speaker 4: was holding on. And sometimes that's true. But I want
Speaker 4: you to read just a little bit further in this
Speaker 4: passage and see what the real blessing that God wants
Speaker 4: to give you in this season. I believe God has
Speaker 4: a blessing for you in this season that your eyes
Speaker 4: haven't seen yet, that your ears haven't heard, that hasn't
Speaker 4: entered into your.
Speaker 1: Hearts, that you will be speaking about for years to come.
Speaker 1: But watch this.
Speaker 4: There is a blessing that comes from holding on persevering.
Speaker 4: There's a blessing that comes through tenacity. Then the man said,
Speaker 4: let me go, for it is daybreak, but Jacob replied,
Speaker 4: I will not let go unless you bless me.
Speaker 1: Now, watch this.
Speaker 4: On the surface, so far, it seems like that Jacob
Speaker 4: got this blessing the way that he got every other blessing.
Speaker 4: And maybe right now you're trying to do it like
Speaker 4: you always did it and it's not working. And you're
Speaker 4: trying to face it like you always faced it and
Speaker 4: it's not working.
Speaker 1: But watch what the angel said, and this is.
Speaker 4: The turning point in this trans transformative experience for Jacob
Speaker 4: and for you. But Jacob replied, I will not let
Speaker 4: you go.
Speaker 1: Unless you bless me. And the man asked him, what
Speaker 1: is your name? Jacob? He answered.
Speaker 4: Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob,
Speaker 4: but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with
Speaker 4: humans and have overcome.
Speaker 1: When he said what is your name?
Speaker 4: It reminds us of twenty years ago in Genesis twenty seven,
Speaker 4: when Isaac called his son to bless him. He thought
Speaker 4: he was talking to Esau because he was blind, and
Speaker 4: he said, who are you, And the voice came back saying,
Speaker 4: I am Esau.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't Esau, it was Jacob.
Speaker 4: In two days there will be enraged Christians on social
Speaker 4: media arguing about Halloween. Is it right or is it
Speaker 4: not right to celebrate Halloween. We will not discuss that
Speaker 4: in this pulpit today. That is not the purpose for
Speaker 4: which God sent me. But I will tell you one
Speaker 4: thing that God is very concerned about. Anytime you dress
Speaker 4: up as something that you're not, come on church. Anytime
Speaker 4: you start putting on clothes, anytime you start putting on personas,
Speaker 4: anytime you start putting on something that doesn't come from
Speaker 4: God made you to be. Anytime you start dressing yourself
Speaker 4: disguising yourself trying to gain the acceptance or the approval
Speaker 4: is always a trick, and.
Speaker 1: It's never a treat.
Speaker 4: And God says, I don't need you to be Esaul
Speaker 4: to bless you, because when I bless you, I'm gonna.
Speaker 7: Bless you the real you, the short you, the tall you,
Speaker 7: the old you, the knew you.
Speaker 8: Godsend.
Speaker 1: When I bless you, you won't have to pretend about anything.
Speaker 1: You'll get dressed.
Speaker 7: Brace me, He goes the source of your strict and
Speaker 7: the strength of your life.
Speaker 4: High five three people say yes, I'm blessed.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm blessed.
Speaker 4: And so Jacob was already blessed, but he didn't know
Speaker 4: who he was.
Speaker 1: And God said, after all I've done for you, do
Speaker 1: you still not know who you are?
Speaker 4: You're my child, You're the heading off the tail. You're blessed,
Speaker 4: you are redeemed from the pit. You are blessed. You
Speaker 4: are chosen in love, that's the apple of his eyes.
Speaker 4: You are blessed. You are an overcomer, you are blessed.
Speaker 4: You are the purchased of God. You are blessed. You
Speaker 4: are blessed. You are blessed to be a blessing. And
Speaker 4: now sound like you.
Speaker 1: Know who blessed you, because when you know who bless.
Speaker 7: You, you know who to go back to when you
Speaker 7: need some thought of it.
Speaker 1: Thank God, here's to me.
Speaker 9: Here's your boy, here's your daughter, here's your sap.
Speaker 1: I need you.
Speaker 4: I five eleven people say yes, I'm blessed. Not bragging,
Speaker 4: but I'm blessed. I'm not perfect, but I'm blessed. I'm
Speaker 4: not one hundred percent honest all the time, but I'm blessed.
Speaker 1: Let me, just be real with you.
Speaker 4: He has blessed me with every blessing his spiritual places.
Speaker 1: I got it into heavenly realm. Now I just gotta
Speaker 1: bring it in my life.
Speaker 4: The Bible says he blessed him there in the place
Speaker 4: of his real name. You know what God wants to
Speaker 4: give you today, a surrender of who you thought you were,
Speaker 4: so you can receive who you really are. I wonder,
Speaker 4: is anybody ready to receive who you really are? I
Speaker 4: got warn you, See, man, I gotta warn you. It's
Speaker 4: not like changing your name to Hollywood Hogan. It's not
Speaker 4: like changing your name on wrestling. It's not that kind
Speaker 4: of wrestling match. Sometimes, oh God, this is so difficult
Speaker 4: for me to communicate to you, but I hope that
Speaker 4: you can hear it. Sometimes it is a letting go
Speaker 4: was like death, but it's really a blessing. And I
Speaker 4: confer upon you today and impart to you in the
Speaker 4: name of Jesus Christ, your Savior, the blessing of letting go.
Speaker 4: Letting go not when you're driving home. That's not the
Speaker 4: time to let go. That's the time to drive a car.
Speaker 4: And I will say that there's some of us in
Speaker 4: here that are saying, I won't let go till you
Speaker 4: bless me.
Speaker 1: God, I won't let go till you bless me.
Speaker 4: I hear the Holy Spirit saying I can't bless you
Speaker 4: until you let go.
Speaker 1: You hear it, You hear it, you hear it.
Speaker 4: When God showed me that, it was like, oh, I
Speaker 4: don't want to really admit that that's the way it works,
Speaker 4: because this goes against my control free Christianity that I
Speaker 4: invented that is nowhere in the Bible.
Speaker 1: I want to achieve this thing. I want to earn
Speaker 1: this thing.
Speaker 4: And that's why God gave us the New Testament example
Speaker 4: of Paul, because he said, man, I was stacking stuff
Speaker 4: that I did. I was stacking successes and a spiritual
Speaker 4: religious realm that amounted the status that you wouldn't imagine.
Speaker 4: A Pharisee of pharis Hees, a Hebrew of Hebrews, of
Speaker 4: the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day, I
Speaker 4: studied under Gamelia. What all these things I count as lost?
Speaker 4: And yet, in order to balance these great revelations that
Speaker 4: God gave me, I was given a thorn in the flesh,
Speaker 4: A messenger of Satan sent.
Speaker 1: To buffet me.
Speaker 4: You'll always have a buff but to buffet you, and
Speaker 4: the bigger the blessing, the bigger the buffet.
Speaker 1: To keep it in balance, so you know where your
Speaker 1: source is.
Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, Paul said, I had this
Speaker 4: storm in my flesh, and three times I asked God
Speaker 4: to take it away. Three times I asked God to
Speaker 4: do it. You've been asking God to change something in
Speaker 4: your life, and he won't do it. This is your
Speaker 4: verse right here, Tewod Corinthians twelve nine. But he said
Speaker 4: to me, Paul, the great apostle, who took the mission
Speaker 4: of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Christ to sites that had previously.
Speaker 4: Seemed to distant, who spoke with eloquence and yet simplicity,
Speaker 4: Christ crucified, but did it in a way that the
Speaker 4: philosophers were confounded. Paul said, I was given a thorn
Speaker 4: in my flesh along with all my blessings. I'm blessed,
Speaker 4: don't get me wrong. I saw Jesus on the road
Speaker 4: to Damascus. I preached with such power that people were converted,
Speaker 4: that people that cities went into riot. I was so
Speaker 4: blessed to be able to do that. Yes, I'm blessed,
Speaker 4: but I had a thorn, and I asked God to
Speaker 4: take it away, and he said.
Speaker 1: No, but my grace is sufficient.
Speaker 4: That's the blessing of letting go of the way you
Speaker 4: thought it was supposed to be, is that you get
Speaker 4: the grace to accept what it is. And that's where
Speaker 4: the transformation is. That's where the power is, that's where
Speaker 4: the revelation is. What is your name? He said, Jacob,
Speaker 4: I'm not pretending to be something else anymore. I'm not
Speaker 4: striving to be something anymore. I'm not gonna dress up
Speaker 4: like anything anymore. For all of you that think you
Speaker 4: need approval from a person, you don't need approval from
Speaker 4: a person. If the person gives it, the person.
Speaker 1: Can take it.
Speaker 4: But if you get it from God, it can never
Speaker 4: go away. Let them say what they want, think what
Speaker 4: they want, do what they want, write what they want,
Speaker 4: take what they want what they want. I'll never be alone,
Speaker 4: not when God is with me. I might look alone,
Speaker 4: but I'm not alone.
Speaker 1: The blessing of letting go is grace.
Speaker 4: Can you imagine all your life like Jacob, you have
Speaker 4: been running to chase something that you thought.
Speaker 10: You needed to be to be successful, that you thought
Speaker 10: you needed to be to be whole that you thought
Speaker 10: you needed to be to be worthy, that you thought
Speaker 10: you needed to be because your father didn't give it
Speaker 10: to you, that you thought you needed to be, because
Speaker 10: nobody ever spoke it over you.
Speaker 4: Can you imagine the moment of release when the Angel said,
Speaker 4: all I.
Speaker 1: Want is you. What's your name? And when you say
Speaker 1: your name, When you say your name, you receive his nature.
Speaker 4: Today I came to call you to some and it
Speaker 4: isn't awfully popular in pulpits where the message is hold
Speaker 4: on and you'll be blessed. I came with a little
Speaker 4: different twist for some of the things that you're staying
Speaker 4: up at night about, for some of the esaus that
Speaker 4: you're facing. The only way God can really bless you.
Speaker 1: Let go. Let go quit trying to live out your
Speaker 1: high school quarterback career through your kid. Let go. He's
Speaker 1: good at video games.
Speaker 4: You can make money on that now, because I'm gonna
Speaker 4: show you in the text something that you never expected
Speaker 4: to see.
Speaker 1: You're up all night worrying about it. You're up all
Speaker 1: night thinking about it. You're devising different ways to get
Speaker 1: out of it.
Speaker 4: You got lists on list on list on lists, and
Speaker 4: if it does that let's do that, and you're all
Speaker 4: in your head.
Speaker 1: And then he prayed, and guess what happened when God
Speaker 1: blessed him.
Speaker 4: Verse thirty three says he got up the next morning
Speaker 4: he saw Esau coming toward him.
Speaker 1: He thinks he's gonna kill me. Now. Oh, I hope
Speaker 1: that prayer worked.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I hope that sermon worked. That pastrophretic preached, I mean
Speaker 4: he preached real hard. He preached as hard as he could.
Speaker 4: I hope it works. And Genesis thirty three, verse four,
Speaker 4: I want you to see this will help me illustrate this.
Speaker 4: Here's Esau, the one he was so intimidated by, the
Speaker 4: one who for twenty years he's been thinking, if I
Speaker 4: ever see Esau again, he's gonna kill me. The guilt
Speaker 4: you carry, the shame you carry, the hypotheticals that you
Speaker 4: build out in your mind, everything that you worry about
Speaker 4: at night.
Speaker 1: Watch what God did while Jacob prayed. Verse four, Esau.
Speaker 4: Ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Wow, the thing
Speaker 4: that he was afraid of was waiting to embrace him.
Speaker 4: He threw his arms around his neck first time, like
Speaker 4: he's slow violin, and we're not gonna act all this
Speaker 4: out and worry, but.
Speaker 1: You get the picture.
Speaker 4: And Jacob said, hey, he saw he bowed down on
Speaker 4: the ground seven times, putting on a big show. All
Speaker 4: the things we do to try to make the situation
Speaker 4: better that God never told us to do, all the
Speaker 4: ways we wear ourselves out when we could really just
Speaker 4: worship twenty years. He worried about this moment, and yet
Speaker 4: Esau says something very powerful. Go to overs five, Jacob said.
Speaker 4: Esau said, what's all this stuff you brought? Jacob said, oh,
Speaker 4: this is my kids that God graciously gave your children.
Speaker 11: Probably should have stopped at ten. And then Esau looks
Speaker 11: up and he sees all this stuff for six, for six,
Speaker 11: have female served their children inproach and bowed down?
Speaker 1: For seven?
Speaker 4: And lean her children came about down last all Joseph
Speaker 4: came Rachel did they two bowed down? Jacob put the
Speaker 4: pretty wife behind the other one.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I did that. Look at verse eight.
Speaker 1: Now this is the point. We could edit this out later.
Speaker 1: What's the meaning of all this?
Speaker 4: Flocks and herds said, what's all this stuff you're trying
Speaker 4: to do to make peace with me? To find favor
Speaker 4: in your eyes? My lord, he said, and watch this.
Speaker 4: Esau said, oh, hold on. But Esau said, here you
Speaker 4: have letty brother keep what you have for yourself. Esau
Speaker 4: was already blessed. If he would have spent twenty years
Speaker 4: in bitterness, he wouldn't have been. But he said, you
Speaker 4: know what, I let go, and you can't too. Now
Speaker 4: bring it in, bring it in, bring it in, bring
Speaker 4: it in. Let that thing go, Let that thing go,
Speaker 4: Let that thing go, Let that thing.
Speaker 1: Go, Let it go. God is not against sheep. Let
Speaker 1: it go. He's fighting for you. Let it go. He's
Speaker 1: not abandoning you. That's him you're wrestling with.
Speaker 4: You're coming forth stronger, You're coming forth staple.
Speaker 1: Let that thing go. Hug at least three people say
Speaker 1: let that thing go, Let that thing go. This is
Speaker 1: your day of grace. This is your moment to let go.
Speaker 1: And when you let it go, lift your.
Speaker 4: Hands and expect a blessing that you will not have
Speaker 4: room enough to receive.
Speaker 1: I declare the blessing of peace coming to your house
Speaker 1: in the place of the shame that Christ took away.
Speaker 4: I declare new relationships, new favor, new opportunities.
Speaker 1: In the place of your let go. Here comes the
Speaker 1: grace of Almighty God. Yes, I'm blessed. Yes I'm chosen.
Speaker 1: Yes I'm sealed, Yes some anointed.
Speaker 6: Yes I call Let's gives, Yes praise, we gave it
Speaker 6: all day.
Speaker 9: Yes I'm bless Yes I'm yes I am.
Speaker 1: Aren't you so afraid of if you got angels? This
Speaker 1: is the blessing of let go.
Speaker 4: I pray that this, this letting go today for you
Speaker 4: would take you into a place of freedom tonight when
Speaker 4: you lie down to sleep, your sleep will be sweet
Speaker 4: because God is dealing with Esau, because you have met
Speaker 4: with him God. God's given a word to somebody right now,
Speaker 4: How do I deal with it? How do I deal
Speaker 4: with the anxiety? How do I deal with the panic?
Speaker 4: How do I do it?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: Every time, God says, every time you think about what
Speaker 4: you've got to deal with that you can't get over.
Speaker 4: Every time you think about Esau, pray to me. Every
Speaker 4: time you think about bills, pray to your provider. And
Speaker 4: then when you pray, expect him to direct you to
Speaker 4: the next step. Every time you feel the hurt, every
Speaker 4: time you feel the old offense, you pray and thank
Speaker 4: God for his forgiveness for you, and that person, and
Speaker 4: you open your arms because for what God has for
Speaker 4: you in the future. You cannot afford to hold a grudge.
Speaker 4: You cannot afford to carry around guilt. It's too big
Speaker 4: for you to be burdened. Yes, I'm blessed, And because
Speaker 4: I'm blessed, I expect God everywhere I go.
Speaker 1: And because I'm blessed, I accept up every space in between.
Speaker 4: So no, now, Lord, we come to you, the blesser
Speaker 4: of our coming, the blesser of our going, the blesser
Speaker 4: when we rise up, the blessing and we fall down,
Speaker 4: the blesser of our in between. We declare now that
Speaker 4: your face is turning toward your children. I know that
Speaker 4: for some today this will be a good reminder.
Speaker 1: For others, it will be a life changing revelation. Let go,
Speaker 1: let go, God says, it's me.
Speaker 4: I'm here with you. You're not alone, Jacob. I'm changing
Speaker 4: your name, I'm changing your life.
Speaker 1: Let go. Yeah, I like that. L j ah.
Speaker 5: Sorry, that's good.
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 5: That's good.
Speaker 8: I sirreander, oh I sorreyor oh.
Speaker 5: Mm hmmm, oh h.
Speaker 1: Hey you Jesus, let go, he's got it.
Speaker 5: Let go, Let go, h.
Speaker 4: Out with your heads about your eyes closed. I want
Speaker 4: to give an invitation for those who need to give
Speaker 4: your life to Jesus Christ. You will never get to
Speaker 4: him by climbing. You will never get to him by trying,
Speaker 4: only through receiving His grace.
Speaker 1: Right now, in this moment, I think there's probably a lot.
Speaker 4: Of you who need to make this your day to
Speaker 4: receive God's grace for your life, to turn from your sin,
Speaker 4: and to realize that there is a God and you
Speaker 4: are not him, that there is a Savior standing ready
Speaker 4: and willing to forgive you cleanse you give you a
Speaker 4: brand new life. So right now we're going to pray
Speaker 4: as a church family those online as well. And if
Speaker 4: this is your moment, and you know this is God
Speaker 4: calling me, Pastor Stephen, while you were preaching, I realized
Speaker 4: I need to let go of my life my way.
Speaker 4: I need to receive this gift of salvation through Jesus.
Speaker 4: Right now, I want you to pray with me, and
Speaker 4: we're going to pray as a church family out loud
Speaker 4: for the benefit of those who are coming to God
Speaker 4: for the first time or back to God in this moment.
Speaker 1: Now, pray with me.
Speaker 4: If you mean it, God will hear you, and this
Speaker 4: will be your new beginning. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father.
Speaker 4: I am a sinner in need of a savior, and
Speaker 4: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Speaker 4: and the savior of the world. And today I make
Speaker 4: Jesus the lord of my life. I believe he died
Speaker 4: that I would be forgiven and rose again to give
Speaker 4: me life.
Speaker 1: I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
Speaker 4: On the count of three, shoot your hand up if
Speaker 4: you prayed that one, two, three, I'm celebrating with him.
Speaker 1: Now, that's amazing. That's amazing, man, that's amazing seeing God
Speaker 1: sees you.
Speaker 4: Come on till we thank God for everybody who just
Speaker 4: made that decision to.
Speaker 1: Let God, to let God. Oh man, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 4: Let's thank God one more time for the great work
Speaker 4: he did in.
Speaker 1: Our lives today.
Speaker 4: Amen, Ron. So all of our campus pastors, you can
Speaker 4: take it right now. They're gonna close. Can I bless
Speaker 4: you here at Valentine? You stick with me for just
Speaker 4: ninety more seconds. I want to bless you because you've
Speaker 4: been saying I don't know if I can hold on
Speaker 4: much longer. God says, you don't have to you weren't
Speaker 4: the one who grabbed me to begin with?
Speaker 1: I got a script for you.
Speaker 4: This is a Valentine nine point thirty only special. Nobody
Speaker 4: else will see this. Y'all fight through the parkin you
Speaker 4: get the cherry on top.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you how blessed you are? You ready
Speaker 1: for this?
Speaker 4: Oh, great googlymoglie, You're not ready for this.
Speaker 1: Praise be to the.
Speaker 4: God and Father of our Lord, Jesus.
Speaker 1: Christ, who has blessed us.
Speaker 4: Somebody say, yes, I'm blessed in the heavenly realms with
Speaker 4: every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he shows us in
Speaker 4: Him before the creation of the world, to be holy
Speaker 4: and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us
Speaker 4: for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with
Speaker 4: his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace.
Speaker 4: Everybody say, glorious grace, which he has freely given us
Speaker 4: in the one he loves. In him, we have redemption
Speaker 4: through his blood.
Speaker 1: Giveness of sins, in accordance with.
Speaker 4: The richest of God's grace that he lavished on us.
Speaker 4: With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us
Speaker 4: the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
Speaker 4: which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect
Speaker 4: when the times reached their fulfillment, to bring unity to
Speaker 4: all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In Him,
Speaker 4: we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the
Speaker 4: plan of Him who works out everything.
Speaker 1: Oh, he's working it out right now, take a nap today.
Speaker 4: He's working it out in conformity with the purpose.
Speaker 1: Oh, He's will everybody shall. Yes, I'm blessed. You're dismissed.
Speaker 1: I see you soon, Pap the Blest Week.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm blessed, and I hope you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 3: And if you did, make sure to share it and
Speaker 3: subscribe so we can get you all of these new
Speaker 3: messages as soon as they're available. I also want to
Speaker 3: take a moment and thank all of you who are
Speaker 3: a part of Elevation. Whether you support us financially, or
Speaker 3: serve with us, or just share these messages, it's because
Speaker 3: of you that we're able to reach.
Speaker 2: People all around the world. And if you want more
Speaker 2: information on how to be a part of Elevation, click
Speaker 2: the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make
Speaker 2: sure to leave a review share the message and subscribe.
Speaker 2: God bless you.