Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message while you're standing. While you're standing, I
Speaker 1: just want to thank God for our amazing pastors. They're
Speaker 1: the best. God is a god of people and places.
Speaker 1: And then when you find your people, and you find
Speaker 1: your place and never leave. And Pastor Stephen and Pastor
Speaker 1: Hawley are my peoples, and Elevation is my place. And
Speaker 1: God has used this house to change our lives and
Speaker 1: impact our lives, and use this ministry to change us
Speaker 1: and shape us. And I just want to take a
Speaker 1: moment to thank God for the amazing leaders that He's
Speaker 1: put in our life. Amen, can you clap your hands?
Speaker 1: And God must really love you, and God must really
Speaker 1: love this region because he put such amazing gifts in
Speaker 1: this place. And Pastor seven and Pastor Hawley, and I
Speaker 1: just honor you guys. I know they're probably watching from
Speaker 1: I don't know, a tour bus or whatever they're doing
Speaker 1: right now. But we love you, we celebrate you, we
Speaker 1: pray for you, we pray for your kids. We bless
Speaker 1: Abby and Elijah and Graham, and just thank God for them.
Speaker 1: And I thank God for this whole team, this whole
Speaker 1: staff that loves you and cares for you, and pastors
Speaker 1: you are. You're grateful for the team here at the church.
Speaker 1: That just amen. Amen, Amen, Amen, So to be here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to God's words. I will let you
Speaker 1: grab a seat. Just look at three or four people
Speaker 1: as you're sitting down and say, it looks like you've
Speaker 1: been losing weight. Come on, tell them, it looks like
Speaker 1: you've been What are you doing? Look at your neighbors,
Speaker 1: say is that Ozmpic? What are you doing? No, don't
Speaker 1: say that, don't say that. Well, I bring greetings from
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, and we just celebrated our seventh year of ministry.
Speaker 1: And to God be the glory. And hey, if you're
Speaker 1: ever in Vegas, to everyone here, every one at every
Speaker 1: location Epham around the world, when you're in Las Vegas
Speaker 1: doing ministry, Amen, witnessing to the blackjack dealers and blessing
Speaker 1: the bartenders. Amen. I'm not here to judge, but hey,
Speaker 1: when you do come to Vegas, and I know many
Speaker 1: of you do, please come say hi to us. We'd
Speaker 1: love to see you. We are a portable church. As
Speaker 1: of right now, we meet in a high school every Sunday,
Speaker 1: but our church city like church next month will actually
Speaker 1: be moving into our first building. And a man so
Speaker 1: grateful for that. And to God be the glory. Genesis
Speaker 1: chapter thirty two. For some of you are very familiar
Speaker 1: passage of scripture. For others of you, maybe this will
Speaker 1: be new. But there is a story actually in your
Speaker 1: Bible about a man named Jacob who wrestles with God,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about it today. Genesis chapter
Speaker 1: thirty two. I am a preacher. Teachers tell it, Preachers
Speaker 1: yell it, and so if I start yelling, just yell back,
Speaker 1: it'll be less awkward. Amen, everybody, just give me an
Speaker 1: amen every once in a while, give me an uh huh,
Speaker 1: give me a preacher, whatever you feel, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a little We're gonna have a little conversation today, okay.
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter thirty two. So Jacob was left alone and
Speaker 1: a man wrestled with him till daybreak. And when the
Speaker 1: man saw that he could not overpower him. He touched
Speaker 1: the socket of Jacob's hips so that his hip was
Speaker 1: wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said,
Speaker 1: let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied,
Speaker 1: I will not let you go unless you bless me.
Speaker 1: Let's say that phrase together everybody. I will not let
Speaker 1: you go unless you bless me. Then the man asked them,
Speaker 1: who are you? What is your name? Jacob? He answered.
Speaker 1: Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob,
Speaker 1: but Israel, because you have struggled, You've wrestled, You've you've
Speaker 1: faced God and humans and have overcomes here. Our life
Speaker 1: is like a cross vertical and horizontal, and we have
Speaker 1: to fight and deal with the God issue in life,
Speaker 1: but we also have to deal with the humanity issue
Speaker 1: of life. We have to face God and ourselves. And
Speaker 1: I find that most people are running from God and themselves.
Speaker 1: But if you would ever face God and face your
Speaker 1: own humanity, you can overcome and live such an amazing life.
Speaker 1: Now now, now, Jacob says, why I told you my name?
Speaker 1: Please tell me your name. But he replied, why do
Speaker 1: you ask my name? Then he blessed him. There, so
Speaker 1: Jacob called the place face to face or penile, saying
Speaker 1: it's because I saw God face to face, yet my
Speaker 1: life was spared. The sun rose above him as he
Speaker 1: passed Pnial, and he was limping because of his hip.
Speaker 1: And I want to talk just for a few moment moments.
Speaker 1: I really kind of want to just give you maybe
Speaker 1: a life verse and a life thought God, and maybe
Speaker 1: less of a sermon and more of just how I
Speaker 1: attempt to live my life. And I want to talk
Speaker 1: about how to surrender to God. How to surrender to God.
Speaker 1: Your life is going to be a series of surrenders.
Speaker 1: And the more God can get a yes from you,
Speaker 1: the more he can do in your life. So let's
Speaker 1: just practice right off the bat. We're all going to
Speaker 1: pray this prayer together. Everybody say yes Lord in Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: Amen and Amen and amen. So we find Jacob now
Speaker 1: in chapter thirty two, and Jacob is on the run.
Speaker 1: He is stolen his brother Esau's birthright. He is lied
Speaker 1: to his father in law Laban, and now both men
Speaker 1: are chasing him down and they both want to kill him.
Speaker 1: They don't know this, but they're both in hot pursuit
Speaker 1: of Jacob, and Jacob is on the run. He's running
Speaker 1: from his brother, he's running from his father in law,
Speaker 1: he's running from his decisions, he's running from his consequences.
Speaker 1: He's really running from himself. And ultimately, I would say
Speaker 1: that he's running from God. He's on the run. If
Speaker 1: you want to know who Jacob is, let me give
Speaker 1: you kind of Jacob one oh one. If you're trying
Speaker 1: to figure out who is this Jacob guy in the Bible,
Speaker 1: it can be defined in one verse. Excuse me. Genesis
Speaker 1: chapter thirty one. Thirty one says I rushed away because
Speaker 1: I was afraid. That's just that's just Jacob discontent, unsettled,
Speaker 1: rushing away, on the move, scared, insecure, always trying to
Speaker 1: cover up for his last lie, never settled where he's at,
Speaker 1: always going somewhere. This is Jacob, And here's really the
Speaker 1: good news of the text. We find Jacob in chapter
Speaker 1: thirty two, really at his lowest point, in his lowest moment,
Speaker 1: And the good news of the text is it is
Speaker 1: here that God finds him. Oh I love this that
Speaker 1: God doesn't meet him at his best place. M all right.
Speaker 1: I thank God that he's the God of the mountain.
Speaker 1: But I'm really grateful that he's the God of the valley.
Speaker 1: He is the God of my strength, and he's the
Speaker 1: God of my annoying and he's the God of my calling.
Speaker 1: But he's also the God of my secrets and the
Speaker 1: God of my weakness, and he's the God of my issues. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's the God of my future, but he's still the
Speaker 1: God of my past. He's the God of light, but
Speaker 1: he knows how to find me in the darkness. I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for a God that can find me at
Speaker 1: my lowest place. If you feel low today, I've got
Speaker 1: good news for you. God knows how to go low.
Speaker 1: David said. Even if I make my bed in hell,
Speaker 1: You'll be there, even if I try to go hide
Speaker 1: in the dark. Darkness is like light to you. God
Speaker 1: has a way of finding and pursuing and chasing down
Speaker 1: his people. My testimony after serving God now for twenty
Speaker 1: six years is not how good I am, how faithful
Speaker 1: I've been, how annointed I am, how gifted I am,
Speaker 1: how holy I am. No, my testimony is God keeps
Speaker 1: chasing me down. Anybody grateful for the mercy of God. Oh,
Speaker 1: I know, I just started preaching like three minutes ago,
Speaker 1: But can we take our first praise break and just
Speaker 1: thank God that we're all here by the grace of God.
Speaker 1: There's not a perfect person on your road. There's not
Speaker 1: anybody who has it all together. We're all trophies of
Speaker 1: God's mercy and God's grace. Oh, I told you two
Speaker 1: men were chasing Jacob. If there was a third man
Speaker 1: chasing Jacob, his name was God Almighty. And he has
Speaker 1: a way of chasing us down. He is a way
Speaker 1: of pursuing us. See, he has a way of running
Speaker 1: after us. And that's the beauty of what God can do.
Speaker 1: And here's our response. Yes, Lord, our response to God's
Speaker 1: hot pursuit, our response to God's love, our response to
Speaker 1: God's grace is yes. And that's what I want to talk.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your surrender, because the more
Speaker 1: God can get of you, the more God can do
Speaker 1: through you. So let's talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 1: If I'm going to surrender to God. Firstly, you have
Speaker 1: to stop running. All right, It's gonna get better. I
Speaker 1: promise gonna get better. You gotta stop. You got to
Speaker 1: stop running. Verse twenty four that the text begins with
Speaker 1: Jacob was left alone. Here's what you find when you
Speaker 1: study Jacob, he's never alone. He's chasing Daddy's blessing. He's
Speaker 1: hanging out with Mama. He's the first mama's boy in
Speaker 1: the Bible. He's in pursuit of his brother's blessing. He's
Speaker 1: running after Laban's daughters. He's he's always busy, always moving,
Speaker 1: always running, and always active and always around people. He's
Speaker 1: never alone. And he finally gets alone. And I find
Speaker 1: that so many people have traded in fruitfulness for busyness.
Speaker 1: They think to themselves, as long as I'm busy and
Speaker 1: tired and depressed and worn out, I must be holy.
Speaker 1: Uh was that for somebody in this section? Amen? And
Speaker 1: so so they're always active, but never growing, always busy
Speaker 1: but rarely fruitful, always running, so they never have to
Speaker 1: face God or themselves. They never have to deal with
Speaker 1: the God issue in their life. And so what Jay
Speaker 1: Jacob finally has to do is he finally has to
Speaker 1: get alone long enough for God to do something in
Speaker 1: his life. And and it's here that he finally gets alone. See, friend,
Speaker 1: I've seen this. Now. I'm a rookie pastor, I've only
Speaker 1: been pastoring for seven years, but I have seen that
Speaker 1: that man. People just love to be moving, and they
Speaker 1: go from job to job, career to career, guy to guy,
Speaker 1: girl to girl, marriage to marriage, sometimes church to church,
Speaker 1: city to city. They're always moving. You know what I've learned.
Speaker 1: I've learned that wherever we go, there we are. You
Speaker 1: discovered that, yet you moved to Charlotte. You still you?
Speaker 1: Ha ha. You married the man of your dreams and
Speaker 1: you still you. Sir. You were me single and you're
Speaker 1: me married. We just need to have a baby. And
Speaker 1: then you have a baby. And there you did that.
Speaker 1: Scare anybody else? When you had a child, You went, Jesus,
Speaker 1: that's me. And then as they get older, they start
Speaker 1: acting like you go, who raised you? Oh? My bad,
Speaker 1: My bad, my bad? I thought. See a lot of
Speaker 1: times we're running from things, but we're not facing things.
Speaker 1: We're running from things, but we're not wrestling with things.
Speaker 1: We're we're running from ourselves. But it's not until we
Speaker 1: wrestle with God and with humanity that we can finally overcome.
Speaker 1: Jesus has a better way, and it's it's actually called repentance,
Speaker 1: he says in Matthew chapter four. He says, repent of
Speaker 1: your sin, turn from your sins, repent of your sins.
Speaker 1: But then he says this, and turn to God. See
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't like their sin. They don't
Speaker 1: like their issues, they don't like their secrets, they don't
Speaker 1: like their whatever they're going through, but they don't have
Speaker 1: any power over it. Here's why, because you haven't turned
Speaker 1: to God. See, the issue is not disliking a part
Speaker 1: of your life. The issue is loving God. See. God
Speaker 1: is the power of repentance, not remorse. God is the
Speaker 1: power of repentance, not guilt. There are so many Christians
Speaker 1: that hate themselves but don't have freedom. Why because they
Speaker 1: have not learned how to love God. Yet the powers
Speaker 1: in loving God. Here's what Jesus is really saying. It's
Speaker 1: not as much of a sin issue as a God issue.
Speaker 1: That what you really need is God. Well. Now, now
Speaker 1: Paul goes further in Ephesians, and here's how he would
Speaker 1: say to me that same scripture. He says, don't get
Speaker 1: drunk with wine. Now, this is old King James, where
Speaker 1: in excess. That's just a fancy way of saying it's
Speaker 1: an never gonna be enough. Whatever it is. The wine
Speaker 1: will never get you drunk enough. The drugs will never
Speaker 1: get you high enough. The sex will never be good enough,
Speaker 1: your husband will never be nice enough, the kids will
Speaker 1: never act good enough. The house will never be big enough,
Speaker 1: the car will never be fast enough, the bank account
Speaker 1: will never be full enough. What am I saying? I'm
Speaker 1: saying anytime you get inebriated on a world system, can
Speaker 1: I talk to anybody? Maybe you've been drinking from the
Speaker 1: wrong well. Jesus looked at a woman in John chapter four,
Speaker 1: and he said, you keep drinking from the wrong well,
Speaker 1: and that's why you're always circey. But if you would
Speaker 1: ever drink of the living water, you would never thirst again. See,
Speaker 1: maybe the issue, maybe it's not what you think it is.
Speaker 1: See I'm trying to fix my life with all these
Speaker 1: temporal things. But maybe the craving is eternal. Because Paul
Speaker 1: would go on and say, don't get drunk with wine
Speaker 1: wearing excess. In other words, it's never gonna be enough.
Speaker 1: Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. So what Paul
Speaker 1: is saying is he's saying there's a God issue. See,
Speaker 1: Jacob had had money, Jacob had family. Jacob had camels
Speaker 1: and donkeys and horses and cows. And that's like saying
Speaker 1: Mercedes nbmw's and a Corvette and a four f one
Speaker 1: fifty Raptor and a private I mean he had everything,
Speaker 1: yet y'all. He had wives. I didn't say a wife
Speaker 1: and wives, he had kids, he had he had stuff,
Speaker 1: but he was missing God. And C. S. Lewis says
Speaker 1: that if if you have everything the world has to
Speaker 1: offer and you still feel empty, maybe it's because you
Speaker 1: were made for another world. Maybe it's Ecclesiastes chapter three
Speaker 1: that says eternity is in our hearts and so we're
Speaker 1: trying to fill with the temporal things of this life.
Speaker 1: But in reality we need God. See Jacob had a
Speaker 1: God issue. Friend, I got a God issue. We we
Speaker 1: have a we need God. And Paul says, you're you're
Speaker 1: trying to get drunk, You're trying to find peace, You're
Speaker 1: trying to get inebriated on a world system that is
Speaker 1: never gonna be enough. You're always gonna need excess. But
Speaker 1: instead you can be filled with the spirit. In other words,
Speaker 1: it's it's God that you're looking for. Anybody know they
Speaker 1: need God today? Man, I know I need God. I
Speaker 1: need I need more of God. So so God is
Speaker 1: creating in the Book of Genesis. He's he's the creator
Speaker 1: in Genesis. He's he's the artist in Genesis. And something
Speaker 1: very interesting happens. In the Book of Genesis. The Bible
Speaker 1: says that God makes dirt. Okay, he doesn't make trees,
Speaker 1: he makes dirt, doesn't make flowers. He makes dirt. He
Speaker 1: doesn't make grass, He makes dirt. The Bible said that
Speaker 1: he creates dirt, he creates land, and then he talks
Speaker 1: to the dirt and he says, dirt, get to work,
Speaker 1: and the dirt says, yes, sir, And the dirt starts
Speaker 1: producing trees and flowers and grass and bushes, and the dirt,
Speaker 1: the dirt begins to produce. This is amazing. That's why
Speaker 1: whenever you remove a tree from the dirt, the tree dies,
Speaker 1: because you've removed the tree from its source. Gentlemen, maybe
Speaker 1: you've bought your wife flowers. Maybe it's been a while,
Speaker 1: Maybe do that tonight. You buy your wife flowers, and
Speaker 1: you give it the flowers and they're so beautiful, right,
Speaker 1: and they sit in the kitchen and they're so beautiful.
Speaker 1: And then after like three days, you walk downstairs one
Speaker 1: day you go, oh, my god, what happened to the flowers.
Speaker 1: They died. No, they were already dead. They were already
Speaker 1: dead because you remove them from their source. Okay, then
Speaker 1: he makes water. He doesn't make fish. He makes water,
Speaker 1: and he tells the water water, get to work and
Speaker 1: straight at him a wana two. That water says yes, sir. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I got an eight year old. My bad. That water
Speaker 1: says yes, sir. And the water this is in your Bible,
Speaker 1: starts producing fish. That's why when you remove a fish
Speaker 1: from the water, the fish starts flopping and hopping, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna die. It's gonna die because water is its source.
Speaker 1: Water made the fish, and the fish needs its creator.
Speaker 1: I'm going somewhere. I'm not lost. But when God made
Speaker 1: at him, when God made you, when God made me,
Speaker 1: he didn't talk to the dirt. He didn't talk to
Speaker 1: the water. He did not even talk to oxygen. When
Speaker 1: God created humanity, God had to talk to himself, and
Speaker 1: he said, let us make man in our image and
Speaker 1: in our likeness. What am I saying. I'm saying that
Speaker 1: a tree needs dirt, and a fish needs water, and
Speaker 1: Jabin needs Jesus, and we need God. And anytime we
Speaker 1: try to live our life separate from God. We gonna
Speaker 1: be like a fish flopping on the ground. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be like flowers dying in the vase. Friend, we need God,
Speaker 1: not just money. We need God, not just food. We
Speaker 1: need God not just shelter. We need God. Man does
Speaker 1: not live by bread alone, but by every word that
Speaker 1: proceedeth out of our creator, out of our souls. He
Speaker 1: is God. And I need God today. Oh, if you
Speaker 1: know you need him, come on, just give him praise
Speaker 1: for a moment. In him I live, and in him
Speaker 1: I move, and in him I breathe, and in him
Speaker 1: I have my bee. And just because life might be
Speaker 1: comfortable right now, Jacob, does not mean that you don't
Speaker 1: need God. Oh it's easy to be reminded in the
Speaker 1: valley that I need him. But sometimes when things start
Speaker 1: working out, we start telling ourselves we've done this and
Speaker 1: we got this. We good. But I have to be
Speaker 1: reminded that every time I get a little bit prideful,
Speaker 1: I just looked like that fish flopping on the side
Speaker 1: of the river. I need God. I gotta stop running.
Speaker 1: The secondly, I have to admit that I have issues. Yeah, yeah, elbow,
Speaker 1: your neighbor, can he tell him? Don't judge me. Tell him,
Speaker 1: don't judge me. Look at one more person say I
Speaker 1: could tell you're judging me. Stop it, just stop, just
Speaker 1: stop judging me. See, now that Jacob is finally wrestling
Speaker 1: with God, God goes, who are you? Who are you?
Speaker 1: This is an interesting question because God does not ask
Speaker 1: questions because he doesn't know the answer. Nothing's ever occurred
Speaker 1: to God. God knows who he's wrestling with. It's not
Speaker 1: that God doesn't know. It's that Jacob has to get honest.
Speaker 1: It's not that God's going to learn something new. It's
Speaker 1: that Jacob's about to learn something new. Anytime God asked
Speaker 1: you a question, it's not because he doesn't know the answer.
Speaker 1: It's because he's trying to reveal a truth to you.
Speaker 1: He says, who are you? And Jacob is finally going
Speaker 1: to admit I am Jacob. One theologian in one commentary
Speaker 1: said that Jacob probably had not used his name in
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen years. Well, why is that important? Because
Speaker 1: in today's world names don't mean a lot. We just
Speaker 1: kind of name our kids. We want name our kids,
Speaker 1: have a family name, but nothing is that significant. But
Speaker 1: in Bible days, you were given a name based off
Speaker 1: of the pregnancy, or based off of the season of
Speaker 1: the pregnancy, or based off of the birth, and so
Speaker 1: names were significant because the parents believe that these were
Speaker 1: prophetic declarations over the child, that the name was going
Speaker 1: to represent the character and the future of the child.
Speaker 1: So the Bible says that Jacob is a twin. There
Speaker 1: was a war that happened in the womb of Rebecca,
Speaker 1: and the scripture says that as Rebecca is giving birth
Speaker 1: to Jacob and Esau leaves the womb first, and as
Speaker 1: Esau is leaving the womb, the scripture says that Jacob
Speaker 1: reached out and grabbed the heel of Esau. This is graphic,
Speaker 1: this is Genesis, Amen, this is rated r. He grabs
Speaker 1: the heel of Esau, and Rebecca blurts out, oh, this
Speaker 1: is this is my Jacob. This is my heel grasper
Speaker 1: or subplanter, the one that knocks you off balance. This
Speaker 1: is my deceiver. She was basically saying, keep an eye
Speaker 1: out on the second boy. He's gonna be my troublemaker.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be our black sheep. He Oh, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be our problem child. He's he's a trickster. We gonna
Speaker 1: have issues with him, and guess what, everything Rebecca declared
Speaker 1: Jacob became side note, parents, this is why it's so
Speaker 1: important to protect the language of your house. Let me
Speaker 1: just talk about it for three seconds. Just really quick
Speaker 1: watch what you say around your child and to your child,
Speaker 1: because they are like spiritual sponges that are picking things up.
Speaker 1: And I'll move on from that, but it's important. And
Speaker 1: so she declares this over her son, and that's what
Speaker 1: Jacob became. He became a liar, he became a deceiver,
Speaker 1: he became a trickster, He became everything that she said
Speaker 1: he would become. So when God says who are you?
Speaker 1: God is trying to get Jacob to the place where
Speaker 1: he can reveal who he is so that God can
Speaker 1: transform him. Because God won't heal or change what you
Speaker 1: won't reveal. You've got to bring it into the light,
Speaker 1: as he's in the light. And so now Jacob is
Speaker 1: finally going to admit I'm I'm Jay, I am who
Speaker 1: Rebecca told me I am? Oh man, this is huge.
Speaker 1: And see, Jacob could have told God the truth kind
Speaker 1: of God could have said j J. God could have
Speaker 1: said who are you? And he could have said, I'm
Speaker 1: Abraham's grandson. I'm one of Isaac's kids. I'm one of
Speaker 1: Rebecca's boys. I'm one of Esau's brothers. I'm I'm one
Speaker 1: of Laban's son in laws. I see he could have
Speaker 1: he could have told the truth ish, but it would
Speaker 1: not have dealt with the real issue. Oh man, I
Speaker 1: see people every week they coming to church. Old praise God, Hallelujah,
Speaker 1: Glory to God. Everything good, blessed, so blessed. We're so good.
Speaker 1: We're just so good right now, aren't we. Babe, babe,
Speaker 1: babe baby. It's like blink twice if you're in trouble,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like, kids are so good,
Speaker 1: We're just so blessed. We're just so happy. Ah, We're
Speaker 1: just Oh. I love God, I love Church. I love
Speaker 1: waiting in that line out there. Man, what a blessing.
Speaker 1: Woo love it. Let me say something. You don't need
Speaker 1: to be real with everybody, and I definitely don't want
Speaker 1: you to walk around with a dark cloud of negativity,
Speaker 1: but somebody has to know the real you can we
Speaker 1: talk about it, and God ought to know the real you. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna get honest and open with anybody, you
Speaker 1: ought to get honest and open with God. That's why
Speaker 1: we play the music so loud here at Elevation, so
Speaker 1: that while the worship's going on, you can just utter
Speaker 1: a prayer to the Lord, like, Lord, I still got
Speaker 1: some Jacob in me, I still got some mess in me.
Speaker 1: I still got some issues, i still got some trauma
Speaker 1: and some drama. I'm still carrying some baggage. But God,
Speaker 1: I'm inviting you into this space. I'm not gonna fake
Speaker 1: it around God. I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: just gonna smile around God. See, denial is not faith.
Speaker 1: Jesus did not say, deny the mountain and it'll eventually
Speaker 1: go away. No, he said you gotta talk to it.
Speaker 1: And if you're gonna talk to the mountain, that means
Speaker 1: you have to admit that it's actually there. Is. This
Speaker 1: is not just you know, smile and be positive till
Speaker 1: everything turns around. No, it's inviting God into your issues,
Speaker 1: inviting God into your brokenness. It's inviting God into your
Speaker 1: pain and saying, God, I'm inviting you into this space.
Speaker 1: Do something with my life. And God loves that. If
Speaker 1: if you think you have to be perfect to be
Speaker 1: a Christian. You have heard the wrong gospel. Friend, this
Speaker 1: is this is not a message for perfect people. And
Speaker 1: this is not a church for perfect people, he says,
Speaker 1: a church for people who know they need God. Oh
Speaker 1: are you grateful for that today? That we don't have
Speaker 1: to fake it with the Lord. We're not faking it
Speaker 1: till we make it. So he says, I'm I'm jacobing.
Speaker 1: Now God can finally do something. Oh but so many
Speaker 1: times we want to live in denial about where we
Speaker 1: are and who we are. And but now God, God knows, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can I can get involved in this moment. I
Speaker 1: can begin to move in this moment. I can begin
Speaker 1: to do something in this moment because I have revealed it.
Speaker 1: And so the third thing that you have to do
Speaker 1: now that you've stopped running and you've admitted that you
Speaker 1: have issues, well, now you got to hold onto God.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 1: Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you
Speaker 1: bless me. This is an amazing text. It's an amazing
Speaker 1: text because God picks the fight with Jacob. God begins
Speaker 1: to fight with Jacob, and then it feels pretty short.
Speaker 1: They're wrestling and all of a sudden, God taps out
Speaker 1: and goes, all right, I'm done, wrap it up, You're done.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like, God, why you pick a
Speaker 1: fight with me and then leave me? Y'all ever felt
Speaker 1: that way? Come on this March right now, But in
Speaker 1: January got picked a fight with you and goes, gonna
Speaker 1: be my year. God's gonna do something awesome at twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. I'm coming alive. I'm gonna thrive at twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. And now it's March, and you're going, my God,
Speaker 1: my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Where? Where are Where?
Speaker 1: Where are Where are you? Jesus? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's what God's That's what God's do. You're not the
Speaker 1: first one to experience it. That's what God's doing with Jacob. God.
Speaker 1: God pursues Jacob and then he lets Jacob go and
Speaker 1: he goes, all right, we're done. And see, I believe
Speaker 1: that God was testing Jacob. I believe God was testing
Speaker 1: Jacob because Jacob always ran in moments of discomfort. He
Speaker 1: ran from his home, he ran from his brother, he
Speaker 1: ran from his father in law. He's always on the run.
Speaker 1: And here's what God saying, Jacob, go ahead and run,
Speaker 1: do what you've always done, and get what you've always got. Jacob,
Speaker 1: go ahead. I give you permission to continue the cycle.
Speaker 1: I give you permission to continue to do what you've
Speaker 1: go ahead, go ahead and run me go go ahead.
Speaker 1: And if you want to run, run and hear me. Friend.
Speaker 1: You can run or you can wrestle, but you can't
Speaker 1: do both. You can't run and wrestle. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to make a decision. And, by the way, the life
Speaker 1: you want you will not get by running every time
Speaker 1: things get uncomfortable. The life you want is gonna take
Speaker 1: a wrestling match with God. See, you thought you came
Speaker 1: to church today, but this is a giant octagon in
Speaker 1: the Holy Gos. This is a heavenly octagon, and God
Speaker 1: is inviting you into a wrestling match with Heaven today
Speaker 1: where you can finally face God and face yourself and
Speaker 1: say I'm done running, I'm done being flaky. I'm done
Speaker 1: going from thing to thing and from life to life.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to finally embrace what God wants to do
Speaker 1: in my life. Let me just remind you, a church
Speaker 1: like this is not built by pastors who run every
Speaker 1: time it gets challenging. A church like this is not
Speaker 1: built by pastors who run every time there's a tension,
Speaker 1: or there's an attack from the enemy or there, or
Speaker 1: there's a different crisis is going on. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: A church like this is built by a man and
Speaker 1: a woman of God who say God has called us here,
Speaker 1: and we ain't going nowhere. We are wrestling with God.
Speaker 1: We're wrestling with each other. We're wrestling with our own humanity.
Speaker 1: Anybody grateful for that today that God has given you
Speaker 1: a fighter in this pulpit? And can I tell you
Speaker 1: the life you want, you're gonna have to fight for it. Oh,
Speaker 1: come on, somebody shall fight for it. Fight for it.
Speaker 1: The marriage you want, you're gonna have to fight for it.
Speaker 1: The purity you want, You're gonna have to fight for it.
Speaker 1: The season you're in, you're gonna have to fight for it.
Speaker 1: The business you're believing God for, You're gonna have to
Speaker 1: fight for it. The faith that you want to step into,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to fight for it. And God goes Jacob.
Speaker 1: If you want to run, go ahead and run. But
Speaker 1: if you're ready to wrestle, I am ready to transform
Speaker 1: your life, change your name and do something amazing in
Speaker 1: your life. Oh come on, can I get a yes,
Speaker 1: Lord from somebody today that says I'm going all in
Speaker 1: this year? And it's here that you don't quit when
Speaker 1: you want to quit, You don't leave when you want
Speaker 1: to leave, You don't run when you want to run,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you do. Sometimes your humanity is strong, and
Speaker 1: sometimes you're saved, but your flesh forgets it. Amen. I
Speaker 1: didn't want forgot their save before anybody in traffic, anybody ever. Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: just making sure I'm still talking to real people. A
Speaker 1: couple of months ago, I tried to quit. I'll just
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I walked downstairs, and I looked
Speaker 1: at my wife kind of just stared at each other
Speaker 1: awkwardly in the kitchen for a second, and then I
Speaker 1: turned around. I went to the freezer and I got
Speaker 1: a half gallon, A half gallon, not a not a pint,
Speaker 1: A half gallon of Blue Belt ice cream, A half gallon.
Speaker 1: People always ask me what flavor. I don't know why
Speaker 1: they want to know that, but Vanilla, like, thank you
Speaker 1: for telling me a little ozb about that I needed
Speaker 1: to know. So I got my half gallon of blue belt.
Speaker 1: And then I walked over to the to the countertop
Speaker 1: and my wife, I don't know what, ladies, why you
Speaker 1: do this? But she has a she has like a
Speaker 1: vase of like fancy spoons that we're not allowed to use.
Speaker 1: There's a spatula I'm not allowed to use, a pair
Speaker 1: of tongs. I'm not allowed to use it. And there's
Speaker 1: this like big slotted spoon. And I walked up to
Speaker 1: her and I grabbed it like I'm four years old.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a giant spoon. Come on, somebody, I
Speaker 1: grabbed this big old spoon in this ice cream. And
Speaker 1: I looked at her and I said, I'm not leaving you,
Speaker 1: and I'm not leaving God with this shirt. I'm quitting.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna quit tomorrow. So if you want to be
Speaker 1: the pastor, go ahead, Women Empowerment, Amen, you could be
Speaker 1: the pastor. If you want to call pastor Steven, Pastor
Speaker 1: Howley make it Elevation Vegas, go ahead. But I'm quitting
Speaker 1: tomorrow and I'm gonna go eat my ice cream. And
Speaker 1: I turn around, real dramatic, beau, I'm a preacher. And
Speaker 1: I started walking up my stairs with my bluebell ice
Speaker 1: stream and my wife from the sink doing the dishes. Now,
Speaker 1: she says she's five foot, but we all know she's
Speaker 1: four eleven. Amen. She's four eleven, four eleven, Latina, Pentecostal,
Speaker 1: Holy ghost Field, wild woman. By the way, I quit
Speaker 1: when I was at least thirty feet away from her, Amen,
Speaker 1: because if she threw anything at me, I knew I
Speaker 1: could say, you know, I'm smart, Pentecostal and passionate. Amen.
Speaker 1: So so she's at the dishes and I'm walking up
Speaker 1: the stairs and I think she's gonna let me get
Speaker 1: away with it. And all of a sudden, half way
Speaker 1: up the stairs, this is all I hear. Wow. I
Speaker 1: turned around. Y'all got us by witness. I protected the
Speaker 1: ice cream like it was my child. I went, it's okay, baby,
Speaker 1: it's okay. Mom's mad right now, but we're gonna be
Speaker 1: a It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Just it's okay.
Speaker 1: And I said, what do you mean? She said, you're
Speaker 1: not quitting. She said, so go eat your ice cream
Speaker 1: and have a pity party and then pray, and when
Speaker 1: you wake up tomorrow you're still gonna be the pastor.
Speaker 1: And I said, I'll pray about it. And I walked
Speaker 1: up the stairs and I ate a half gallon of Amen.
Speaker 1: You don't get like this without discipline. Amen, somebody what
Speaker 1: you talking about? This is a fight right here. Amen.
Speaker 1: To keep this waight up. In case you missed it online,
Speaker 1: I said, I ate that half galls wow, and I
Speaker 1: hate that half gallon ice scream. And I had a
Speaker 1: pity party, and then I prayed. And I woke up
Speaker 1: the next morning with a stomach ache, and I'm still
Speaker 1: in the ministry. Can I get a good Amen? Everybody?
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just got to wrestle. My mentor, Pastor Tommy Barnett, said, Jabin,
Speaker 1: be encouraged every time you want to quit. I said,
Speaker 1: why would I be encouraged every time I want to quit?
Speaker 1: He said, because that means you have something to quit,
Speaker 1: And then you get happy that you could quit, but
Speaker 1: you're not going to quit. You get encouraged that you
Speaker 1: could quit, but you don't quit, and then you keep
Speaker 1: moving forward. I said, Amen, I like that. So I
Speaker 1: thought about quitting and then I didn't quit. And this
Speaker 1: is what God is saying, Jacob. If you want to
Speaker 1: if you want to quit, go ahead, But if you're
Speaker 1: ready to wrestle. I want you to wrestle. I have
Speaker 1: the team come. And it's here that Jacob realizes I'm
Speaker 1: not wrestling with a man. This is God. And the
Speaker 1: Bible says that Jacob realizes, I'm wrestling God right now. See,
Speaker 1: when you choose not to run and you wrestle, you
Speaker 1: get to see a side of God you've never seen before.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to know there's a God, and there's
Speaker 1: one thing to sense God. But it's another thing when
Speaker 1: you can say I've seen God face to face. That's
Speaker 1: the invitation of heaven. And that's what happens when you wrestle.
Speaker 1: And as they're wrestling, Jacob says this, Okay, I told
Speaker 1: you my name. What's your name? I told you who
Speaker 1: I am? But who are you? Oh? This is the
Speaker 1: question every believer must ask, and if you'll ask it,
Speaker 1: God will answer you. It's the question Moses asked in
Speaker 1: Exodus three, who are you? It's the question David asked
Speaker 1: in Psalm eighteen, who are you? It's the question that
Speaker 1: the disciples asked in Matthew eight who are you? It's
Speaker 1: the question Peter needed to answer in Matthew sixteen, Who
Speaker 1: is Jesus? It's the question Paul would ask on the
Speaker 1: road to Damascus in next chapter nine, Lord, who are you?
Speaker 1: I've heard about you from my parents. I've heard about
Speaker 1: you from my pastor. I've heard about you from the preacher.
Speaker 1: I've heard about you from my praying grandmother. But God,
Speaker 1: who are you?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: You're the God of Abraham, and you're the God of Isaac.
Speaker 1: But I want you to be the God of Jacob.
Speaker 1: Who are you? And if you will ask, God will answer?
Speaker 1: And God answered, But I want you to watch this.
Speaker 1: He does not answer the way he normally answers. Moses
Speaker 1: asked who are you? And he said, I am that
Speaker 1: I am. Paul asked who are you, and he said,
Speaker 1: I am Jesus, the one you persecute. Abraham asked who
Speaker 1: are you? And God said, I am Jehovah. But when
Speaker 1: Jacob asks who are you, God doesn't answer him with
Speaker 1: a word. He doesn't answer him with a name. He
Speaker 1: answers him with an action. He blesses him. Please watch this,
Speaker 1: Please watch us. This word blessing is what a parent does.
Speaker 1: The Hebrew thought behind this is like a parent and
Speaker 1: the child is running towards the parent, and the parent
Speaker 1: gets on his hands and knees, and often his hands
Speaker 1: have a real wide and the parent gets on eye
Speaker 1: to eye with the baby. And this word blessing means
Speaker 1: to get on your knees, come face to face with
Speaker 1: a child, put your hands on the child, and speak
Speaker 1: affirmation and blessing over them. And when Jacob wrestles with God,
Speaker 1: God stops the wrestling, Maginie blesses him. It's like God
Speaker 1: was saying, I'm not Rebecca. I don't curse my kids.
Speaker 1: I'm not Isaac. I don't have just enough for you.
Speaker 1: Or he saw, I'm the God of more than enough.
Speaker 1: My name is hill Shade. I'm the everlasting God. And Jacob,
Speaker 1: I've got enough for you. And he saw and you
Speaker 1: and you and you and you and you, and I
Speaker 1: don't speak curses over my kids. I speak blessings over
Speaker 1: my children. And he blessed him there, and he blessed
Speaker 1: him there with a new name. He said, you are
Speaker 1: no longer your past. You are no longer what Rebecca
Speaker 1: said about you. You are no longer what Isaac allowed
Speaker 1: to be said over you. You are no longer your
Speaker 1: worst season. You're no longer you're past. You're no longer
Speaker 1: you're famine. You're no longer you're mistakes. You're no longer
Speaker 1: the pain you've been through. You're your longer the curse.
Speaker 1: You're no longer the death. You're no longer the divorced.
Speaker 1: You're no longer the addiction. You are no longer Jacob.
Speaker 1: You ah Israel. Somebody give God a massive shout of praise.
Speaker 1: In this place. You are left. You aren't healed, you
Speaker 1: aren't child of God, saved, redeem from the curse. You
Speaker 1: are holy, You are forgiven, You are free, you are
Speaker 1: well supplied, protected. Promise, you are no longer Jacob. Oh.
Speaker 1: You can have what God said you can have. You
Speaker 1: could be who God said you could be. You can
Speaker 1: do what God said you can do. You're Israel. Here Israel.
Speaker 1: You can let go of the names and take on
Speaker 1: His name for you. It is amazing. If you just
Speaker 1: said your name right now, every location online around the world,
Speaker 1: just you don't have to shout it loud, but just
Speaker 1: just say on count three, just say your name one, two, three, Jabin.
Speaker 1: Who That name comes with drama, bagage, history issues, family
Speaker 1: tree stuff. And you know what. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: scriptures is in the Book of Revelation, God says, when
Speaker 1: you get to heaven, I'm giving you.
Speaker 3: A new name. He gives Jacob a new name. And
Speaker 3: now and now Jacob.
Speaker 1: Is under this blessing, and watch what happens. He's who
Speaker 1: he's limping. He went from running to wrestling to limping.
Speaker 1: I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a limb. I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about swag or trip or riz or whatever
Speaker 1: the kids say. I'm talking about ow. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: God changed my walking, God changed my talking. God changed
Speaker 1: my life, and God changed my name. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: about I died with Christ in the water and I
Speaker 1: came out a new person. I'm talking about I've been
Speaker 1: born again. I'm talking about goodbye Yesterday. God has done
Speaker 1: a work in Oh. Anybody grateful for a new name.
Speaker 1: He's a limpid And then it doesn't stop there? Do sup?
Speaker 1: There does stopped there? I promise I'm almost done. He
Speaker 1: he's now limping. And then here's the next thing he's doing.
Speaker 1: This is now Hebrews Hebrews chapter eleven. He's watch us
Speaker 1: put it up on the screen. He's leaning watches by faith.
Speaker 1: Jacob was dying. That's number four. Because we we're all
Speaker 1: gonna die. I hate to say it. I don't want
Speaker 1: it to happen, but it's gonna happen. But as he's
Speaker 1: I want you to watch how he dies because because
Speaker 1: he died so different than how he was born. Sorry
Speaker 1: about that. That's called a Pentecostal shape. But I had
Speaker 1: to speak in tongues. I had to get it out
Speaker 1: of my arm. Amen, because I'm at I had to
Speaker 1: behave because I'm at elevations. I had to So wh's this? Sorry? Sorry? Sorry,
Speaker 1: I was rayed. Sorry, he's dying, but he's going to
Speaker 1: die so different than he was born. He's dying blessing.
Speaker 1: He's now doing the thing that God did for him.
Speaker 1: He's now on his hands and knees blessing his son
Speaker 1: and his grandsons. Wat's this blessing, worshiping, leaning on his
Speaker 1: leaning on his reminder of his God encounter. The Hebrew
Speaker 1: scholars tell us that the staff was a generational gift
Speaker 1: that you would give to your children, and it was
Speaker 1: a history lesson. You would actually carve into the staff
Speaker 1: different big God moments in the life of the family.
Speaker 1: So no doubt, as he's blessing his grandsons, I could
Speaker 1: almost imagine him looking at his grandson's going. If you
Speaker 1: knew me then and I could almost mention on his
Speaker 1: grandson's going, Papa Israel, Papa Israel, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: And he looks at that staff and he goes, let
Speaker 1: me take you here. I used to be Jacob. I
Speaker 1: used to be a liar, a deceiver, a taker. I
Speaker 1: was so full of fear, us, so full of insecurity.
Speaker 1: I was so full of But God, And he starts
Speaker 1: telling the story. The man who was born taking blessing
Speaker 1: dies giving blessing. The man who is born under Rebecca's
Speaker 1: curse dies under God's blessing. Al can I tell you
Speaker 1: you can die different, You can live a radically different
Speaker 1: life than what was predicted, than what they said, than
Speaker 1: what you thought, That you can live under the blessing
Speaker 1: of God. That you don't have to just repeat the
Speaker 1: cycles of Rebecca, that you don't have to repeat the
Speaker 1: cycles of family history. That you don't just have to
Speaker 1: repeat the cycles, but you can actually step into a
Speaker 1: new thing that God has for you. That when you
Speaker 1: tell the story to your family, they will look at
Speaker 1: you and go, you could have never been that way.
Speaker 1: Our family could have never been that way. And you said, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's who we were. But we met a man named Jesus,
Speaker 1: and he changed our life, and he changed our name,
Speaker 1: and he changed our walk. Oh, this is the story
Speaker 1: of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That he could turn
Speaker 1: it around, that he could turn it around. That I
Speaker 1: sought the Lord and he heard me, and he answered me,
Speaker 1: and he delivered me from all of my fears. If
Speaker 1: you're grateful for that, can we just stand to gift
Speaker 1: God a massive shout of praise. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: God bless you.