March 2, 2025 • 50 mins
God isn’t afraid of your struggle. In fact, He’s inviting you to face it, because He knows what’s on the other side. Stop running, hold onto Him, and let Him change you from the inside out.
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
Genesis 32, verses 24-31
Genesis 31, verse 31
Matthew 4, verse 17
Ephesians 5, verse 18
Hebrews 11, verse 21
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message while you're standing. While you're standing, I
just want to thank God for our amazing pastors. They're
the best. God is a god of people and places.
(00:35):
And then when you find your people, and you find
your place and never leave. And Pastor Stephen and Pastor
Hawley are my peoples, and Elevation is my place. And
God has used this house to change our lives and
impact our lives, and use this ministry to change us
(00:59):
and shape us. And I just want to take a
moment to thank God for the amazing leaders that He's
put in our life. Amen, can you clap your hands?
And God must really love you, and God must really
(01:19):
love this region because he put such amazing gifts in
this place. And Pastor seven and Pastor Hawley, and I
just honor you guys. I know they're probably watching from
I don't know, a tour bus or whatever they're doing
right now. But we love you, we celebrate you, we
pray for you, we pray for your kids. We bless
(01:43):
Abby and Elijah and Graham, and just thank God for them.
And I thank God for this whole team, this whole
staff that loves you and cares for you, and pastors
you are. You're grateful for the team here at the church.
That just amen. Amen, Amen, Amen, So to be here.
We're gonna go to God's words. I will let you
grab a seat. Just look at three or four people
(02:04):
as you're sitting down and say, it looks like you've
been losing weight. Come on, tell them, it looks like
you've been What are you doing? Look at your neighbors,
say is that Ozmpic? What are you doing? No, don't
say that, don't say that. Well, I bring greetings from
(02:27):
Las Vegas, and we just celebrated our seventh year of ministry.
And to God be the glory. And hey, if you're
ever in Vegas, to everyone here, every one at every
location Epham around the world, when you're in Las Vegas
doing ministry, Amen, witnessing to the blackjack dealers and blessing
(02:57):
the bartenders. Amen. I'm not here to judge, but hey,
when you do come to Vegas, and I know many
of you do, please come say hi to us. We'd
love to see you. We are a portable church. As
of right now, we meet in a high school every Sunday,
but our church city like church next month will actually
be moving into our first building. And a man so
(03:17):
grateful for that. And to God be the glory. Genesis
chapter thirty two. For some of you are very familiar
passage of scripture. For others of you, maybe this will
be new. But there is a story actually in your
Bible about a man named Jacob who wrestles with God,
(03:38):
and we're going to talk about it today. Genesis chapter
thirty two. I am a preacher. Teachers tell it, Preachers
yell it, and so if I start yelling, just yell back,
it'll be less awkward. Amen, everybody, just give me an
amen every once in a while, give me an uh huh,
give me a preacher, whatever you feel, and we're gonna
(04:01):
have a little We're gonna have a little conversation today, okay.
Genesis chapter thirty two. So Jacob was left alone and
a man wrestled with him till daybreak. And when the
man saw that he could not overpower him. He touched
the socket of Jacob's hips so that his hip was
wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said,
let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied,
(04:27):
I will not let you go unless you bless me.
Let's say that phrase together everybody. I will not let
you go unless you bless me. Then the man asked them,
who are you? What is your name? Jacob? He answered.
Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob,
but Israel, because you have struggled, You've wrestled, You've you've
(04:51):
faced God and humans and have overcomes here. Our life
is like a cross vertical and horizontal, and we have
to fight and deal with the God issue in life,
but we also have to deal with the humanity issue
of life. We have to face God and ourselves. And
I find that most people are running from God and themselves.
(05:15):
But if you would ever face God and face your
own humanity, you can overcome and live such an amazing life.
Now now, now, Jacob says, why I told you my name?
Please tell me your name. But he replied, why do
you ask my name? Then he blessed him. There, so
(05:36):
Jacob called the place face to face or penile, saying
it's because I saw God face to face, yet my
life was spared. The sun rose above him as he
passed Pnial, and he was limping because of his hip.
And I want to talk just for a few moment moments.
I really kind of want to just give you maybe
(05:57):
a life verse and a life thought God, and maybe
less of a sermon and more of just how I
attempt to live my life. And I want to talk
about how to surrender to God. How to surrender to God.
Your life is going to be a series of surrenders.
And the more God can get a yes from you,
(06:20):
the more he can do in your life. So let's
just practice right off the bat. We're all going to
pray this prayer together. Everybody say yes Lord in Jesus' name,
Amen and Amen and amen. So we find Jacob now
in chapter thirty two, and Jacob is on the run.
(06:41):
He is stolen his brother Esau's birthright. He is lied
to his father in law Laban, and now both men
are chasing him down and they both want to kill him.
They don't know this, but they're both in hot pursuit
of Jacob, and Jacob is on the run. He's running
from his brother, he's running from his father in law,
he's running from his decisions, he's running from his consequences.
(07:05):
He's really running from himself. And ultimately, I would say
that he's running from God. He's on the run. If
you want to know who Jacob is, let me give
you kind of Jacob one oh one. If you're trying
to figure out who is this Jacob guy in the Bible,
it can be defined in one verse. Excuse me. Genesis
chapter thirty one. Thirty one says I rushed away because
(07:25):
I was afraid. That's just that's just Jacob discontent, unsettled,
rushing away, on the move, scared, insecure, always trying to
cover up for his last lie, never settled where he's at,
(07:46):
always going somewhere. This is Jacob, And here's really the
good news of the text. We find Jacob in chapter
thirty two, really at his lowest point, in his lowest moment,
And the good news of the text is it is
here that God finds him. Oh I love this that
(08:06):
God doesn't meet him at his best place. M all right.
I thank God that he's the God of the mountain.
But I'm really grateful that he's the God of the valley.
He is the God of my strength, and he's the
God of my annoying and he's the God of my calling.
But he's also the God of my secrets and the
God of my weakness, and he's the God of my issues. Yes,
(08:29):
he's the God of my future, but he's still the
God of my past. He's the God of light, but
he knows how to find me in the darkness. I'm
so grateful for a God that can find me at
my lowest place. If you feel low today, I've got
good news for you. God knows how to go low.
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David said. Even if I make my bed in hell,
You'll be there, even if I try to go hide
in the dark. Darkness is like light to you. God
has a way of finding and pursuing and chasing down
his people. My testimony after serving God now for twenty
six years is not how good I am, how faithful
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I've been, how annointed I am, how gifted I am,
how holy I am. No, my testimony is God keeps
chasing me down. Anybody grateful for the mercy of God. Oh,
I know, I just started preaching like three minutes ago,
But can we take our first praise break and just
thank God that we're all here by the grace of God.
(09:34):
There's not a perfect person on your road. There's not
anybody who has it all together. We're all trophies of
God's mercy and God's grace. Oh, I told you two
men were chasing Jacob. If there was a third man
chasing Jacob, his name was God Almighty. And he has
a way of chasing us down. He is a way
(09:56):
of pursuing us. See, he has a way of running
after us. And that's the beauty of what God can do.
And here's our response. Yes, Lord, our response to God's
hot pursuit, our response to God's love, our response to
God's grace is yes. And that's what I want to talk.
(10:17):
I want to talk about your surrender, because the more
God can get of you, the more God can do
through you. So let's talk about it a little bit.
If I'm going to surrender to God. Firstly, you have
to stop running. All right, It's gonna get better. I
(10:37):
promise gonna get better. You gotta stop. You got to
stop running. Verse twenty four that the text begins with
Jacob was left alone. Here's what you find when you
study Jacob, he's never alone. He's chasing Daddy's blessing. He's
hanging out with Mama. He's the first mama's boy in
the Bible. He's in pursuit of his brother's blessing. He's
(11:00):
running after Laban's daughters. He's he's always busy, always moving,
always running, and always active and always around people. He's
never alone. And he finally gets alone. And I find
that so many people have traded in fruitfulness for busyness.
(11:24):
They think to themselves, as long as I'm busy and
tired and depressed and worn out, I must be holy.
Uh was that for somebody in this section? Amen? And
so so they're always active, but never growing, always busy
(11:46):
but rarely fruitful, always running, so they never have to
face God or themselves. They never have to deal with
the God issue in their life. And so what Jay
Jacob finally has to do is he finally has to
get alone long enough for God to do something in
his life. And and it's here that he finally gets alone. See, friend,
(12:09):
I've seen this. Now. I'm a rookie pastor, I've only
been pastoring for seven years, but I have seen that
that man. People just love to be moving, and they
go from job to job, career to career, guy to guy,
girl to girl, marriage to marriage, sometimes church to church,
(12:33):
city to city. They're always moving. You know what I've learned.
I've learned that wherever we go, there we are. You
discovered that, yet you moved to Charlotte. You still you?
Ha ha. You married the man of your dreams and
(12:56):
you still you. Sir. You were me single and you're
me married. We just need to have a baby. And
then you have a baby. And there you did that.
Scare anybody else? When you had a child, You went, Jesus,
that's me. And then as they get older, they start
(13:18):
acting like you go, who raised you? Oh? My bad,
My bad, my bad? I thought. See a lot of
times we're running from things, but we're not facing things.
We're running from things, but we're not wrestling with things.
We're we're running from ourselves. But it's not until we
wrestle with God and with humanity that we can finally overcome.
(13:44):
Jesus has a better way, and it's it's actually called repentance,
he says in Matthew chapter four. He says, repent of
your sin, turn from your sins, repent of your sins.
But then he says this, and turn to God. See
a lot of people don't like their sin. They don't
like their issues, they don't like their secrets, they don't
like their whatever they're going through, but they don't have
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any power over it. Here's why, because you haven't turned
to God. See, the issue is not disliking a part
of your life. The issue is loving God. See. God
is the power of repentance, not remorse. God is the
power of repentance, not guilt. There are so many Christians
(14:27):
that hate themselves but don't have freedom. Why because they
have not learned how to love God. Yet the powers
in loving God. Here's what Jesus is really saying. It's
not as much of a sin issue as a God issue.
That what you really need is God. Well. Now, now
Paul goes further in Ephesians, and here's how he would
(14:50):
say to me that same scripture. He says, don't get
drunk with wine. Now, this is old King James, where
in excess. That's just a fancy way of saying it's
an never gonna be enough. Whatever it is. The wine
will never get you drunk enough. The drugs will never
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get you high enough. The sex will never be good enough,
your husband will never be nice enough, the kids will
never act good enough. The house will never be big enough,
the car will never be fast enough, the bank account
will never be full enough. What am I saying? I'm
saying anytime you get inebriated on a world system, can
(15:35):
I talk to anybody? Maybe you've been drinking from the
wrong well. Jesus looked at a woman in John chapter four,
and he said, you keep drinking from the wrong well,
and that's why you're always circey. But if you would
ever drink of the living water, you would never thirst again. See,
maybe the issue, maybe it's not what you think it is.
See I'm trying to fix my life with all these
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temporal things. But maybe the craving is eternal. Because Paul
would go on and say, don't get drunk with wine
wearing excess. In other words, it's never gonna be enough.
Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. So what Paul
is saying is he's saying there's a God issue. See,
Jacob had had money, Jacob had family. Jacob had camels
and donkeys and horses and cows. And that's like saying
(16:19):
Mercedes nbmw's and a Corvette and a four f one
fifty Raptor and a private I mean he had everything,
yet y'all. He had wives. I didn't say a wife
and wives, he had kids, he had he had stuff,
(16:40):
but he was missing God. And C. S. Lewis says
that if if you have everything the world has to
offer and you still feel empty, maybe it's because you
were made for another world. Maybe it's Ecclesiastes chapter three
that says eternity is in our hearts and so we're
trying to fill with the temporal things of this life.
(17:01):
But in reality we need God. See Jacob had a
God issue. Friend, I got a God issue. We we
have a we need God. And Paul says, you're you're
trying to get drunk, You're trying to find peace, You're
trying to get inebriated on a world system that is
never gonna be enough. You're always gonna need excess. But
(17:23):
instead you can be filled with the spirit. In other words,
it's it's God that you're looking for. Anybody know they
need God today? Man, I know I need God. I
need I need more of God. So so God is
creating in the Book of Genesis. He's he's the creator
in Genesis. He's he's the artist in Genesis. And something
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very interesting happens. In the Book of Genesis. The Bible
says that God makes dirt. Okay, he doesn't make trees,
he makes dirt, doesn't make flowers. He makes dirt. He
doesn't make grass, He makes dirt. The Bible said that
he creates dirt, he creates land, and then he talks
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to the dirt and he says, dirt, get to work,
and the dirt says, yes, sir, And the dirt starts
producing trees and flowers and grass and bushes, and the dirt,
the dirt begins to produce. This is amazing. That's why
whenever you remove a tree from the dirt, the tree dies,
(18:27):
because you've removed the tree from its source. Gentlemen, maybe
you've bought your wife flowers. Maybe it's been a while,
Maybe do that tonight. You buy your wife flowers, and
you give it the flowers and they're so beautiful, right,
and they sit in the kitchen and they're so beautiful.
And then after like three days, you walk downstairs one
day you go, oh, my god, what happened to the flowers.
(18:48):
They died. No, they were already dead. They were already
dead because you remove them from their source. Okay, then
he makes water. He doesn't make fish. He makes water,
and he tells the water water, get to work and
straight at him a wana two. That water says yes, sir. Sorry,
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I got an eight year old. My bad. That water
says yes, sir. And the water this is in your Bible,
starts producing fish. That's why when you remove a fish
from the water, the fish starts flopping and hopping, and
he's gonna die. It's gonna die because water is its source.
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Water made the fish, and the fish needs its creator.
I'm going somewhere. I'm not lost. But when God made
at him, when God made you, when God made me,
he didn't talk to the dirt. He didn't talk to
the water. He did not even talk to oxygen. When
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God created humanity, God had to talk to himself, and
he said, let us make man in our image and
in our likeness. What am I saying. I'm saying that
a tree needs dirt, and a fish needs water, and
Jabin needs Jesus, and we need God. And anytime we
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try to live our life separate from God. We gonna
be like a fish flopping on the ground. We're gonna
be like flowers dying in the vase. Friend, we need God,
not just money. We need God, not just food. We
need God not just shelter. We need God. Man does
not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of our creator, out of our souls. He
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is God. And I need God today. Oh, if you
know you need him, come on, just give him praise
for a moment. In him I live, and in him
I move, and in him I breathe, and in him
I have my bee. And just because life might be
comfortable right now, Jacob, does not mean that you don't
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need God. Oh it's easy to be reminded in the
valley that I need him. But sometimes when things start
working out, we start telling ourselves we've done this and
we got this. We good. But I have to be
reminded that every time I get a little bit prideful,
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I just looked like that fish flopping on the side
of the river. I need God. I gotta stop running.
The secondly, I have to admit that I have issues. Yeah, yeah, elbow,
your neighbor, can he tell him? Don't judge me. Tell him,
don't judge me. Look at one more person say I
(21:47):
could tell you're judging me. Stop it, just stop, just
stop judging me. See, now that Jacob is finally wrestling
with God, God goes, who are you? Who are you?
This is an interesting question because God does not ask
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questions because he doesn't know the answer. Nothing's ever occurred
to God. God knows who he's wrestling with. It's not
that God doesn't know. It's that Jacob has to get honest.
It's not that God's going to learn something new. It's
that Jacob's about to learn something new. Anytime God asked
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you a question, it's not because he doesn't know the answer.
It's because he's trying to reveal a truth to you.
He says, who are you? And Jacob is finally going
to admit I am Jacob. One theologian in one commentary
said that Jacob probably had not used his name in
ten to fifteen years. Well, why is that important? Because
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in today's world names don't mean a lot. We just
kind of name our kids. We want name our kids,
have a family name, but nothing is that significant. But
in Bible days, you were given a name based off
of the pregnancy, or based off of the season of
the pregnancy, or based off of the birth, and so
names were significant because the parents believe that these were
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prophetic declarations over the child, that the name was going
to represent the character and the future of the child.
So the Bible says that Jacob is a twin. There
was a war that happened in the womb of Rebecca,
and the scripture says that as Rebecca is giving birth
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to Jacob and Esau leaves the womb first, and as
Esau is leaving the womb, the scripture says that Jacob
reached out and grabbed the heel of Esau. This is graphic,
this is Genesis, Amen, this is rated r. He grabs
the heel of Esau, and Rebecca blurts out, oh, this
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is this is my Jacob. This is my heel grasper
or subplanter, the one that knocks you off balance. This
is my deceiver. She was basically saying, keep an eye
out on the second boy. He's gonna be my troublemaker.
He's gonna be our black sheep. He Oh, he's gonna
be our problem child. He's he's a trickster. We gonna
(24:21):
have issues with him, and guess what, everything Rebecca declared
Jacob became side note, parents, this is why it's so
important to protect the language of your house. Let me
just talk about it for three seconds. Just really quick
watch what you say around your child and to your child,
(24:43):
because they are like spiritual sponges that are picking things up.
And I'll move on from that, but it's important. And
so she declares this over her son, and that's what
Jacob became. He became a liar, he became a deceiver,
he became a trickster, He became everything that she said
he would become. So when God says who are you?
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God is trying to get Jacob to the place where
he can reveal who he is so that God can
transform him. Because God won't heal or change what you
won't reveal. You've got to bring it into the light,
as he's in the light. And so now Jacob is
finally going to admit I'm I'm Jay, I am who
Rebecca told me I am? Oh man, this is huge.
(25:28):
And see, Jacob could have told God the truth kind
of God could have said j J. God could have
said who are you? And he could have said, I'm
Abraham's grandson. I'm one of Isaac's kids. I'm one of
Rebecca's boys. I'm one of Esau's brothers. I'm I'm one
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of Laban's son in laws. I see he could have
he could have told the truth ish, but it would
not have dealt with the real issue. Oh man, I
see people every week they coming to church. Old praise God, Hallelujah,
Glory to God. Everything good, blessed, so blessed. We're so good.
We're just so good right now, aren't we. Babe, babe,
(26:13):
babe baby. It's like blink twice if you're in trouble,
you know what I mean. It's like, kids are so good,
We're just so blessed. We're just so happy. Ah, We're
just Oh. I love God, I love Church. I love
waiting in that line out there. Man, what a blessing.
Woo love it. Let me say something. You don't need
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to be real with everybody, and I definitely don't want
you to walk around with a dark cloud of negativity,
but somebody has to know the real you can we
talk about it, and God ought to know the real you. Like,
if you're gonna get honest and open with anybody, you
ought to get honest and open with God. That's why
we play the music so loud here at Elevation, so
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that while the worship's going on, you can just utter
a prayer to the Lord, like, Lord, I still got
some Jacob in me, I still got some mess in me.
I still got some issues, i still got some trauma
and some drama. I'm still carrying some baggage. But God,
I'm inviting you into this space. I'm not gonna fake
it around God. I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not
just gonna smile around God. See, denial is not faith.
(27:21):
Jesus did not say, deny the mountain and it'll eventually
go away. No, he said you gotta talk to it.
And if you're gonna talk to the mountain, that means
you have to admit that it's actually there. Is. This
is not just you know, smile and be positive till
everything turns around. No, it's inviting God into your issues,
inviting God into your brokenness. It's inviting God into your
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pain and saying, God, I'm inviting you into this space.
Do something with my life. And God loves that. If
if you think you have to be perfect to be
a Christian. You have heard the wrong gospel. Friend, this
is this is not a message for perfect people. And
this is not a church for perfect people, he says,
a church for people who know they need God. Oh
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are you grateful for that today? That we don't have
to fake it with the Lord. We're not faking it
till we make it. So he says, I'm I'm jacobing.
Now God can finally do something. Oh but so many
times we want to live in denial about where we
are and who we are. And but now God, God knows, Okay,
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I can I can get involved in this moment. I
can begin to move in this moment. I can begin
to do something in this moment because I have revealed it.
And so the third thing that you have to do
now that you've stopped running and you've admitted that you
(28:53):
have issues, well, now you got to hold onto God.
Somebody say, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you
bless me. This is an amazing text. It's an amazing
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text because God picks the fight with Jacob. God begins
to fight with Jacob, and then it feels pretty short.
They're wrestling and all of a sudden, God taps out
and goes, all right, I'm done, wrap it up, You're done.
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And it's kind of like, God, why you pick a
fight with me and then leave me? Y'all ever felt
that way? Come on this March right now, But in
January got picked a fight with you and goes, gonna
be my year. God's gonna do something awesome at twenty
twenty five. I'm coming alive. I'm gonna thrive at twenty
twenty five. And now it's March, and you're going, my God,
(30:00):
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Where? Where are Where?
Where are Where are you? Jesus? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah,
That's what God's That's what God's do. You're not the
first one to experience it. That's what God's doing with Jacob. God.
God pursues Jacob and then he lets Jacob go and
he goes, all right, we're done. And see, I believe
(30:22):
that God was testing Jacob. I believe God was testing
Jacob because Jacob always ran in moments of discomfort. He
ran from his home, he ran from his brother, he
ran from his father in law. He's always on the run.
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And here's what God saying, Jacob, go ahead and run,
do what you've always done, and get what you've always got. Jacob,
go ahead. I give you permission to continue the cycle.
I give you permission to continue to do what you've
go ahead, go ahead and run me go go ahead.
And if you want to run, run and hear me. Friend.
(31:05):
You can run or you can wrestle, but you can't
do both. You can't run and wrestle. You're gonna have
to make a decision. And, by the way, the life
you want you will not get by running every time
(31:27):
things get uncomfortable. The life you want is gonna take
a wrestling match with God. See, you thought you came
to church today, but this is a giant octagon in
the Holy Gos. This is a heavenly octagon, and God
is inviting you into a wrestling match with Heaven today
where you can finally face God and face yourself and
(31:49):
say I'm done running, I'm done being flaky. I'm done
going from thing to thing and from life to life.
I'm ready to finally embrace what God wants to do
in my life. Let me just remind you, a church
like this is not built by pastors who run every
time it gets challenging. A church like this is not
built by pastors who run every time there's a tension,
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or there's an attack from the enemy or there, or
there's a different crisis is going on. No, no, no,
A church like this is built by a man and
a woman of God who say God has called us here,
and we ain't going nowhere. We are wrestling with God.
We're wrestling with each other. We're wrestling with our own humanity.
Anybody grateful for that today that God has given you
(32:32):
a fighter in this pulpit? And can I tell you
the life you want, you're gonna have to fight for it. Oh,
come on, somebody shall fight for it. Fight for it.
The marriage you want, you're gonna have to fight for it.
The purity you want, You're gonna have to fight for it.
The season you're in, you're gonna have to fight for it.
The business you're believing God for, You're gonna have to
fight for it. The faith that you want to step into,
(32:53):
you're gonna have to fight for it. And God goes Jacob.
If you want to run, go ahead and run. But
if you're ready to wrestle, I am ready to transform
your life, change your name and do something amazing in
your life. Oh come on, can I get a yes,
Lord from somebody today that says I'm going all in
(33:13):
this year? And it's here that you don't quit when
you want to quit, You don't leave when you want
to leave, You don't run when you want to run,
and sometimes you do. Sometimes your humanity is strong, and
(33:36):
sometimes you're saved, but your flesh forgets it. Amen. I
didn't want forgot their save before anybody in traffic, anybody ever. Okay, okay, okay,
just making sure I'm still talking to real people. A
couple of months ago, I tried to quit. I'll just
be honest with you. I walked downstairs, and I looked
(33:57):
at my wife kind of just stared at each other
awkwardly in the kitchen for a second, and then I
turned around. I went to the freezer and I got
a half gallon, A half gallon, not a not a pint,
A half gallon of Blue Belt ice cream, A half gallon.
People always ask me what flavor. I don't know why
they want to know that, but Vanilla, like, thank you
(34:19):
for telling me a little ozb about that I needed
to know. So I got my half gallon of blue belt.
And then I walked over to the to the countertop
and my wife, I don't know what, ladies, why you
do this? But she has a she has like a
vase of like fancy spoons that we're not allowed to use.
There's a spatula I'm not allowed to use, a pair
of tongs. I'm not allowed to use it. And there's
(34:41):
this like big slotted spoon. And I walked up to
her and I grabbed it like I'm four years old.
I mean, it's a giant spoon. Come on, somebody, I
grabbed this big old spoon in this ice cream. And
I looked at her and I said, I'm not leaving you,
and I'm not leaving God with this shirt. I'm quitting.
I'm gonna quit tomorrow. So if you want to be
(35:03):
the pastor, go ahead, Women Empowerment, Amen, you could be
the pastor. If you want to call pastor Steven, Pastor
Howley make it Elevation Vegas, go ahead. But I'm quitting
tomorrow and I'm gonna go eat my ice cream. And
I turn around, real dramatic, beau, I'm a preacher. And
I started walking up my stairs with my bluebell ice
stream and my wife from the sink doing the dishes. Now,
(35:28):
she says she's five foot, but we all know she's
four eleven. Amen. She's four eleven, four eleven, Latina, Pentecostal,
Holy ghost Field, wild woman. By the way, I quit
when I was at least thirty feet away from her, Amen,
because if she threw anything at me, I knew I
could say, you know, I'm smart, Pentecostal and passionate. Amen.
(35:51):
So so she's at the dishes and I'm walking up
the stairs and I think she's gonna let me get
away with it. And all of a sudden, half way
up the stairs, this is all I hear. Wow. I
turned around. Y'all got us by witness. I protected the
ice cream like it was my child. I went, it's okay, baby,
(36:11):
it's okay. Mom's mad right now, but we're gonna be
a It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Just it's okay.
And I said, what do you mean? She said, you're
not quitting. She said, so go eat your ice cream
and have a pity party and then pray, and when
you wake up tomorrow you're still gonna be the pastor.
(36:34):
And I said, I'll pray about it. And I walked
up the stairs and I ate a half gallon of Amen.
You don't get like this without discipline. Amen, somebody what
you talking about? This is a fight right here. Amen.
To keep this waight up. In case you missed it online,
(36:58):
I said, I ate that half galls wow, and I
hate that half gallon ice scream. And I had a
pity party, and then I prayed. And I woke up
the next morning with a stomach ache, and I'm still
in the ministry. Can I get a good Amen? Everybody?
Sometimes you just got to wrestle. My mentor, Pastor Tommy Barnett, said, Jabin,
(37:20):
be encouraged every time you want to quit. I said,
why would I be encouraged every time I want to quit?
He said, because that means you have something to quit,
And then you get happy that you could quit, but
you're not going to quit. You get encouraged that you
could quit, but you don't quit, and then you keep
moving forward. I said, Amen, I like that. So I
thought about quitting and then I didn't quit. And this
(37:41):
is what God is saying, Jacob. If you want to
if you want to quit, go ahead, But if you're
ready to wrestle. I want you to wrestle. I have
the team come. And it's here that Jacob realizes I'm
not wrestling with a man. This is God. And the
(38:06):
Bible says that Jacob realizes, I'm wrestling God right now. See,
when you choose not to run and you wrestle, you
get to see a side of God you've never seen before.
It's one thing to know there's a God, and there's
(38:28):
one thing to sense God. But it's another thing when
you can say I've seen God face to face. That's
the invitation of heaven. And that's what happens when you wrestle.
And as they're wrestling, Jacob says this, Okay, I told
(38:50):
you my name. What's your name? I told you who
I am? But who are you? Oh? This is the
question every believer must ask, and if you'll ask it,
God will answer you. It's the question Moses asked in
(39:13):
Exodus three, who are you? It's the question David asked
in Psalm eighteen, who are you? It's the question that
the disciples asked in Matthew eight who are you? It's
the question Peter needed to answer in Matthew sixteen, Who
is Jesus? It's the question Paul would ask on the
road to Damascus in next chapter nine, Lord, who are you?
(39:33):
I've heard about you from my parents. I've heard about
you from my pastor. I've heard about you from the preacher.
I've heard about you from my praying grandmother. But God,
who are you?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You're the God of Abraham, and you're the God of Isaac.
But I want you to be the God of Jacob.
Who are you? And if you will ask, God will answer?
And God answered, But I want you to watch this.
He does not answer the way he normally answers. Moses
(40:07):
asked who are you? And he said, I am that
I am. Paul asked who are you, and he said,
I am Jesus, the one you persecute. Abraham asked who
are you? And God said, I am Jehovah. But when
Jacob asks who are you, God doesn't answer him with
(40:33):
a word. He doesn't answer him with a name. He
answers him with an action. He blesses him. Please watch this,
Please watch us. This word blessing is what a parent does.
The Hebrew thought behind this is like a parent and
(40:57):
the child is running towards the parent, and the parent
gets on his hands and knees, and often his hands
have a real wide and the parent gets on eye
to eye with the baby. And this word blessing means
to get on your knees, come face to face with
a child, put your hands on the child, and speak
(41:21):
affirmation and blessing over them. And when Jacob wrestles with God,
God stops the wrestling, Maginie blesses him. It's like God
was saying, I'm not Rebecca. I don't curse my kids.
(41:51):
I'm not Isaac. I don't have just enough for you.
Or he saw, I'm the God of more than enough.
My name is hill Shade. I'm the everlasting God. And Jacob,
I've got enough for you. And he saw and you
and you and you and you and you, and I
(42:15):
don't speak curses over my kids. I speak blessings over
my children. And he blessed him there, and he blessed
him there with a new name. He said, you are
no longer your past. You are no longer what Rebecca
said about you. You are no longer what Isaac allowed
to be said over you. You are no longer your
(42:36):
worst season. You're no longer you're past. You're no longer
you're famine. You're no longer you're mistakes. You're no longer
the pain you've been through. You're your longer the curse.
You're no longer the death. You're no longer the divorced.
You're no longer the addiction. You are no longer Jacob.
(42:58):
You ah Israel. Somebody give God a massive shout of praise.
In this place. You are left. You aren't healed, you
aren't child of God, saved, redeem from the curse. You
are holy, You are forgiven, You are free, you are
well supplied, protected. Promise, you are no longer Jacob. Oh.
(43:25):
You can have what God said you can have. You
could be who God said you could be. You can
do what God said you can do. You're Israel. Here Israel.
You can let go of the names and take on
(43:45):
His name for you. It is amazing. If you just
said your name right now, every location online around the world,
just you don't have to shout it loud, but just
just say on count three, just say your name one, two, three, Jabin.
Who That name comes with drama, bagage, history issues, family
(44:13):
tree stuff. And you know what. One of my favorite
scriptures is in the Book of Revelation, God says, when
you get to heaven, I'm giving you.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
A new name. He gives Jacob a new name. And
now and now Jacob.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Is under this blessing, and watch what happens. He's who
he's limping. He went from running to wrestling to limping.
I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a limb. I'm
not talking about swag or trip or riz or whatever
(44:54):
the kids say. I'm talking about ow. I'm talking about
God changed my walking, God changed my talking. God changed
my life, and God changed my name. And I'm talking
about I died with Christ in the water and I
came out a new person. I'm talking about I've been
born again. I'm talking about goodbye Yesterday. God has done
a work in Oh. Anybody grateful for a new name.
(45:19):
He's a limpid And then it doesn't stop there? Do sup?
There does stopped there? I promise I'm almost done. He
he's now limping. And then here's the next thing he's doing.
This is now Hebrews Hebrews chapter eleven. He's watch us
put it up on the screen. He's leaning watches by faith.
(45:45):
Jacob was dying. That's number four. Because we we're all
gonna die. I hate to say it. I don't want
it to happen, but it's gonna happen. But as he's
I want you to watch how he dies because because
he died so different than how he was born. Sorry
(46:09):
about that. That's called a Pentecostal shape. But I had
to speak in tongues. I had to get it out
of my arm. Amen, because I'm at I had to
behave because I'm at elevations. I had to So wh's this? Sorry? Sorry? Sorry,
I was rayed. Sorry, he's dying, but he's going to
die so different than he was born. He's dying blessing.
(46:33):
He's now doing the thing that God did for him.
He's now on his hands and knees blessing his son
and his grandsons. Wat's this blessing, worshiping, leaning on his
(46:54):
leaning on his reminder of his God encounter. The Hebrew
scholars tell us that the staff was a generational gift
that you would give to your children, and it was
a history lesson. You would actually carve into the staff
different big God moments in the life of the family.
(47:20):
So no doubt, as he's blessing his grandsons, I could
almost imagine him looking at his grandson's going. If you
knew me then and I could almost mention on his
grandson's going, Papa Israel, Papa Israel, what do you mean?
(47:42):
And he looks at that staff and he goes, let
me take you here. I used to be Jacob. I
used to be a liar, a deceiver, a taker. I
was so full of fear, us, so full of insecurity.
I was so full of But God, And he starts
(48:04):
telling the story. The man who was born taking blessing
dies giving blessing. The man who is born under Rebecca's
curse dies under God's blessing. Al can I tell you
(48:28):
you can die different, You can live a radically different
life than what was predicted, than what they said, than
what you thought, That you can live under the blessing
of God. That you don't have to just repeat the
cycles of Rebecca, that you don't have to repeat the
cycles of family history. That you don't just have to
repeat the cycles, but you can actually step into a
(48:51):
new thing that God has for you. That when you
tell the story to your family, they will look at
you and go, you could have never been that way.
Our family could have never been that way. And you said, Oh,
that's who we were. But we met a man named Jesus,
and he changed our life, and he changed our name,
and he changed our walk. Oh, this is the story
(49:17):
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That he could turn
it around, that he could turn it around. That I
sought the Lord and he heard me, and he answered me,
and he delivered me from all of my fears. If
you're grateful for that, can we just stand to gift
God a massive shout of praise. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message while you're standing. While you're standing, I
just want to thank God for our amazing pastors. They're
the best. God is a god of people and places.
(00:35):
And then when you find your people, and you find
your place and never leave. And Pastor Stephen and Pastor
Hawley are my peoples, and Elevation is my place. And
God has used this house to change our lives and
impact our lives, and use this ministry to change us
(00:59):
and shape us. And I just want to take a
moment to thank God for the amazing leaders that He's
put in our life. Amen, can you clap your hands?
And God must really love you, and God must really
(01:19):
love this region because he put such amazing gifts in
this place. And Pastor seven and Pastor Hawley, and I
just honor you guys. I know they're probably watching from
I don't know, a tour bus or whatever they're doing
right now. But we love you, we celebrate you, we
pray for you, we pray for your kids. We bless
(01:43):
Abby and Elijah and Graham, and just thank God for them.
And I thank God for this whole team, this whole
staff that loves you and cares for you, and pastors
you are. You're grateful for the team here at the church.
That just amen. Amen, Amen, Amen, So to be here.
We're gonna go to God's words. I will let you
grab a seat. Just look at three or four people
(02:04):
as you're sitting down and say, it looks like you've
been losing weight. Come on, tell them, it looks like
you've been What are you doing? Look at your neighbors,
say is that Ozmpic? What are you doing? No, don't
say that, don't say that. Well, I bring greetings from
(02:27):
Las Vegas, and we just celebrated our seventh year of ministry.
And to God be the glory. And hey, if you're
ever in Vegas, to everyone here, every one at every
location Epham around the world, when you're in Las Vegas
doing ministry, Amen, witnessing to the blackjack dealers and blessing
(02:57):
the bartenders. Amen. I'm not here to judge, but hey,
when you do come to Vegas, and I know many
of you do, please come say hi to us. We'd
love to see you. We are a portable church. As
of right now, we meet in a high school every Sunday,
but our church city like church next month will actually
be moving into our first building. And a man so
(03:17):
grateful for that. And to God be the glory. Genesis
chapter thirty two. For some of you are very familiar
passage of scripture. For others of you, maybe this will
be new. But there is a story actually in your
Bible about a man named Jacob who wrestles with God,
(03:38):
and we're going to talk about it today. Genesis chapter
thirty two. I am a preacher. Teachers tell it, Preachers
yell it, and so if I start yelling, just yell back,
it'll be less awkward. Amen, everybody, just give me an
amen every once in a while, give me an uh huh,
give me a preacher, whatever you feel, and we're gonna
(04:01):
have a little We're gonna have a little conversation today, okay.
Genesis chapter thirty two. So Jacob was left alone and
a man wrestled with him till daybreak. And when the
man saw that he could not overpower him. He touched
the socket of Jacob's hips so that his hip was
wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said,
let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied,
(04:27):
I will not let you go unless you bless me.
Let's say that phrase together everybody. I will not let
you go unless you bless me. Then the man asked them,
who are you? What is your name? Jacob? He answered.
Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob,
but Israel, because you have struggled, You've wrestled, You've you've
(04:51):
faced God and humans and have overcomes here. Our life
is like a cross vertical and horizontal, and we have
to fight and deal with the God issue in life,
but we also have to deal with the humanity issue
of life. We have to face God and ourselves. And
I find that most people are running from God and themselves.
(05:15):
But if you would ever face God and face your
own humanity, you can overcome and live such an amazing life.
Now now, now, Jacob says, why I told you my name?
Please tell me your name. But he replied, why do
you ask my name? Then he blessed him. There, so
(05:36):
Jacob called the place face to face or penile, saying
it's because I saw God face to face, yet my
life was spared. The sun rose above him as he
passed Pnial, and he was limping because of his hip.
And I want to talk just for a few moment moments.
I really kind of want to just give you maybe
(05:57):
a life verse and a life thought God, and maybe
less of a sermon and more of just how I
attempt to live my life. And I want to talk
about how to surrender to God. How to surrender to God.
Your life is going to be a series of surrenders.
And the more God can get a yes from you,
(06:20):
the more he can do in your life. So let's
just practice right off the bat. We're all going to
pray this prayer together. Everybody say yes Lord in Jesus' name,
Amen and Amen and amen. So we find Jacob now
in chapter thirty two, and Jacob is on the run.
(06:41):
He is stolen his brother Esau's birthright. He is lied
to his father in law Laban, and now both men
are chasing him down and they both want to kill him.
They don't know this, but they're both in hot pursuit
of Jacob, and Jacob is on the run. He's running
from his brother, he's running from his father in law,
he's running from his decisions, he's running from his consequences.
(07:05):
He's really running from himself. And ultimately, I would say
that he's running from God. He's on the run. If
you want to know who Jacob is, let me give
you kind of Jacob one oh one. If you're trying
to figure out who is this Jacob guy in the Bible,
it can be defined in one verse. Excuse me. Genesis
chapter thirty one. Thirty one says I rushed away because
(07:25):
I was afraid. That's just that's just Jacob discontent, unsettled,
rushing away, on the move, scared, insecure, always trying to
cover up for his last lie, never settled where he's at,
(07:46):
always going somewhere. This is Jacob, And here's really the
good news of the text. We find Jacob in chapter
thirty two, really at his lowest point, in his lowest moment,
And the good news of the text is it is
here that God finds him. Oh I love this that
(08:06):
God doesn't meet him at his best place. M all right.
I thank God that he's the God of the mountain.
But I'm really grateful that he's the God of the valley.
He is the God of my strength, and he's the
God of my annoying and he's the God of my calling.
But he's also the God of my secrets and the
God of my weakness, and he's the God of my issues. Yes,
(08:29):
he's the God of my future, but he's still the
God of my past. He's the God of light, but
he knows how to find me in the darkness. I'm
so grateful for a God that can find me at
my lowest place. If you feel low today, I've got
good news for you. God knows how to go low.
(08:49):
David said. Even if I make my bed in hell,
You'll be there, even if I try to go hide
in the dark. Darkness is like light to you. God
has a way of finding and pursuing and chasing down
his people. My testimony after serving God now for twenty
six years is not how good I am, how faithful
(09:10):
I've been, how annointed I am, how gifted I am,
how holy I am. No, my testimony is God keeps
chasing me down. Anybody grateful for the mercy of God. Oh,
I know, I just started preaching like three minutes ago,
But can we take our first praise break and just
thank God that we're all here by the grace of God.
(09:34):
There's not a perfect person on your road. There's not
anybody who has it all together. We're all trophies of
God's mercy and God's grace. Oh, I told you two
men were chasing Jacob. If there was a third man
chasing Jacob, his name was God Almighty. And he has
a way of chasing us down. He is a way
(09:56):
of pursuing us. See, he has a way of running
after us. And that's the beauty of what God can do.
And here's our response. Yes, Lord, our response to God's
hot pursuit, our response to God's love, our response to
God's grace is yes. And that's what I want to talk.
(10:17):
I want to talk about your surrender, because the more
God can get of you, the more God can do
through you. So let's talk about it a little bit.
If I'm going to surrender to God. Firstly, you have
to stop running. All right, It's gonna get better. I
(10:37):
promise gonna get better. You gotta stop. You got to
stop running. Verse twenty four that the text begins with
Jacob was left alone. Here's what you find when you
study Jacob, he's never alone. He's chasing Daddy's blessing. He's
hanging out with Mama. He's the first mama's boy in
the Bible. He's in pursuit of his brother's blessing. He's
(11:00):
running after Laban's daughters. He's he's always busy, always moving,
always running, and always active and always around people. He's
never alone. And he finally gets alone. And I find
that so many people have traded in fruitfulness for busyness.
(11:24):
They think to themselves, as long as I'm busy and
tired and depressed and worn out, I must be holy.
Uh was that for somebody in this section? Amen? And
so so they're always active, but never growing, always busy
(11:46):
but rarely fruitful, always running, so they never have to
face God or themselves. They never have to deal with
the God issue in their life. And so what Jay
Jacob finally has to do is he finally has to
get alone long enough for God to do something in
his life. And and it's here that he finally gets alone. See, friend,
(12:09):
I've seen this. Now. I'm a rookie pastor, I've only
been pastoring for seven years, but I have seen that
that man. People just love to be moving, and they
go from job to job, career to career, guy to guy,
girl to girl, marriage to marriage, sometimes church to church,
(12:33):
city to city. They're always moving. You know what I've learned.
I've learned that wherever we go, there we are. You
discovered that, yet you moved to Charlotte. You still you?
Ha ha. You married the man of your dreams and
(12:56):
you still you. Sir. You were me single and you're
me married. We just need to have a baby. And
then you have a baby. And there you did that.
Scare anybody else? When you had a child, You went, Jesus,
that's me. And then as they get older, they start
(13:18):
acting like you go, who raised you? Oh? My bad,
My bad, my bad? I thought. See a lot of
times we're running from things, but we're not facing things.
We're running from things, but we're not wrestling with things.
We're we're running from ourselves. But it's not until we
wrestle with God and with humanity that we can finally overcome.
(13:44):
Jesus has a better way, and it's it's actually called repentance,
he says in Matthew chapter four. He says, repent of
your sin, turn from your sins, repent of your sins.
But then he says this, and turn to God. See
a lot of people don't like their sin. They don't
like their issues, they don't like their secrets, they don't
like their whatever they're going through, but they don't have
(14:06):
any power over it. Here's why, because you haven't turned
to God. See, the issue is not disliking a part
of your life. The issue is loving God. See. God
is the power of repentance, not remorse. God is the
power of repentance, not guilt. There are so many Christians
(14:27):
that hate themselves but don't have freedom. Why because they
have not learned how to love God. Yet the powers
in loving God. Here's what Jesus is really saying. It's
not as much of a sin issue as a God issue.
That what you really need is God. Well. Now, now
Paul goes further in Ephesians, and here's how he would
(14:50):
say to me that same scripture. He says, don't get
drunk with wine. Now, this is old King James, where
in excess. That's just a fancy way of saying it's
an never gonna be enough. Whatever it is. The wine
will never get you drunk enough. The drugs will never
(15:10):
get you high enough. The sex will never be good enough,
your husband will never be nice enough, the kids will
never act good enough. The house will never be big enough,
the car will never be fast enough, the bank account
will never be full enough. What am I saying? I'm
saying anytime you get inebriated on a world system, can
(15:35):
I talk to anybody? Maybe you've been drinking from the
wrong well. Jesus looked at a woman in John chapter four,
and he said, you keep drinking from the wrong well,
and that's why you're always circey. But if you would
ever drink of the living water, you would never thirst again. See,
maybe the issue, maybe it's not what you think it is.
See I'm trying to fix my life with all these
(15:57):
temporal things. But maybe the craving is eternal. Because Paul
would go on and say, don't get drunk with wine
wearing excess. In other words, it's never gonna be enough.
Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. So what Paul
is saying is he's saying there's a God issue. See,
Jacob had had money, Jacob had family. Jacob had camels
and donkeys and horses and cows. And that's like saying
(16:19):
Mercedes nbmw's and a Corvette and a four f one
fifty Raptor and a private I mean he had everything,
yet y'all. He had wives. I didn't say a wife
and wives, he had kids, he had he had stuff,
(16:40):
but he was missing God. And C. S. Lewis says
that if if you have everything the world has to
offer and you still feel empty, maybe it's because you
were made for another world. Maybe it's Ecclesiastes chapter three
that says eternity is in our hearts and so we're
trying to fill with the temporal things of this life.
(17:01):
But in reality we need God. See Jacob had a
God issue. Friend, I got a God issue. We we
have a we need God. And Paul says, you're you're
trying to get drunk, You're trying to find peace, You're
trying to get inebriated on a world system that is
never gonna be enough. You're always gonna need excess. But
(17:23):
instead you can be filled with the spirit. In other words,
it's it's God that you're looking for. Anybody know they
need God today? Man, I know I need God. I
need I need more of God. So so God is
creating in the Book of Genesis. He's he's the creator
in Genesis. He's he's the artist in Genesis. And something
(17:46):
very interesting happens. In the Book of Genesis. The Bible
says that God makes dirt. Okay, he doesn't make trees,
he makes dirt, doesn't make flowers. He makes dirt. He
doesn't make grass, He makes dirt. The Bible said that
he creates dirt, he creates land, and then he talks
(18:06):
to the dirt and he says, dirt, get to work,
and the dirt says, yes, sir, And the dirt starts
producing trees and flowers and grass and bushes, and the dirt,
the dirt begins to produce. This is amazing. That's why
whenever you remove a tree from the dirt, the tree dies,
(18:27):
because you've removed the tree from its source. Gentlemen, maybe
you've bought your wife flowers. Maybe it's been a while,
Maybe do that tonight. You buy your wife flowers, and
you give it the flowers and they're so beautiful, right,
and they sit in the kitchen and they're so beautiful.
And then after like three days, you walk downstairs one
day you go, oh, my god, what happened to the flowers.
(18:48):
They died. No, they were already dead. They were already
dead because you remove them from their source. Okay, then
he makes water. He doesn't make fish. He makes water,
and he tells the water water, get to work and
straight at him a wana two. That water says yes, sir. Sorry,
(19:11):
I got an eight year old. My bad. That water
says yes, sir. And the water this is in your Bible,
starts producing fish. That's why when you remove a fish
from the water, the fish starts flopping and hopping, and
he's gonna die. It's gonna die because water is its source.
(19:32):
Water made the fish, and the fish needs its creator.
I'm going somewhere. I'm not lost. But when God made
at him, when God made you, when God made me,
he didn't talk to the dirt. He didn't talk to
the water. He did not even talk to oxygen. When
(19:54):
God created humanity, God had to talk to himself, and
he said, let us make man in our image and
in our likeness. What am I saying. I'm saying that
a tree needs dirt, and a fish needs water, and
Jabin needs Jesus, and we need God. And anytime we
(20:15):
try to live our life separate from God. We gonna
be like a fish flopping on the ground. We're gonna
be like flowers dying in the vase. Friend, we need God,
not just money. We need God, not just food. We
need God not just shelter. We need God. Man does
not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of our creator, out of our souls. He
(20:39):
is God. And I need God today. Oh, if you
know you need him, come on, just give him praise
for a moment. In him I live, and in him
I move, and in him I breathe, and in him
I have my bee. And just because life might be
comfortable right now, Jacob, does not mean that you don't
(21:01):
need God. Oh it's easy to be reminded in the
valley that I need him. But sometimes when things start
working out, we start telling ourselves we've done this and
we got this. We good. But I have to be
reminded that every time I get a little bit prideful,
(21:26):
I just looked like that fish flopping on the side
of the river. I need God. I gotta stop running.
The secondly, I have to admit that I have issues. Yeah, yeah, elbow,
your neighbor, can he tell him? Don't judge me. Tell him,
don't judge me. Look at one more person say I
(21:47):
could tell you're judging me. Stop it, just stop, just
stop judging me. See, now that Jacob is finally wrestling
with God, God goes, who are you? Who are you?
This is an interesting question because God does not ask
(22:08):
questions because he doesn't know the answer. Nothing's ever occurred
to God. God knows who he's wrestling with. It's not
that God doesn't know. It's that Jacob has to get honest.
It's not that God's going to learn something new. It's
that Jacob's about to learn something new. Anytime God asked
(22:31):
you a question, it's not because he doesn't know the answer.
It's because he's trying to reveal a truth to you.
He says, who are you? And Jacob is finally going
to admit I am Jacob. One theologian in one commentary
said that Jacob probably had not used his name in
ten to fifteen years. Well, why is that important? Because
(22:53):
in today's world names don't mean a lot. We just
kind of name our kids. We want name our kids,
have a family name, but nothing is that significant. But
in Bible days, you were given a name based off
of the pregnancy, or based off of the season of
the pregnancy, or based off of the birth, and so
names were significant because the parents believe that these were
(23:14):
prophetic declarations over the child, that the name was going
to represent the character and the future of the child.
So the Bible says that Jacob is a twin. There
was a war that happened in the womb of Rebecca,
and the scripture says that as Rebecca is giving birth
(23:34):
to Jacob and Esau leaves the womb first, and as
Esau is leaving the womb, the scripture says that Jacob
reached out and grabbed the heel of Esau. This is graphic,
this is Genesis, Amen, this is rated r. He grabs
the heel of Esau, and Rebecca blurts out, oh, this
(23:58):
is this is my Jacob. This is my heel grasper
or subplanter, the one that knocks you off balance. This
is my deceiver. She was basically saying, keep an eye
out on the second boy. He's gonna be my troublemaker.
He's gonna be our black sheep. He Oh, he's gonna
be our problem child. He's he's a trickster. We gonna
(24:21):
have issues with him, and guess what, everything Rebecca declared
Jacob became side note, parents, this is why it's so
important to protect the language of your house. Let me
just talk about it for three seconds. Just really quick
watch what you say around your child and to your child,
(24:43):
because they are like spiritual sponges that are picking things up.
And I'll move on from that, but it's important. And
so she declares this over her son, and that's what
Jacob became. He became a liar, he became a deceiver,
he became a trickster, He became everything that she said
he would become. So when God says who are you?
(25:04):
God is trying to get Jacob to the place where
he can reveal who he is so that God can
transform him. Because God won't heal or change what you
won't reveal. You've got to bring it into the light,
as he's in the light. And so now Jacob is
finally going to admit I'm I'm Jay, I am who
Rebecca told me I am? Oh man, this is huge.
(25:28):
And see, Jacob could have told God the truth kind
of God could have said j J. God could have
said who are you? And he could have said, I'm
Abraham's grandson. I'm one of Isaac's kids. I'm one of
Rebecca's boys. I'm one of Esau's brothers. I'm I'm one
(25:51):
of Laban's son in laws. I see he could have
he could have told the truth ish, but it would
not have dealt with the real issue. Oh man, I
see people every week they coming to church. Old praise God, Hallelujah,
Glory to God. Everything good, blessed, so blessed. We're so good.
We're just so good right now, aren't we. Babe, babe,
(26:13):
babe baby. It's like blink twice if you're in trouble,
you know what I mean. It's like, kids are so good,
We're just so blessed. We're just so happy. Ah, We're
just Oh. I love God, I love Church. I love
waiting in that line out there. Man, what a blessing.
Woo love it. Let me say something. You don't need
(26:34):
to be real with everybody, and I definitely don't want
you to walk around with a dark cloud of negativity,
but somebody has to know the real you can we
talk about it, and God ought to know the real you. Like,
if you're gonna get honest and open with anybody, you
ought to get honest and open with God. That's why
we play the music so loud here at Elevation, so
(26:56):
that while the worship's going on, you can just utter
a prayer to the Lord, like, Lord, I still got
some Jacob in me, I still got some mess in me.
I still got some issues, i still got some trauma
and some drama. I'm still carrying some baggage. But God,
I'm inviting you into this space. I'm not gonna fake
it around God. I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not
just gonna smile around God. See, denial is not faith.
(27:21):
Jesus did not say, deny the mountain and it'll eventually
go away. No, he said you gotta talk to it.
And if you're gonna talk to the mountain, that means
you have to admit that it's actually there. Is. This
is not just you know, smile and be positive till
everything turns around. No, it's inviting God into your issues,
inviting God into your brokenness. It's inviting God into your
(27:42):
pain and saying, God, I'm inviting you into this space.
Do something with my life. And God loves that. If
if you think you have to be perfect to be
a Christian. You have heard the wrong gospel. Friend, this
is this is not a message for perfect people. And
this is not a church for perfect people, he says,
a church for people who know they need God. Oh
(28:05):
are you grateful for that today? That we don't have
to fake it with the Lord. We're not faking it
till we make it. So he says, I'm I'm jacobing.
Now God can finally do something. Oh but so many
times we want to live in denial about where we
are and who we are. And but now God, God knows, Okay,
(28:31):
I can I can get involved in this moment. I
can begin to move in this moment. I can begin
to do something in this moment because I have revealed it.
And so the third thing that you have to do
now that you've stopped running and you've admitted that you
(28:53):
have issues, well, now you got to hold onto God.
Somebody say, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you
bless me. This is an amazing text. It's an amazing
(29:16):
text because God picks the fight with Jacob. God begins
to fight with Jacob, and then it feels pretty short.
They're wrestling and all of a sudden, God taps out
and goes, all right, I'm done, wrap it up, You're done.
(29:37):
And it's kind of like, God, why you pick a
fight with me and then leave me? Y'all ever felt
that way? Come on this March right now, But in
January got picked a fight with you and goes, gonna
be my year. God's gonna do something awesome at twenty
twenty five. I'm coming alive. I'm gonna thrive at twenty
twenty five. And now it's March, and you're going, my God,
(30:00):
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Where? Where are Where?
Where are Where are you? Jesus? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah,
That's what God's That's what God's do. You're not the
first one to experience it. That's what God's doing with Jacob. God.
God pursues Jacob and then he lets Jacob go and
he goes, all right, we're done. And see, I believe
(30:22):
that God was testing Jacob. I believe God was testing
Jacob because Jacob always ran in moments of discomfort. He
ran from his home, he ran from his brother, he
ran from his father in law. He's always on the run.
(30:44):
And here's what God saying, Jacob, go ahead and run,
do what you've always done, and get what you've always got. Jacob,
go ahead. I give you permission to continue the cycle.
I give you permission to continue to do what you've
go ahead, go ahead and run me go go ahead.
And if you want to run, run and hear me. Friend.
(31:05):
You can run or you can wrestle, but you can't
do both. You can't run and wrestle. You're gonna have
to make a decision. And, by the way, the life
you want you will not get by running every time
(31:27):
things get uncomfortable. The life you want is gonna take
a wrestling match with God. See, you thought you came
to church today, but this is a giant octagon in
the Holy Gos. This is a heavenly octagon, and God
is inviting you into a wrestling match with Heaven today
where you can finally face God and face yourself and
(31:49):
say I'm done running, I'm done being flaky. I'm done
going from thing to thing and from life to life.
I'm ready to finally embrace what God wants to do
in my life. Let me just remind you, a church
like this is not built by pastors who run every
time it gets challenging. A church like this is not
built by pastors who run every time there's a tension,
(32:11):
or there's an attack from the enemy or there, or
there's a different crisis is going on. No, no, no,
A church like this is built by a man and
a woman of God who say God has called us here,
and we ain't going nowhere. We are wrestling with God.
We're wrestling with each other. We're wrestling with our own humanity.
Anybody grateful for that today that God has given you
(32:32):
a fighter in this pulpit? And can I tell you
the life you want, you're gonna have to fight for it. Oh,
come on, somebody shall fight for it. Fight for it.
The marriage you want, you're gonna have to fight for it.
The purity you want, You're gonna have to fight for it.
The season you're in, you're gonna have to fight for it.
The business you're believing God for, You're gonna have to
fight for it. The faith that you want to step into,
(32:53):
you're gonna have to fight for it. And God goes Jacob.
If you want to run, go ahead and run. But
if you're ready to wrestle, I am ready to transform
your life, change your name and do something amazing in
your life. Oh come on, can I get a yes,
Lord from somebody today that says I'm going all in
(33:13):
this year? And it's here that you don't quit when
you want to quit, You don't leave when you want
to leave, You don't run when you want to run,
and sometimes you do. Sometimes your humanity is strong, and
(33:36):
sometimes you're saved, but your flesh forgets it. Amen. I
didn't want forgot their save before anybody in traffic, anybody ever. Okay, okay, okay,
just making sure I'm still talking to real people. A
couple of months ago, I tried to quit. I'll just
be honest with you. I walked downstairs, and I looked
(33:57):
at my wife kind of just stared at each other
awkwardly in the kitchen for a second, and then I
turned around. I went to the freezer and I got
a half gallon, A half gallon, not a not a pint,
A half gallon of Blue Belt ice cream, A half gallon.
People always ask me what flavor. I don't know why
they want to know that, but Vanilla, like, thank you
(34:19):
for telling me a little ozb about that I needed
to know. So I got my half gallon of blue belt.
And then I walked over to the to the countertop
and my wife, I don't know what, ladies, why you
do this? But she has a she has like a
vase of like fancy spoons that we're not allowed to use.
There's a spatula I'm not allowed to use, a pair
of tongs. I'm not allowed to use it. And there's
(34:41):
this like big slotted spoon. And I walked up to
her and I grabbed it like I'm four years old.
I mean, it's a giant spoon. Come on, somebody, I
grabbed this big old spoon in this ice cream. And
I looked at her and I said, I'm not leaving you,
and I'm not leaving God with this shirt. I'm quitting.
I'm gonna quit tomorrow. So if you want to be
(35:03):
the pastor, go ahead, Women Empowerment, Amen, you could be
the pastor. If you want to call pastor Steven, Pastor
Howley make it Elevation Vegas, go ahead. But I'm quitting
tomorrow and I'm gonna go eat my ice cream. And
I turn around, real dramatic, beau, I'm a preacher. And
I started walking up my stairs with my bluebell ice
stream and my wife from the sink doing the dishes. Now,
(35:28):
she says she's five foot, but we all know she's
four eleven. Amen. She's four eleven, four eleven, Latina, Pentecostal,
Holy ghost Field, wild woman. By the way, I quit
when I was at least thirty feet away from her, Amen,
because if she threw anything at me, I knew I
could say, you know, I'm smart, Pentecostal and passionate. Amen.
(35:51):
So so she's at the dishes and I'm walking up
the stairs and I think she's gonna let me get
away with it. And all of a sudden, half way
up the stairs, this is all I hear. Wow. I
turned around. Y'all got us by witness. I protected the
ice cream like it was my child. I went, it's okay, baby,
(36:11):
it's okay. Mom's mad right now, but we're gonna be
a It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Just it's okay.
And I said, what do you mean? She said, you're
not quitting. She said, so go eat your ice cream
and have a pity party and then pray, and when
you wake up tomorrow you're still gonna be the pastor.
(36:34):
And I said, I'll pray about it. And I walked
up the stairs and I ate a half gallon of Amen.
You don't get like this without discipline. Amen, somebody what
you talking about? This is a fight right here. Amen.
To keep this waight up. In case you missed it online,
(36:58):
I said, I ate that half galls wow, and I
hate that half gallon ice scream. And I had a
pity party, and then I prayed. And I woke up
the next morning with a stomach ache, and I'm still
in the ministry. Can I get a good Amen? Everybody?
Sometimes you just got to wrestle. My mentor, Pastor Tommy Barnett, said, Jabin,
(37:20):
be encouraged every time you want to quit. I said,
why would I be encouraged every time I want to quit?
He said, because that means you have something to quit,
And then you get happy that you could quit, but
you're not going to quit. You get encouraged that you
could quit, but you don't quit, and then you keep
moving forward. I said, Amen, I like that. So I
thought about quitting and then I didn't quit. And this
(37:41):
is what God is saying, Jacob. If you want to
if you want to quit, go ahead, But if you're
ready to wrestle. I want you to wrestle. I have
the team come. And it's here that Jacob realizes I'm
not wrestling with a man. This is God. And the
(38:06):
Bible says that Jacob realizes, I'm wrestling God right now. See,
when you choose not to run and you wrestle, you
get to see a side of God you've never seen before.
It's one thing to know there's a God, and there's
(38:28):
one thing to sense God. But it's another thing when
you can say I've seen God face to face. That's
the invitation of heaven. And that's what happens when you wrestle.
And as they're wrestling, Jacob says this, Okay, I told
(38:50):
you my name. What's your name? I told you who
I am? But who are you? Oh? This is the
question every believer must ask, and if you'll ask it,
God will answer you. It's the question Moses asked in
(39:13):
Exodus three, who are you? It's the question David asked
in Psalm eighteen, who are you? It's the question that
the disciples asked in Matthew eight who are you? It's
the question Peter needed to answer in Matthew sixteen, Who
is Jesus? It's the question Paul would ask on the
road to Damascus in next chapter nine, Lord, who are you?
(39:33):
I've heard about you from my parents. I've heard about
you from my pastor. I've heard about you from the preacher.
I've heard about you from my praying grandmother. But God,
who are you?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You're the God of Abraham, and you're the God of Isaac.
But I want you to be the God of Jacob.
Who are you? And if you will ask, God will answer?
And God answered, But I want you to watch this.
He does not answer the way he normally answers. Moses
(40:07):
asked who are you? And he said, I am that
I am. Paul asked who are you, and he said,
I am Jesus, the one you persecute. Abraham asked who
are you? And God said, I am Jehovah. But when
Jacob asks who are you, God doesn't answer him with
(40:33):
a word. He doesn't answer him with a name. He
answers him with an action. He blesses him. Please watch this,
Please watch us. This word blessing is what a parent does.
The Hebrew thought behind this is like a parent and
(40:57):
the child is running towards the parent, and the parent
gets on his hands and knees, and often his hands
have a real wide and the parent gets on eye
to eye with the baby. And this word blessing means
to get on your knees, come face to face with
a child, put your hands on the child, and speak
(41:21):
affirmation and blessing over them. And when Jacob wrestles with God,
God stops the wrestling, Maginie blesses him. It's like God
was saying, I'm not Rebecca. I don't curse my kids.
(41:51):
I'm not Isaac. I don't have just enough for you.
Or he saw, I'm the God of more than enough.
My name is hill Shade. I'm the everlasting God. And Jacob,
I've got enough for you. And he saw and you
and you and you and you and you, and I
(42:15):
don't speak curses over my kids. I speak blessings over
my children. And he blessed him there, and he blessed
him there with a new name. He said, you are
no longer your past. You are no longer what Rebecca
said about you. You are no longer what Isaac allowed
to be said over you. You are no longer your
(42:36):
worst season. You're no longer you're past. You're no longer
you're famine. You're no longer you're mistakes. You're no longer
the pain you've been through. You're your longer the curse.
You're no longer the death. You're no longer the divorced.
You're no longer the addiction. You are no longer Jacob.
(42:58):
You ah Israel. Somebody give God a massive shout of praise.
In this place. You are left. You aren't healed, you
aren't child of God, saved, redeem from the curse. You
are holy, You are forgiven, You are free, you are
well supplied, protected. Promise, you are no longer Jacob. Oh.
(43:25):
You can have what God said you can have. You
could be who God said you could be. You can
do what God said you can do. You're Israel. Here Israel.
You can let go of the names and take on
(43:45):
His name for you. It is amazing. If you just
said your name right now, every location online around the world,
just you don't have to shout it loud, but just
just say on count three, just say your name one, two, three, Jabin.
Who That name comes with drama, bagage, history issues, family
(44:13):
tree stuff. And you know what. One of my favorite
scriptures is in the Book of Revelation, God says, when
you get to heaven, I'm giving you.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
A new name. He gives Jacob a new name. And
now and now Jacob.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Is under this blessing, and watch what happens. He's who
he's limping. He went from running to wrestling to limping.
I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a limb. I'm
not talking about swag or trip or riz or whatever
(44:54):
the kids say. I'm talking about ow. I'm talking about
God changed my walking, God changed my talking. God changed
my life, and God changed my name. And I'm talking
about I died with Christ in the water and I
came out a new person. I'm talking about I've been
born again. I'm talking about goodbye Yesterday. God has done
a work in Oh. Anybody grateful for a new name.
(45:19):
He's a limpid And then it doesn't stop there? Do sup?
There does stopped there? I promise I'm almost done. He
he's now limping. And then here's the next thing he's doing.
This is now Hebrews Hebrews chapter eleven. He's watch us
put it up on the screen. He's leaning watches by faith.
(45:45):
Jacob was dying. That's number four. Because we we're all
gonna die. I hate to say it. I don't want
it to happen, but it's gonna happen. But as he's
I want you to watch how he dies because because
he died so different than how he was born. Sorry
(46:09):
about that. That's called a Pentecostal shape. But I had
to speak in tongues. I had to get it out
of my arm. Amen, because I'm at I had to
behave because I'm at elevations. I had to So wh's this? Sorry? Sorry? Sorry,
I was rayed. Sorry, he's dying, but he's going to
die so different than he was born. He's dying blessing.
(46:33):
He's now doing the thing that God did for him.
He's now on his hands and knees blessing his son
and his grandsons. Wat's this blessing, worshiping, leaning on his
(46:54):
leaning on his reminder of his God encounter. The Hebrew
scholars tell us that the staff was a generational gift
that you would give to your children, and it was
a history lesson. You would actually carve into the staff
different big God moments in the life of the family.
(47:20):
So no doubt, as he's blessing his grandsons, I could
almost imagine him looking at his grandson's going. If you
knew me then and I could almost mention on his
grandson's going, Papa Israel, Papa Israel, what do you mean?
(47:42):
And he looks at that staff and he goes, let
me take you here. I used to be Jacob. I
used to be a liar, a deceiver, a taker. I
was so full of fear, us, so full of insecurity.
I was so full of But God, And he starts
(48:04):
telling the story. The man who was born taking blessing
dies giving blessing. The man who is born under Rebecca's
curse dies under God's blessing. Al can I tell you
(48:28):
you can die different, You can live a radically different
life than what was predicted, than what they said, than
what you thought, That you can live under the blessing
of God. That you don't have to just repeat the
cycles of Rebecca, that you don't have to repeat the
cycles of family history. That you don't just have to
repeat the cycles, but you can actually step into a
(48:51):
new thing that God has for you. That when you
tell the story to your family, they will look at
you and go, you could have never been that way.
Our family could have never been that way. And you said, Oh,
that's who we were. But we met a man named Jesus,
and he changed our life, and he changed our name,
and he changed our walk. Oh, this is the story
(49:17):
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That he could turn
it around, that he could turn it around. That I
sought the Lord and he heard me, and he answered me,
and he delivered me from all of my fears. If
you're grateful for that, can we just stand to gift
God a massive shout of praise. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
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Speaker 2 (50:06):
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Speaker 1 (50:11):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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