Elevation with Steven Furtick - It's Always Been In You

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

It’s time to release what God put in you. In “It’s Always Been In You,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church shows us that, no matter the season, God has already prepared us for it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 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 you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Welcome to all of our locations, and we trust that God's presence will be powerful wherever you are. And I really mean that. And that's kind of what my sermon's about today as well. So listen to this in Genesis chapter 34, verse 30. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and parasites, the people living in this land.

We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I in my household will be destroyed. Now go to Genesis 35 verse 11. And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you. And kings will be among your descendants. The NIV 84 says, kings will come from your body. So I want to preach for a moment, and God told me to tell you this.

It's always been in you. It's always been in you. God, what you showed me was so amazing, and I asked for your help now that I could share it with them, these people that you love, this church that you're building. I pray, Lord, not that I might just preach good, but that they're going. would hear good. Don't just anoint me to preach. Anoint them to listen. With their heart, you have our attention, and we are excited to see what the outcome will be. For the grass withers and the flower fades, but your word, Lord, stands forever. We thank you that the engrafted word is able to save our souls.

As the rain falls from the heaven and waters the earth and causes it to bud and flourish, So shall your word be that proceeds from your mouth. It will not return to you void. This time will not be wasted. It will accomplish the purpose for which you sent it. And we agree together in Jesus' name. Everybody say amen. Amen.

You may be seated. I'd like to show you something before we get into all this deep theological stuff from my oldest son's YouTube channel. Now, one reason I'm doing this, it just makes me the coolest dad in the world to be able to give my son a YouTube shout out for thousands of people, so I'm going to take advantage of that. But he has this YouTube channel, Do the Dash. He's a beatmaker, a producer.

He's good. He's good. One of my friends who's a producer said, you need to know, his beats actually slap, because I grew up on rock music. And I said, they do. He said, they actually do. And I was proud of him because recently he decided he didn't just want to make beats, but he wanted to do some tutorials.

I thought that's cool. And you kind of wonder, will he do it or not? And he's been doing it. I'm so proud of you, man. He's done two tutorials now. And I'm proud of me. Check it out. I'll show you just a little snippet of one of his tutorials.

Copy that over. Command V to do that. I'm going to add an open hi-at real quick to give it a little bit more. more bounce, pan it, fix the panning a little bit. I'm going to pull up the classic Zay 808 from my kit. All right, so I'm going to reverse the polarity, turn the EQ up, and then turn the out knob up a little bit. Amazing. That's do the dash on YouTube. I have no idea what any of that that he said meant. And I'm a musical guy, but I don't know that. Different generation. We did find something the other day. We had the best time for this YouTube channel that we

we didn't know existed, where Holly, 10 years ago, used to post videos of the kids. And I don't know why we thought that was a good idea for her to post some of these, because some of them are really just kind of private. I mean, it's just stuff that I'm like, we posted this publicly, but we had the best time watching it with the kids just to show them stuff. And here's one that we found. I want to show you this from 10 years ago. I know you take your name.

And I went back into the beat for another measure. He was making tutorials. It's always been in you. It was with you on that trash drum set, just like it's with you on these trapbeats. And the same kid, that's the same kid that's wailing on this symbol. And now he's reverse polarizing a hi-hat or whatever the crap he said about the 808. the 808. I don't know. It's always. And I joke a lot about having kids, you know, and it's so hard, and I'm trying not to kill them. And if they're old, they will not depart from it. But if that

only happens if I don't kill them first, Lord, you know, I love it. It's my main job. I'm a better, I'm a way better dad than I am a pastor. I promise you, that's my number one job. But I showed you that because what often happens that I think is one of my primary responsibility, as a parent is to make sure that what's in him that God put there gets out and that nobody puts anything on him that causes him to forget or diminish what God put it in. The rhythm has always been in you, and what you do with it is up to you. What you do with it is up to you. I'm getting to watch Jacob grow up, the Bible character Jacob.

You get to see this is a rare thing, the sonogram of the patriarch through which the whole nation of Israel came. And I think that's a real gift that we get to see that Jacob was even wrestling in his mother's womb. And then we get to see him at age 77 running from his brother Esau, who he had been. been in competition with his whole life. We get to see him reconcile with Esau at age 97 after 20 years of hiding with his uncle Laban, having a family. It's a lot that we get to see. And he has finally made it to Canaan. Let's clap for Jacob that after all he went through, he finally made it

to Canaan. Oh, come on, you clap better for somebody who lost five pounds. He made it to Canaan. He made it to Canaan. He made it to the promised land. That's what Canaan is called. He made it all the way to Canaan, which is really remarkable because of the fact that along the way to Canaan, where God was bringing him back to, he had to deal with so many. I mean, Jacob, talk about pressure. Jacob is the grandson of Abraham. Not like the son of a pastor.

The son of the progenitor of the faith of multiple religions. Make something of yourself, kid. And from the time that he comes out of the womb, named Jacob, because Jacob means to grasp or to supplant, and he's trying to make sure that he gets out ahead of his hairy brother, Esau, his red brother, Esau, this beet-red beast of a man, Esau, who is trained in the ways of warfare,

but he can't quite do it, so he comes out second, but he tricks his way into being first. I was watching Tim last night. He's preaching a remix of some sermons I did about Jacob back in 2013. It's so fun watching you preach them. I love it, because he's going through all this stuff, right? How Jacob got Esau to give him his birthright for a bowl of stew. There are no beans in the world that delicious. There's no beans in the world, but you'd be surprised.

what you'll trade when you're tired. And Esau famished came in from the field one day, and as we like to say in preaching terms, he gave up what he wanted most for what he wanted now. The only problem with Jacob's plan was that Esau was good with weapons and Jacob was good with an apron. The Bible says that he was a good cook, but Esau was a killer. So let's do a paper-rock scissors. Sword beat spatiots. every time. And Jacob's mother said to him, you've got to get up and go to Padon Aram and stay with my uncle. When Esau finds out what you did, he's going to kill you. Now, this is not the bowl of beans. This is the blessing that Jacob stole. Because Jacob went into his father,

Isaac, dressed up pretending to be Esau, and he got a blessing from his father. And when he got the blessing from his father pretending to be Esau, it was the kind of blessing that can come from people, but at least something internal, unsettled, and it sent him in the direction of running for 20 years of his life. While he was with his Uncle Laban, some interesting things happened. He tried to marry a girl named Rachel. But Laban did a, I guess you would call it a switcheroo, and put Leah. Now, Leah is the sister of Rachel. She's the older one, and she's the one with the good personality, as we say.

And Rachel is beautiful, and he marries. I'm not going to preach on this because I've already preached on this before, but I'm just trying to give you some background of all that Jacob has been through to get to this point. because he worked seven years to have Rachel in marriage, ended up with Leah on his wedding night, and then had to work seven more years for Rachel. And he did it. And then he stayed six more years. So that's 20 years at his uncle's house.

And now God has called him back to the land of Canaan. And against all odds, he made it. He made it. Not only did he make it to Canaan, but check this out. He has reconciled with his brother Esau. In Genesis 32, Jacob realizes that before he can go back to Canaan and really settle, he has to reconcile or in his mind, he has to pacify his brother Esau. But it's the craziest thing, because when he finally meets up with Esau, Esau isn't even mad

about it anymore. I was like, come on, bring it in. Let's hug it out. Jacob, it's good to see you. Look how blessed I am. Look how blessed you are. Because the real struggle of Jacob's life was never with his brother. Now, let's put everything in context. He escaped from Laban, who was chasing him, because Laban was upset about Jacob outwitting him. He's reconciled with Esau. and now he's finally made it to Canaan. And he arrives at this place called Shechem. Everybody say Shechem. And when he gets there, he takes 100 pieces of silver and pays for a plot of ground and puts up a tent so he can stay in Shechem. And no sooner can he make it to Canaan.

Then a tragedy strikes in his own family. One day his daughter, Dinah, the one that he had with Leah, goes to the same. out exploring in the town of Shechem. One of the men of the town was actually the son of the leader, his name was Hamor, this young man's name was Shechem. He took her and raped her. And when the news of this reaches Jacob, he doesn't know what to do because he's in a strange place. He's in a strange place. And I feel for him in this moment because he's had to run from so much to get here. And the Bible says he makes it safely to Canaan. the place of the promise, only to be struck by what I call a promised land problem.

The reason I call it that is because when he arrives in Canaan where God has him, something so terrible happens within his own family. This is where I want to break away from the narrative and preach to somebody. Because often you get to a place, a place that you imagined in your memory, mind. Maybe it's an age, a stage of life, a certain type of success, a certain accomplishment, a certain achievement, something that you got to that you worked really hard for. And no sooner can you pay for it with a hundred pieces of silver and put your tent up, then disaster strikes your very own family and threatens to destroy what means the most to you. Now, when Jacob's sons

heard about it, particularly his sons, Rubin and Levi, or Simeon and Levi, they both decided to take matters into their own hands because their sister had been defiled, and because they were greatly outnumbered, they decided that the only way for them to defeat their enemy was to make their enemy vulnerable. So they used something that was a part of their own covenant with God called circumcision against their enemy. they told the men of the city, okay, look, you can keep Dinah, and we'll settle with you, and we'll intermarry with you. They were lying. And we'll share with you all the sheep and all the

flocks and all the herds and you can marry our women. But first, you've got to do the thing that our people do to signify our covenant with God and be circumcised. And they did it. All the men of the city. I mean, Shekam must have been very convincing because he got all the males in the town to go through this procedure. Come on, y'all. Y'all wouldn't even join the church if I made you take a class. They got circumcised. And on the third day during their recovery, Simeon and Levi snuck in and killed all the males of the city.

And so now Jacob is in Canaan, but he's still in danger. It's a tricky thing because he's where God was leading him all along, but he's not safe anymore. Maybe we would say it's this for our context. He's an adult, but he doesn't feel very adultish. He's a leader, but he doesn't feel very certain of his own direction. He's in the place where God had promised not only him, but his father and his father's father, and he's in great danger. So then he says something to his sons. I want to read it to you again, now that you know the context.

What he said, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, verse 30, you have brought trouble on me. On top of all of the pressure that Jacob has to be the father of the tribes of Israel, to be the one through which God would continue the seed of his promise to bless the entire earth. On top of all of that, now he is dealing with the consequences of somebody else's decision. He's got a lot on him. In fact, he says, you have put all this trouble on me. Have you ever had somebody download their drama on you? And this is tricky because did his sons do the right thing?

Did his sons do the wrong thing? Were they right to fight back or were they dumb to attack somebody they didn't have the strength to defend against? And Jacob doesn't know, and he's in Canaan, but he's not safe. And he's in the place God promised him. he's now in the greatest danger of his life. And he doesn't know what to do. And he's got a lot on him. Not only is it the fear of the Canaanites that they might hear about him and attack him, but it is the decision of what to do next. And I want you to see what God told him to do in Genesis

35.1. And I really want to start preaching my sermon now, because this is what God said to do. Then God said to Jacob, go up to Bethel and settle there. and build an altar there to God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, get rid of the foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come let us go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and who has been with me wherever I have gone.

So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem, and they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. Jacob and all the people with them came to Luz, that is Bethel, in the land of Cayman. And there he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel. This means the house of God. Because it was there that God revealed himself when he was fleeing from his brother. Now, Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel.

So it was named Alon Bakuth. And after Jacob returned from Padana Ram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. God said to him, your name is Jacob. But you will no longer be called Jacob. Your name will be Israel. So he named him Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.

What confused me about this passage was that Jacob has been to Bethel before. The first time he went to Bethel, he was running from his brother. This time he's going back to Bethel at the instruction of God. So it's different this time. It's different this time. You know, we encourage you as a pastor, when you're in an uncertain situation, go back and revisit all the things that God already did for you in previous seasons of your life. Maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes just to remind you of when you killed it, when

you're struggling. Maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes to remind you of things that you accomplish that really defy your educational background or your pedigree or anything that you were taught or trained to do. Maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes to remember all the ways that you even surprised yourself. Wow, I didn't even know that I could do that. But see, the more I meditated on it, I realized that that wasn't really what Bethel meant

to Jacob. the first time he went to Bethel, he was scared to death. So now Jacob is in a place in his life where he's never been more uncertain. And God leads him back to a place where he had never been more uncertain. And when he is in need of the greatest faith, God takes him back to the place of his greatest fear. The first time that Jacob went to Bethel, he had no idea what would happen next. His brother wants to kill him. His uncle is someone that he has never been exposed to. He's only heard about. Jacob is 77 years old the first time that he goes to Padonaram and stops through a place called Bethel. Bethel was not a place where Jacob shouted and danced.

Jacob was not in Bethel feeling goosebumps. Jacob was not in Bethel singing praise songs. Jacob was in Bethel wondering, will I make it? And so now God says, in the season of your life, and I'm preaching to somebody, where you have no idea how you have enough to defend yourself from the attack that's happening, because you've got a lot on you right now. You've got a lot on you. Some of it is your fault. Some of it is decisions that others have made. And none of it is anything that you have ever experienced. because you are the oldest that you've ever been, and you have never progressed through this season of your life, this stage of your development.

You have never been through this emotional place before. So now what does God do? He doesn't call you back to the place where you felt the greatest faith. He calls you back to the place where you felt the greatest fear, but you made it anyway to remind you what it really felt like when God was. revealed himself to you because we whitewash our understanding of what it means to remember what God did. You know, I wonder, do you remember how it really felt at certain stages in your life? Like, close your eyes. Let's go to Bethel, because we can't go to a place. We're not going to load up the church vans or anything like that. There's too many of y'all in your tooth spread out.

So close your eyes. We've got to go to Bethel, but we've got to go in our imagination. Remember the time, any time you want. I've got enough to choose from. I've got an entire cafeteria of times to choose from when you thought you wouldn't make it. I'm not going to make it another day. There's no way forward for this. Okay, remember, I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it up to the pulpit.

I have nothing left to say. I'm not going to make it through what I feel right now. I think I'm losing. All right, you got it? You got it? And I know that for some of us is a hard place to visit, but I want you to go there for just a moment. I'm not going to make it. That's how Jacob felt the first time in Bethel. And he saw a vision

while he was asleep, and he saw a ladder resting on the earth and reaching to the heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending. Twenty years later, God calls him back to that same place called Bethel, where he thought he wouldn't make it. And you thought you wouldn't make it. On the inside, everything was telling you, you're not going to make it. You're not going to make it. Open your eyes. You did. No, no, no, no. You did.

And Jacob is now instructed to build an altar in the place of his greatest fear. And that's where God calls you to build an altar and to believe him, to believe him, in Bethel. In fact, one time the scripture calls God the God of Bethel. I'm not sure if I like that. Because Bethel is scary. Bethel is when you don't know. Bethel is the place where you can't figure it out and all you have is faith. God said, I'm the God of Bethel.

That's where my house is. That's where my habitation is. That's where I live. That's where I reveal. That's where I show myself. That's where you get to know me. I'm the God of Bethel. And Jacob is afraid, and God says, I want you to go back to the place you were most afraid and build an altar there.

Because if you don't, what's on you is going to cause you to forget what's in you. So I need you to go. Somebody say, it's always been in me. It's always been in me. I need you to go to the place. where you didn't think you would make it. I want you to go to the place where you didn't know what was next. I need you to go to the place where you realized.

And this is the crazy thing about Bethel, right? This might be your Bethel right now. What you are going through right now might be the place that you go back to in the future when your family needs to know that God is a promise keeper and that God is a waymaker. So I need to teach you about a concept. This is not a pop culture concept. It's the concept of covenant. Everybody say covenant.

Jacob isn't just going off of a good feeling. Jacob isn't just going off of a track record. Jacob isn't going off of a fortune cookie. Jacob isn't going off of an emotional high. Jacob isn't going off of something that he got from a, you know, Jacob's not going off of something that he read on one Bible verse of the day. He has a covenant. Say covenant.

Now, in the Bible, a covenant can be, first of all, it can be with another person. It can be, in the Bible, the context of marriage was not convenience. It was covenant. In the Bible, the context of my relationship with God was not my behavior. It was my covenant with him. Covenant. Covenant. Jacob is moving, not in certainty.

He's moving in covenant with God. You know, that the relationship that I have with God is not based on the same covenant that Jacob had. Jacob had a covenant with God that God will be with me. And that's awesome. How many thank God that he's with you? That's awesome. But look what happens.

On our end of the bargain, we can't keep that up. Oh, so you followed God perfectly through every season of your life. Of course in the valley you faint. Of course, in the hard times you get led astray. Of course your heart is drawn to other gods to worship things that you can see instead of the God that you can't see or figure out. So God said, in Jeremiah 31, this is what he said. In Jeremiah 31, he said, I'm going to give you a different covenant.

These days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. I will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors, that's Jacob, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt. because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel at that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. That's the inside.

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature. God did by sending his son, Jesus, in the likeness of sinful men. I don't have the Jacob covenant. I have the Jesus covenant. I have a covenant that whatever you put on me, God put something in me that is greater than what you put on me. So I know you got a lot on you, but I came to preach there's something in you that has always been great.

Are you getting this revelation? It's in me. When Jacob said God has always been with me, I know why he's been with you because he's in you. So going back to the place means not allowing anything that someone puts on you. Do you know what Jacob had them do before they went back to Bethel? It's a very small detail, and I don't know if we caught it, but it's in Genesis 35. First of all, he said, bring me everything that you picked up in Shechem that can't go with us into Bethel. All the idols.

And then I want you to bring me all the things that all, even down to the gold earrings. I don't even want you having gold that you'll be tempted to melt into an idol that will remind you of what you depended on that wasn't God. down to the jewelry. And let's bury that. But before we go to Beth, look at verse three. This is 35.3. And this is what? He said, no, it must not be three.

It must be something else. What is it? Two? I'll find it. I'll find it. I'll find it. I'll find it. Yeah, it's in verse two. It's in verse two.

He said, change your clothes. Don't worry, this is as far down as I'm going to go. It's just a limited illustration. Now put that on this camera. Yeah, there you go. I want that off you. I want that off you. Because if you go back to Bethel, dress like Shechem, and this is what has to happen for you

to realize and really fulfill purpose God has put in you. That everything that has been put on you, remember, for Jacob's family, Shechem represented shame. The shame of what had been done to die. the shame of what they had done in response. And if you go into what God has for you, wearing the shame of what was done to you. I realized a couple years ago that what the enemy would do to shut down my gift that he gave me

was to try to put layers of guilt on me, and he would want to use things that were imperfect about me or others to keep me from ministering freely. So I'll tell you about one thing. Holly leaned over to me one night. I was struggling with feelings of resentment. People were criticizing our ministry a lot in this particular season. I'm sure they still do now.

I just don't look as much because I'm not as stupid as I was back in the day. Thinking that God had prophets in the comments section. Now listen what happened. I began to think that everybody was like that, right? And I took it on me. And I took it on me. She looked at me one night and she said, you can't keep preaching out of anger and you can't keep leading this defensively.

Because you love people. Well, when she said that, it contradicted exactly how I felt about this species that she mentioned called people. So even the look on my face, I remember her rubbing my eyebrows a little bit because they were so furrowed. And sometimes I have that RBF. It's like a resting believer face, but a resentful believer face. And she was rubbing my eyebrows and she goes, you've always loved people.

She said, you remember in college how everybody on that campus we couldn't even go when we were dating? We went to this district school, this Baptist school. They wouldn't let you go in each other's dorms. And that was probably a good thing. Co-ed dorms. They didn't let us do that. So we'd be trying to sit outside on a bench or something. And she'd say there was always a receiving line of people who wanted to talk to you. Not because you had a title, just because of what was in you. You've always loved people. She said, I was scared to go outside with you because I didn't feel like talking to him because I don't love people like you love people.

But there was a lot on me. I said, you put a lot of trouble on me. You put a lot of trouble on me. And I was allowing what was on me to make me forget. What was in me. Have you ever done it before? She said, you love people. She said, you had a secret handshake with everybody on that campus.

And it's really true. And then I was thinking, well, you don't even know the half of it. When my high school class was graduating, 280 people at Berkeley High School, I hugged every one of them on our graduation night. I hugged every one of them. I mean, every down to the last one of them, the people I couldn't stand and all of them. But that was in me. Now, I realize that the pressures and the problems of what life puts on you, things like

offense and bitterness, can keep you from remembering what's in you. But if you really go back to Bethel and remember, it's always been in you. It's always been in you. Tony, I had my friend, Eric, my best friend, come with me to the recording that we did in January, He was with me at the college when we had a choir. And my choir was not good, but it was in me then. And then through what God has given you, it was amazing because Eric said, this is it. This is what you were trying to do in college, but you sucked at it, and that guy did it, and now you took it to be a park.

And I say, yeah, it's always been in me. It's always been in you. You were beating on that high. It sounded like a trash can, but it was in you. The rhythm was in you. It's in you. And what you've got to be so careful about is not to let people put anything on you. And I'm not just talking about failure.

I'm talking about success. Jacob's biggest issue is that he always identified himself by something external. So when it came time to make peace with Esau, he sent him. gifts ahead of him because he thought maybe my gift will bring me peace. And some of us are like that. We always think we have to make a good impression. We're always living in an avatar. We're always living in some version of ourselves that seems presentable. Or we're always identified. I talked to you about this last week, about what we can do. And so in doing what we can do, other people will identify you by what you can do, and then they will limit you by what you can do. And then you will

begin to think that you are what you do. And then you will lose yourself and gain the world. And Jesus said, what good is it? Don't let anybody put anything on you that will cause you to forget what God put in you. That goes for your struggles. See, I think Jacob, his name means supplanter, but his new name, Israel, is almost just as bad. It means struggles with God. So he's trying to get him to see, you've never been fighting with Laban. You've never been fighting with Esau.

The fight that you have to win for your life has not been with them. It's always been in you. Because if you believe it's in you, there's nothing anybody can put on you that can cancel what I put in you. Before you were born, I appointed you a prophet to the nations. It's always been in you. It's always been in you. That teaching gift has always been in you. You just had to get past what you would put on yourself.

The idea that I'm not a preacher, I'm just a little girl. I don't have anything to say. That was always in you. It was in you when you were sitting at Life Action Revival, listening to Steve Canfield six nights a week, and God was filling you with this word. It just took the right rain to bring the seed out of the soil for what God put in you. when you were just a little girl.

It's always been in you. And there's nobody that can leave my life that can keep God from keeping His covenant with me. I'm not in covenant with a person. I'm not in covenant with a political party. I'm in covenant with God Almighty. I am God Almighty. That's not your name. That's not your station.

That's not your. It's in me. It's in me. It's in me. It is God that fucking in you. It's always been. The struggle has never been with someone else. The struggle has been within yourself. And God gave Jacob a new name, Israel, but he still has to struggle. Oh, are you all confused? I'm I'm confused. New name in Genesis 32. I'll show you. And I'll get out of this vocal register. Now, this is right before Jacob made peace with Esau.

And Esau had already made peace with Jacob. Jacob had to make peace with... What a word. Jacob. It's in you. And you. This is what the Lord said. your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God

and with humans and have overcome. So, no, hold on. Why is he telling him again in Genesis 35? I'll tell y'all next week. Goodbye. If y'all want to know now, call me back, because I already thought, I thought, well, God must have told him something extra the second time that he didn't tell him the first time. And so I compared the two.

In Genesis 35, 10, he says, your name is Jacob. but you will no longer be called, Jacob. Your name will be Israel. So God actually said less the second time than he did the first time. Then I thought maybe it wasn't what God said. It was what he didn't say that would show me what we needed to know about the struggle that we find ourselves in right now. See, the first time God focused on Jacob's struggle,

I'll call you Israel because you've struggled with God and men and have overcome. The second time God didn't mention his struggle. He mentioned his seed, because Israel was more than a name. Look at verse 11, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful in increase in number. A nation. Did you catch it? A nation.

Israel wasn't just a name. It was a nation. And Simeon and Levi. Levi, the ones that Jacob said, you bringing me all this trouble, who were teenagers at the time, were the forefathers that God would use to birth the nation, through which God would extend His covenant with all peoples. But you will never produce your nation if you don't know your name. So this word is for anyone who you've had so much on you.

I'm talking about shame, I'm talking about regret, I'm talking about pressure, I'm talking about the things that make you anxious, questions, that you've forgotten what's in you and how God met you in your Bethel's along the way. This season of your life is going to be a Bethel that you will return to in future days. There's kings in you. There's crowns in you. There's legacy in you. There's dreams in you.

There's ministry in you. There is medicine in your leaves. There is healing in you. There are things that God desires to release through your life that will change the generations that will share your last name. So do not let what's on you kill what is in you. You are Israel. There are nations in you, and it's always been in you.

And there was nothing that you could do to change it. The gift has always been in you, and so has the fear. And they both wrestle with each other in the same womb until the day you die. But do not let anybody or situation or set back put a name on you by which you call yourself will cause you to forfeit what God had put in you. I believe there are some things I need to bury under the oak and check them today. And I believe God wants me to turn this church into a changing room today, where you remember that it is not circumcision or uncircumcision that counts.

None of that external stuff matters, not when it comes to the heart of God. What matters to God has always been in you. And if you win this in you, there is nothing that will happen around you that can keep God from establishing his covenant in the earth. You have a covenant with God. Have you made your covenant with your struggle greater than your covenant with your God? You'll have the pressure of it, the fear of it, and the terror of it. God was dealing with all the external stuff.

God was preventing the enemies from even attacking Jacob. If you pay attention to what's in you, God knows what's on you. He knows that you've been trying to manage and multitask. And he sees all of that, and he knows all of that. And he knows that you don't know what's next. And that's why he gave me the Bethel revelation. I'm the God of Bethel. I'm the God of I don't know what's next.

I'm the God of your new name, and there are nations in you. And it's always been in you. It's always been in you. Since you were a little girl, since you were a young boy, God said, be fruitful and increase. Bring forth what I planted. Don't let anything stop you from. For I am God Almighty. I put a nation in you.

And those teenagers you stand with today are going to be the heads of the nations. Stand to your feet. Father, in this moment, I don't know what to say, so I'm going to ask you to say it. There comes a point where my message and my stories and my points and my subpoints can only take the hearer so far. And that's why we need your Holy Spirit to write it on our hearts. For just a moment, we're not focused on what's around us. even what's on us.

It is Christ in you the hope of glory. It is God that works in you, both to will and to do, according to His pleasure. So let's bury those idols. Let's change those clothes. Let's go back to Bethel and build an altar in the place of our anxiety, build an altar in the place of our fear, and build an altar in response to our questions. lift your hands to heaven. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. We call on you right now, and we ask you to speak into each Bethel that is represented in this room and online around the world.

I thank you, Lord, that the stages of our life do not surprise you, and the weakness of our flesh does not repel you. I thank you, Lord, that you don't just give us a name, you make us a nation. So we're coming back to Bethel today. Just to remember. remember that we felt afraid before and you saw us through. We were so confused before and you made it clear. We felt too little then, but you were more than enough. And you are right now. Oh God of Bethel, I pray that belief would rise up, supplanting doubt and burying the idols

of our false dependence. name is Israel and greater is he that is in you and he that is in the world. We thank you for your presence, Lord. In Jesus' name. Everybody who receives this word, give God a hand, clap, a praise. I don't know who this is for, but the Lord said one more thing. He came back to Bethel, but the last time he was there, he was alone and he wasn't anymore. The difference between this time and last time that you were here, you're not alone anymore.

God, we thank you once again for this amazing revelation that you do not wait for a place of our full understanding and cooperation to bless us with your presence. God of Bethel, we praise you one more time for meeting us at all points in between. In Jesus' name. I'm praying for you today that you would internalize that word that you just heard, the part of it that you needed the most, the part that spoke right to your soul, and plant it, get it in the soil. The Bible says that when the word of God is sewn, there will always be those snatchers and those thorns and some seed that falls among the wayside. But some soil is good soil, and it produces 30, 60, 100 fold. and I pray that you will be that good soil

and that your life would bear fruit. God Almighty said, be fruitful and increase in number. I wonder what altar you need to build in your Bethel today, what place of remembrance you need to create. One thing I didn't get to put in the sermon is that Jacob went back to Bethel to fulfill a vow that he'd made to God.

He said, if you will be with me and be my God, then I'll give you a tenth of everything that you give me. And that's not really about finances. It's just about faith. It's about knowing who you belong to and knowing where your help comes from. God says, I am God Almighty, and I'm with you, and I'm in you. I want you to be blessed in that knowledge today. I want you to be blessed in that certainty.

Not the certainty of where you are, but the certainty of what's in you. Okay, I'm sorry. Now I've preached a second sermon. I really didn't mean to. I know you're full already. So just know that we love you, and we'll see you next time. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.