Just Call Me Jacob | Out Of The Vault | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church

my heart is so full to be able to share with you from this new series I want to admit upfront I am over prepared to preach to you I had a few weeks off and I went and got full and now I'm about to explode so watch out I read to you today for a primary scripture from Genesis chapter 32 and I'm gonna read verse 22 through verse 31 a scripture says that night Jacob got up and took his two wives we'll deal with that in a future series one thing at a time his two female servants somebody's like I like this church his two female servants and his eleven sons and cross the Ford of the jabong and after he had sent them across the stream he sent over all his possessions so Jacob was left alone and this is when God will do some of his best work in your life when you're left alone unencumbered by all the distractions sometimes away from all the opinions of people and even the comfort of those that you love that's where God can touch you in the deepest places very often he 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 hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man and then the man said let me go for it his daybreak but Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me and the man asked him what's your name I find that funny because they've been wrestling all night and they hadn't even introduced the opponent Jacob he answered then the man said your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome Jacob said well please tell me your name but he replied why do you ask my name then he blessed him there I said I would read the verse 31 but I want to stop on verse 29 then he blessed him there then he blessed him there I have a title for this message but it won't make sense until the end ask you by faith to just believe that this is going somewhere as I announce my title this sermon is called just call me Jacob just call me Jacob and what I need you to do awkward as it may be I need you to turn to 12 people around you in your general seating area and announce the title tell them just call me Jacob would you do that exactly 12 people come on at all of our locations get involved Providence Matthews uptown what's up University what's up Rock Hill Gaston Concord Lake Norman GTA raleigh-durham blakeney location how you doing and then just call me Jacob you may be seated thank you worship team thank you just call me Jacob instalment number one of a five-week series that the selfie that the selfie is not a church wide campaign urging everyone to delete all Facebook Instagram and Twitter accounts I'm not going to spend the next five weeks admonishing you to never post a picture of yourself on the treadmill or a status update about what you just ordered from Starbucks or an adorable collage of your cat in different poses with scripture verses overlaid and hashtagged holy kitty we're going much deeper than that neither am I going to spend the next five weeks hammering you for how selfish you are but instead I want to use the analogy of the selfie the cultural phenomenon known as the selfie somebody told me there are over 1 million selfies posted worldwide each day that's a lot of us and I want to use it just to illustrate the conflict that exists in all of us the conflict between who we really are and how we would like to appear the conflict between who we really are and how we would like others to perceive us the conflict between who we really are and who we think we're supposed to be and hopefully in the process we'll learn to let go of who we think we're supposed to be so that we can embrace who we really are that's our goal and I think it'll be most powerful if we can all see ourselves in this series through the lens of one character just one character and a supporting cast obviously but primarily through one character in the scriptures and so for the next five weeks we're going on a journey with Jacob I chose Jacob because no one in Scripture illustrates the inner conflict that we all experience in a more exciting and enlightening way than my man Jacob in fact if you want to give this series a more studious title or a more serious title maybe you think that the selfie is kind of silly you could call this series the God of Jacob as a series subtitle all the cool people will call it death the selfie but if you don't like to have fun the God of Jacob as an alternate title I chose Jacob because he's complicated just like you and me and your wife and your husband and your teenager and your mother-in-law of course had I wanted to just choose a complicated character from Scripture that God used anyway I wouldn't be limited to just Jacob you understand I could have picked from start started at the beginning you know with Noah who built an ark to preserve humanity but then got drunken there's some pretty freaky things have you seen the movie could a pig Noah could have picked Abraham who was the father of many nations but was also a liar I could have picked Moses who was the deliverer of God's people from Egypt but was also a murderer a fugitive on the run could have picked David a man after God's own heart who was also an adulterer who wanted a woman so badly that after he slept with her he had her husband murdered on the front lines of battle where her husband was fighting for him could have picked Peter who preached on the day of Pentecost yet was such a coward when they took Jesus a way to die he said I don't even know him so I just wanted you to know if you're a complicated person you got plenty of company and don't ever go to a church that teaches you that only perfect people get to play a part in God's purpose I'm grateful that God knows my complications and has compassion for me in my complications also I could have taken a number of texts like deny yourself pick up your cross and follow me that's a good verse about selflessness it's an amazing truth and we'll get there in the series I could have talked about putting to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature set your mind on things above from colossians and we may get there in the series as well but i thought it'd be most helpful if we could enter into somebody's conflict and see ourselves in jacob's life so we'll study about jacob for five weeks and we'll learn a lot of things but we're not really looking for a biography of jacob we're looking for an encounter with ourselves and an encounter with our God in Genesis 32 the passage that I read you Jacob is engaged in a wrestling match at night he's not quite sure who he's wrestling but he's very tenacious about it I point that out because this isn't the first time we see Jacob wrestling in Scripture in fact the very first time we see Jacob in Scripture at all he's wrestling and he hasn't even been born yet can I show you it's really cool on the screen in Genesis chapter 25 the first time we see Jacob we're told how his birth came about in verse 21 it says that Isaac that's his father prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless and the Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant but be careful what you pray for cuz you just might get it and it says that she had this conception that was somewhat miraculous but the babies jostled each other within her kicking around in stuff so she goes for her sonogram and they're hooking all this stuff up and putting the slimy stuff on her belly and the person doing the the sonogram says the technician says wait a minute this is this is really weird you got to see this and turns around the monitor first of all you're having twins and secondly they're already going at it they're already fighting this is sibling rivalry to the next level fighting in the womb I wonder if there isn't always a conflict in the womb of anything that got Burt's into the world I wonder if this isn't symbolic of the inner conflict that we all face when a dream is born when a destiny is born when a purpose is born there's always a conflict and the babies jostle each other within her and so she said something that every mother has said at some point in her motherhood why is this happening to me she's gone from God let me have a baby too why is this happening to me this would make a great Mother's Day text wouldn't it why is this happening to me and so she went to inquire of the Lord which is always a good thing to do when there's a conflict within you and you can't understand it and you wonder why is this battle happening instead of taking it to all your friends all the time and taking it to all your broke relatives and taking it to all the people who are gonna tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear sometimes you got to take it to the Lord in prayer because he's the only one who can tell you what he put in you and because he made you from the inside out he can open up the hidden places of your heart and show you what's really going on inside and so the Lord answered her he said to her two nations are in your womb in other words this is bigger than what you can see right now we'll deal with that in the future we because it always is in our lives and two people's from within you will be separated one people will be stronger than the other next verse and when the time came for her to give birth there were twin boys in her womb and the first to come out was red and his whole body was all hairy and stuff and so how many of your hairy men in this church today alright and you got a little bit of hair and you got hair growing in places that didn't used to grow right that takes guts to raise your hand so this is your patron saint this is your guy they named him Esau and that cool that's in the Bible Esau is derived from a word which sounds like red the nation of Edom was eventually taken from Esau but anyway says after this his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's he'll get a picture of this the first time we see Jacob he's grasping Esau's heel so they named him Jacob Jacob means heel grabber and he's stuck with this name the rest of his life because of something that happened before he was even conscious that's crazy how life can do that to you you can get stuck with something that was a part of you before you were ever even born before you ever even made a choice and so I guess you could say he was born this way he was he was born trying to get ahead he's he's grabbing at his brothers heel coming out he's like trying to get ahead no I should probably explain to you what he might have been doing that see okay to be the firstborn in this culture meant that you had a lot of rights and privileges the best part is when the inheritance is given if you're the firstborn you get a bigger piece of the pie it's not split evenly the firstborn gets a sizable amount more than the rest no wonder Jacob wanted to be first something instinctively not in his mind but just in himself he's like born with this me first mentality if I could just be born five seconds earlier than you I can get more than you have and for all of you who don't believe in original sin that we're born this way with the selfish attitude all that tells me is you haven't had children yet that's all that tells me if you don't believe in the devil all that tells me is your kids are in middle school yet so like it's this me first mentality you don't have to teach a kid to say me you have to teach them to say please but you don't have to teach them to say mine you don't have to teach them to sing now it's like this me first instinct and we all started there we all started there it's like we live in this me first world not my house my house has a home full of love joy acceptance in fact in my house every morning when I wake up the first thing that I experience every morning I wake up is this truly every morning when I walk down the hall both of my boys Abby I have three kids I have a nine year old he's about to be nine six year old and a three year old the girl is 3 she's smarter than both the boys put together but just catching up and the two boys will usually be awake and they will run to give me a hug first thing in the morning I can just hear him come in now somebody said oh like that was sweet when I said it but maybe I didn't describe it correctly they're not actually running to give me a hug out of out of love in their hearts just boundless enthusiasm to see their father they're running out of competition to see who can get to me first these are some of the most violent hugs no I'm telling you you gotta brace yourself for these hugs cuz here comes Graham and here comes Elisha and they're both thinking the same thing me first it's not good morning daddy it's me I'm telling you you gotta wear pads you gotta wear a cup to wake up in the morning I'm just being real because here they come and they've only got one thing on their minds it's me first but I will throw my brother across the room by his throat to hug my bed and show my love why cuz it's a me first world here's a question how can you even begin to have a god first focus in a me first world right is it even possible because our instincts are me first the instruction that we're getting from the world through marketing messages we receive every day is me first it is it even possible to seek first the kingdom of God in His righteousness enemy first world or Jacob it's pretty hard when you're born grabbing at the heel trying to be first to seek God first it's kind of hard but yet Jesus said something one time pretty powerful he said um the way it actually works in the kingdom many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first in other words it's not always the ones who get ahead who are ahead when you read that from Jesus and it's like what planet are you from from heaven but he's bringing the system of heaven to earth and he says here's how it works kingdom of heaven many who are first will be last actually a many who are last will be first it's like come on Jesus having you haven't you seen the way the world works haven't you seen Talladega Nights and you remember what Ricky Bobby's dad said to him when he was pill announced remember does anybody remember if you ain't first you're last and Jesus is like well I love the movie but that's wrong that part is wrong see you haven't found it out yet you will if if you spend your life grabbing it heels you know me first mentality and everything is all about you and your ego is so big that it takes all of your time to kind of like protect your ego and you need everybody to stroke your ego and I've done this so I'm speaking from personal experience if you live in that way and pushing and shoving it's exhausting and if you live in that way where everything everybody does is an offense to you because it's me first it's it's miss me first is miserable ultimately it's miserable it's miserable to be grabbing a heels it's it's miserable to be trapped inside of yourself is it's miserable to never have a bigger thought than what's best for me it's it's miserable to never get outside of yourself it's it's miserable to be disconnected from all the people around you because all you can think about is your own convenience me first is miserable and it doesn't ultimately work it's not even effective in the end because the first will be last and the last will be first elsewhere Jesus said in Luke 9:25 he said this is profound he said what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self so he says this what good is it Jacob if you grab after stuff and grab after status and grab after success and grab after security only to find out that it left you farther behind because in the process of grasping for stuff and status and security you lost yourself there's somebody here today who has lost yourself in order to find yourself you must lose your so God can show you a self that's not about stuff and not about status and not about success yes cousin meet first doesn't work Jacob comes out grabbing in heels but he's still born second let's fast forward now I only give you a bit of an overview we're we're kind of jumping all over Jacobs live see him as baby Jake and then little jakey poo jake the snake' because Jacob in addition to mean he'll grabber also means deceiver or supplanter and that's kind of how he lived his life like one day his brother Esau remember the hairy one the outdoorsman Esau was tough Esau was rough Esau was ragged Esau could hunt Esau cos skinned a buck he could run the trout line but Jacob it says a phrase about him it says he loved to stay among the tents and translated it would mean he was a mama's boy translated it would mean he watched reruns of Downton Abbey and called the Midwife so Jacob could cook Esau could hunt and so we see the discrepancies in the boys from an early age and then we see as it matures a little bit later in life where Jacob actually will study this one week so I won't go into it now he actually sells Esau a bowl of beans and in return Esau gives him the birthright there's two parts of being the oldest son there's the birthright and the blessing both are important but the blessing is most important and we see Esau giving his birthright away to Jacob when I preached to you that week I'm going to talk about how sometimes we end up giving up what we want most for what we want now how dangerous that is so you want to be here for that week but many years later we see Jacob and now he's got a plan and a plot to get the blessing okay the way this works is when you're centered on yourself in life it's never enough and so when you have this clutching at the heel mentality it's never enough you've always got to have more the philosopher CS Lewis said that we don't actually take pride in the possession itself but in having more of it than someone else so it's not enough just to be thin I've got to be thin her than her it's not enough just to be ripped I got to be ripped her than him not enough to be rich I got to be rich her it's all about the herb right III can't just have my kids being smart they got to be smart oh never mind we can't afford to put him in that school they got to be smart her her it says that Jacob's grandfather Abraham was born in a land called of the Chaldeans I wonder if we all aren't still living in the land of ur and our own little way come on better her earth this is Jacob grabbing at heels bacon bowls of beans cuz I I gotta I gotta be her I but the thing about getting her is you're always gonna find somebody who's her true enough and so now Jacobs got the birthright he stole that he swindled his way into that but now he wants the blessing too and I just want to read you a little bit of it I can't read much but one day it says Isaac was so old that he couldn't see remember Isaac is the dad and it's time for him to give the blessing because he knows he doesn't have much time left and so he tells Esau because Isaac liked Esau because Esau would go hunt for Isaac and bring him back some tasty game and Rebekah loved Jacob because Jacob would stay home with her and cook in the kitchen what he saw brought home and so there's this division in the family but but but Isaac tells Esau is time for me to give you the blessing not just to pray for him but like confer the authority of the firstborn on him he says time for me to do that but first go kill me some food and bring it back and after I eat I'll bless you well Rebekah here's this in the other room and calls Jacob in now I used to feel sorry for Jacob I'm like man his mom talked him into doing this because if you read it it was her idea but what I didn't know is at this time Jacob is 76 years old so it's kind of late to be blaming it on your mom because your diapers were too tight when you're 76 at some point you got to take ownership of your own life amen and Rebekah says I got an idea Esau was going hunting and your daddy's half blind and so we'll dress you up like Esau and you can go get the blessing and he won't know the difference and I'll cook the food and he'll think he saw went out and killed it and 40 saw gets back we'll get you blessed and Jacobs not sure about it but he goes along with it by the way parents be really careful what you put on your kids we got to be really really careful what we try to make our children into that they're not that's free and also be careful what you let somebody else put on you that's not who you really are while you're at it so it says in verse 15 Rebecca took the best clothes of Esau her older son was she had in the house why is she still got Esau his clothes in her house and these boys are in their 70s I don't understand everything in the Bible anyway she put them on her younger son Jacob and so she also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck because remembered Jacob smooth he's a con man and Esau is hairy so she makes the smooth part of Jacob looked like the hairy part of Esau with goat skins this is elaborate probably been planning this a little while and then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made and he went to his father and said My father yes my son he answered who is it who is it and Jacob said to his father I am Esau your firstborn I've done as you told me please sit up and eat some of my games so that you may give me your blessing he delivers the script he goes through with the plan and Isaac asked his son how did you find it so quickly my son and the response is convincing he said well the Lord your God he's like giving God the credit for his lie the Lord just cuz it sounds spiritual doesn't mean it is the Lord your God gave me success here replied and then Isaac said to Jacob well come here so I can touch you my son to know whether you really are my son Esau or not you know you can get so good at pretending to be somebody else that not even the people closest to you can tell the difference anymore and Jacob went close to his father Isaac who touched him and said you know you sound like Jacob but you feel like Esau and he didn't recognize him for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau so he proceeded to bless him but what they didn't count on was Esau came back around that time and remember Esau had just been out hunting which means he's got weapons now Jacob is good with a frying pan Esau is good with a gun paper rock scissors rock beats scissors gun beats skillet so now Jacob has to run Esau set up killin he took my blessing I'll kill him and Rebecca said Jacob you better run boy and he runs he gets a blessing but he ends up on the run for 21 years he's in hiding you know it's possible to get what you want and then not want what you got if you get it the wrong way it's possible that you can get what seemed like a blessing but the way you got it leaves you on the run because it wasn't really you now I want to share something with you in this moment that is the focal point of this series and I want you to hear it with your heart not just with your head God cannot bless who you pretend to be God can't bless Jacob dressed like Esau God can't bless I don't know about you but but there are many Me's ok there's me as I am and that guy kind of frustrates me and then there's me as I wish to be me as I want to be me as I hope to be this guy is awesome do you could meet him you'd want to marry him you'd vote for him he'd be the president this guy is consistent this guy is kind but this guy gets things done but he's always kind and how he does it this guy is disciplined he's not rigid he's fun-loving - this guy is amazing he has an eight pack but he can enjoy a desert in a social occasion this guy is fantastic this guy I call him I call him fake verdict future verdict future Furtick is the guy I want to be fernika hsihu I am so fake verdict is who I pretend to be in the meantime don't look at me confused you got a future you too cuz see there's the me I can see and the me you can see and then there's the me you wish you could be and so there's the me that you show and we develop all these costumes and we put all this hair on our necks and and Esau's clothes and what we saw somebody else doing and we learn how to talk to talk and walk to hook and we're the brands that do this stuff and say this stuff them so we become somebody else only to realize that that blessing doesn't really count for much for what good is it to gain the whole world if you lose your very self in the process good [Music] what good is the blessing of Isaac if you can't even stay in the house after you got it what good is it young lady's all over this church dressing a certain way that is not really who you are but it gets you the attention that you want what good is the attention from people that you have to dress up and pretend to be something else to get the attention of what kind of love is that what good is it if you lose yourself or this will happen to a teenage boy teenage boy born with a tender heart born with a love for people born with compassion but but gets into school and now has to act hard because if I don't act hard they'll think I'm a punk if they don't if I don't act hard yeah they'll they'll take advantage of me if I don't act hard they'll they'll they'll bill they'll they'll see through if I don't act hard they'll they'll see me for who I really am they'll see my compassion so you build an exterior and you're building facade and you learn how to splint your eyes and you learn how to you learn how to cover up the part of who you really are and you learn how to wear Esau's clothes but what good is it my brother what good is it what good is it to fool Isaac you may fool Isaac but you can't fool yourself you may fool your neighbors but you can't fool your God what good is it there's a preacher watching me online right now and you want your ministry to grow so badly and it's not growing the way you want it to so now you're into copying people and what they do thinking if you do what they do you can have what they have but I want to let you know today that until you get it inside of yourself and find out who God made you to be and be that from the inside out God can't bless who you pretend to be God can't anoint your avatar [Applause] God can't minister to your mask God can't save yourself II I'm he saw bless me and he got the blessing but he lost himself there's somebody here today and you got the popularity but you're losing yourself you got the possessions but you're losing yourself you got the home you got the car but you're losing your soul you're losing yourself what good is it he can only bless who you really are not who you pretend to be and it would take Jacob many more years to see this 21 to be exact after 21 years of running from Esau he finally decides I'm going back home perhaps there can be reconciliation perhaps Esau will forgive me perhaps he won't kill me now and so he heads back home and he's had a lot of success receives work for his uncle Laban and and any and he's married these women and he's had all these kids and sometimes it takes you getting all the stuff you thought you wanted to realize that's not really what you needed and he starts going back home and on the way back to meet with Esau because Esau has come out and we'll read about this one week you're gonna love it it's a picture of forgiveness a picture of reconciliation because once God has reconciled you to yourself then he can reconcile you to others but before he meets with Esau he wrestles with God now the scripture doesn't say it's God and Jacob doesn't even really know it's God because first of all they're wrestling at night so he can't see but in the passage it's amazing hold on let's do some math when I read the passage at the beginning of the sermon how old were you picturing Jacob to be in your mind wrestling with God I'm thinking like 2530 somebody said teenager a young buck with smooth skin a shaved chest strong legs member he stays among the tents and yet if I if I do a little math this public school math but if I do a lot of math it will be 76 when he stole the blessing 21 this man is 97 years old no wonder his hip went out of socket during the wrestling match when the wasn't the man's fault Jacobs is old he's been through some things he's had some things he's seen some things he's lost some things and he's grabbed by something now all of his life he's been grabbing on to stuff but now something grabs onto him and that's what happens when grace comes into your life something grabs onto him and I think the key of the whole thing no he's gonna help me preach this part I'm closing kind of it says that after his hip went out in verse 26 the man said and this man most scholars believe is some form of Jesus it's Jesus in some pre-incarnate form the man said let me go for its daybreak but Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me I think you can safely assume that you've found yourself when you hold on to God even when it would be easier to let go when you hold on to God even when you're hurting in your hip when you hold on to God even when you can't clearly see it's a deer the tenacity in Jacob I mean that same tenacity that made him a schemer and a conman and a deceiver is now working for him because he's got it focused in the right direction he said I might be hurting I might be hobbling I might be old I've lost some time I don't even really know who you are but I will not let go and now sometimes you've just got to decide in your life every once in a while I want this bad enough I'm sick of faking it I'm sick of posturing I'm sick of pretending I'm sick of posing I'm sick of proving myself I'm sick of perfecting I will not let go I'm going after this this is important this is significant this matters I will not let go touch somebody next to you tell them don't tap out don't tap out whatever you do don't give up now you might not be winning but don't let go you might not be stronger but just don't let go they might have the upper hand but don't let but that isn't the part I like that in the part I like what I like about it is he said back to the verse I will not 26 I will not let you go see it unless you bless me see I've been holding on to heals all my life trying to get blessed but now I'm holding on to the only one who really has the power to bless me anyway you see I was holding on to Esau when I'm born but now I'm holding on to one who is greater than Esau who knows who I am and meets with me anyway face to face and I will not let you go so I'm letting go of what people think and I'm letting go of what people say and I'm letting go of my past and I'm letting go of where I've been I can't do anything about that but as the Sun comes up I want you to know I'm holding on to you on the status let them think what they want I'm like I'll hold on to success whether I succeed or fail I'm holding on to Jesus I'm preaching myself so happy right now I will not let you go I got a hold of something now and I don't know where its leading and I don't know where it's taking me and I don't even know exactly what it is cuz I don't understand everything about you yet God but I'm holding on to you and then it gets weird the man says so what's your name this is a fine time for us to get acquainted yeah I broke my hip been out here all night and now you want to know my name but see we've heard this before when he went in to Isaac and Isaac said who is it and Jacob said I am Esau and he got blessed as Esau 21 years ago but now it's time for Jacob to get a blessing for himself and he says and he says and he says verse 27 he says Jacob I'm Jacob the deceiver a backstabber I'm Jacob he will grab her supplanter the one always trying to be first I'm Jacob I was telling my boys the story of Jacob and Esau and I told him the whole story and I thought they'd like it cuz it has wrestling and they fight all the time and I thought it was something they could relate to I went to pray with him one night and I had told him the whole story about four nights earlier I told him all the details how when Isaac blessed Jacob he would have put his right hand on Jacob because the right hand is the hand of authority it's the hand for the first part and the right hand confers the blessing when I told him that and then four nights later I was praying for him and I don't do this every time I pray for my boys but this particular night I just put my right hand on Elijah of my left hand on Graham Graham's a youngest Elijah's oldest this is how they happened to fall I'm reven think about it till I felt grounds and reach up now I'm not making this up and grab my right wrist and he pulls it over off of Elijah's head on to his head and he says I kid you not just call me Jacob sucker in that classic just call me Jacob it gives me everytime worth remembering he must have only bent for just call me Jacob sucker you gotta put the sucker on there and this angel wants to know I see you you pretended to be who are you really okay I'm out here alone I've done in my own way but now I'm finally ready to take off Esau is closed and let go of heels and let go of myself and I just I just tell you like it is I'm Jacob and Jacob so I am I struggle I've got some issues I'm Jacob and when he admits it when he finally admits who he is look look at the next verse then the man said your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel once he admits his real name God can give him a new one because what you have struggled you have struggled it's not always in your successes but sometimes in your struggle that God will show you who you really are because you struggled with God and with humans and have overcome Oh aren't you glad God gives you a new name today aren't you planning isn't call you what you did or who you are but he calls you what Jesus did and he said I'll give you a new name I'll call you righteous I'll call you holy I'll call you pure I'll call you beloved come on somebody I got a new name I love it I love that he got a name change this is better than Bobcats to Hornets y'all this is a name change oh oh he didn't just get a new name he got a new identity Jacob he'll grab her it's a planter you know what Israel means triumphant with God I know I told you to call me Jacob but I got a new name too Jacob is who I am Israel is who he is in me I got a new name but you know what was crazy Colleen is that if you read the scripture you would expect that from this point forward it would call him by his new name Israel but if you keep reading and we will in the coming weeks you'll see for the rest of his life he's called both sometimes he's called Jacob sometimes he's called Israel and I wondered why would God give him a new name if he wasn't gonna use it all the time and then I realized this because change is complicated just cuz I have a new name doesn't mean I'm not gonna have the same struggles just because I know God doesn't mean I'm gonna completely know myself it's a process I use a program called Evernote it's where I write all my sermons and my song lyric ideas things I need from the grocery store I put everything I'll ever know have used it before what's cool about Evernote you can sync from your phone to your iPad to your computer you can sync everything up if it all will go on all your devices you can put it in on your phone and be on your computer when you get home so I can study for sermon anywhere cuz I got on my phone and my computer but I want to show you something this is a screenshot of what happens sometimes and this is real frustrating cuz I got all these folders but do you see all these folders where it says conflicting changes it it means you inputted the change but there wasn't an internet connection so you have it on one device but you don't have it on the other yeah it's frustrating cuz I go I think I'm gonna put that there cuz they're supposed to be there where are you but not yet bro I'll get real Jacob where where is it I'll put the change where is it I need a connection and life is all about conflicting changes Church when God calls you something but you're not yet that when God calls you Israel but you still feel like Jacob sometimes and I wanted you to know God is comfortable in the conflict he's not intimidated by your inadequacies and you know how I know it I'm gonna tell you this and I'm gonna leave you alone I promise this is the very last thing I want to say you're supposed to say no keep preaching this is so good we want to hear at all but I'm gonna tell you this and I'll be back next week many years later many years later cuz the last thing Jacob asked the angel he says what is your name and the angel doesn't answer him he doesn't answer him why because the angel wasn't there to show Jacob who he was he was there to show Jacob who Jacob was Jacob had already met God many years earlier but he hadn't met himself live 97 years and never met himself there are people in here who have met God but you've never met you and that's what's gonna happen in this series is you get a connection many years pass Jacob is dead the Israelites that came through his family they're enslaved in Egypt and God appears to a man named Moses Exodus chapter 3 at the burning bush now this is gonna touch you I'm telling you this is gonna touch you this ministered to me deeply and Moses asks God the same thing Jacob asked God he said suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them the god of your father's has sent me to you and they asked what is his name then what shall I tell them and and here's a verse I preached a lot before he said God said to Moses I am Who I am this is what you were to say to the Israelites I am has sent me to you now preach that verse a lot but I never preached the next one and I'm gonna leave you with it today because the next thing God said to Moses is say to the Israelites when they want to know who I am and what kind of God I am tell them the Lord the God of your father's the God of Abraham the god of Isaac and I'm thinking he's gonna say the God of Israel because that's jacob's good side that's the new Jacob if you're God and you want to make yourself known wouldn't you call yourself the God of Israel wouldn't you want to be the God of their good side would you want to be the god of the guy who was changed in the wrestling match but yet he says to Moses and he says to you today if you want to know who I am you need to understand I'm the God of Jacob too I'm the God of Jacob on the god of that part of you think you don't want anybody to sing I'm not just the girl of your success on the god of yours on the gun your victories [Music] thing

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 109,718

Rating: 4.9075427 out of 5

Keywords: elevation church, pastor steven furtick, elevation church sermons, 2020 sermons, elevation church steven furtick, steven furtick sermons, just call me jacob steven furtick, online church, steven furtick, steven furtick 2020, elevation, just call me jacob, fake it, how to be vulnerable, vulnerability, honesty, self acceptance, steven furtick throwback, out of the vault, elevation church death to selfie, death to selfie, jacob and esau, find yourself, selfie, quitting, jesus, faith

Id: Mo10AOc9r7Q

Length: 51min 57sec (3117 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2020