Steven Furtick - Just Call Me Jacob (04/19/2017)
This sermon from Genesis 32:22-31 launches the series "Death to Selfie" by examining Jacob's life as a mirror for our inner conflict. Jacob, born grasping his brother's heel, spent decades pretending to be someone else (Esau) to gain blessings. The key breakthrough comes when, after wrestling with God, he admits his true name: "Jacob." God then gives him a new name (Israel), showing that God can only bless who we truly are, not who we pretend to be.
An Over-Prepared Introduction to Jacob
My heart is so full to be able to share with you from this new series. I want to admit up front, 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 our primary scripture from Genesis chapter 32. And I want to read verse 22 through verse 31. And 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. This is amazing." "His two female servants and his eleven sons then crossed the Ford of the Jabbok. 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. It'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. It's 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.' And 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 to 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. I 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. What's up, University? What's up, Rock Hill? Gaston? Concord? Lake Norman? GTA? Raleigh-Durham? Blakeney location? How you doing? Amen. Just call me Jacob. You may be seated. Thank you, worship team. Thank you. Just call me Jacob. Installment number one of a five-week series, "Death to Selfie."
What "Death to Selfie" is Really About
"Death to 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 one 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 "death to 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 to 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 what started at the beginning, you know, with Noah, who built an ark to preserve humanity, but then got drunken, did some pretty freaky things. Have you seen the movie? Could have picked 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 away to die, he said, "I don't even know him."
So I just wanted you to know if you're a complicated person, you've 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, take 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.
Jacob's First Wrestle: In the Womb
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. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife, Rebecca, became pregnant. But be careful what you pray for because 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 and 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 sonogram says, the technician says, "wait a minute, this is really weird. You've got to see this," and turns around the monitor. First of all, you're having twins. 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 God births 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 jostled each other within her."
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," to "why is this happening to me?" This would make a great Mother's Day text, wouldn't it? "Why is this happening to me?" 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 going to tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear, sometimes you have to take it to the Lord in prayer, because he's the only one who can tell you what he put in you. Because he made you from the inside out, he can open up the hidden. In other words, this is bigger than what you can see right now. We'll deal with that in a future week, because it always is in our lives.
"And two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other. And when the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was all hairy and stuff." How many of you are hairy men in this church today? All right. You've got a little bit of hair, and you've got hair growing in places it 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." Isn't 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, it says, "after this, his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel." 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." 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. I guess you could say he was born this way.
Born into a "Me-First" World
He was born trying to get ahead. He's grabbing at his brother's heel, coming out. He's trying to get ahead. Now, I should probably explain to you why he might have been doing that. 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. For all of you who don't believe in original sin, that we're born this way with this 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 aren't in middle school yet.
So, 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 say "no." It's like this me-first instinct, and we all started there. We all started there. It's like we live in And this is me, first world. Now, in my house, my house is 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 true, Holly? 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 three. She's smarter. Both of the boys put together, but she's catching up. 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 them 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 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've got to brace yourself for these hugs, because here comes Graham, and here comes Elijah, and they're both thinking the same thing. Me first. It's not, "good morning, Daddy." It's me. I'm telling you, you've got to wear pads. You've got to 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 mind. It's me first. I will throw my brother across the room by his throat to hug my dad and show my love. Why? Because 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. Is it even possible to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness?" In a me first world? For 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, "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. And you read that from Jesus, and it's like, what planet are you from? Oh, it's 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. And many who are last will be first. And it's like, come on, Jesus. Haven't you seen the way the world works? Haven't you seen Talladega Nights? Do you remember what Ricky Bobby's dad said to him when he was peeling out? Remember? Does anybody remember? "If you ain't first, you're last." And Jesus is like, I love the movie, but that's wrong. That part is wrong.
See, if you haven't found it out yet, you will. If you spend your life grabbing at 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 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 in 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 miserable. Me first is miserable. Ultimately, it's miserable. It's miserable to be grabbing at heels. It's miserable to be trapped inside of yourself. It's miserable to never have a bigger thought than what's best for me. It's miserable to never get outside of yourself. 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 yourself so God can show you a self that's not about stuff and not about status and not about success, because me first doesn't work. Jacob comes out grabbing at heels, but he's still born second.
Jacob's Deception and the Cost of Pretending
Let's fast forward now. I want to give you a bit of an overview. We're kind of jumping all over Jacob's life. We see him as baby Jake and then old Jakey-poo, Jake the snake, because Jacob, in addition to him, and heel 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 could skin a buck. He could run a trout line. But Jacob, it says a phrase about him. It says he "loved to stay among the tents." 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… We'll 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 preach 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'll 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 C.S. 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-er than her. It's not enough just to be ripped. I've got to be ripped-er than him. Not enough to be rich. I've got to be rich-er. It's all about the "er." Right? I can't just have my kids being smart. They've got to be smart-er. Never mind we can't afford to put them in that school. They've got to be smart-er. Er. It says that Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, was born in a land called "Ur" of the Chaldeans. I wonder if we all aren't still living in the land of "Ur" in our own little way. Come on. Bed-er. Ur. Ur.
This is Jacob grabbing at heels, baking bowls of beans, because I've got to be "ur." But the thing about getting "ur" is you're always going to find somebody who's "ur-er." True enough. And so now Jacob's got the birthright. He stole that. He swindled his way into that. But now he wants the blessing to… 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 Esau brought home. And so there's this division in the family.
But Isaac tells Esau, it's time for me to give you the blessing, not just to pray for him, but confer the authority of the firstborn on him. He says, it's 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 hears 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 have to take ownership of your own life. Amen. And Rebekah says, I have an idea. Esau is going hunting, and your daddy is 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 Esau went out and killed it. And before Esau gets back, we'll get you blessed. And Jacob's not sure about it, but he goes along with it.
By the way, parents, be really careful what you put on your kids. We've 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, "Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had in the house." Why has she still got Esau's 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 remember, Jacob's smooth. He's a con man, and Esau's hairy. So, she makes the smooth part of Jacob look like the hairy part of Esau with goat skins. This is elaborate. She's 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 game 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 because it sounds spiritual, doesn't mean it is. "'The Lord, your God gave me success,' he 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 said, "I'll kill him. 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. Do 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?
The Core Truth: God Cannot Bless Who You Pretend to Be
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 there are many me's. There is me as I am, and that guy kind of frustrates me. And then there is me as I wish to be, me as I want to be, me as I hope to be. This guy is awesome. If you could meet him, you would want to marry him. You would vote for him. He would be the president. This guy is consistent. This guy is kind, but this guy gets things done. But he is always kind in how he does it. This guy is disciplined, but he's not rigid. He's fun-loving, too. This guy is amazing. He has an eight-pack, but he can enjoy a dessert and a social occasion. This guy is fantastic. This guy is... I call him fake Furtick. Future Furtick. Future Furtick is the guy I want to be. Furtick is who I am, so fake Furtick is who I pretend to be in the meantime.
Don't look at me confused. You have a future, you too. Because, 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 you show. And we develop all these costumes, and we put all this hair on our necks, and Esau's clothes, and what we saw somebody else do. And we learn how to talk the talk, and walk the walk, and wear the brands, and do the stuff, and say the stuff, and 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? What good is it? 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 ladies 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 gets into school and now has to act hard. "Because if I don't act hard, they'll think I'm a punk. If I don't act hard, they'll take advantage of me. If I don't act hard, they'll see through. If I don't act hard, they'll see me for who I really am. They'll see my compassion." So you build an exterior, and you build a facade, and you learn how to squint your eyes, and 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.
God, what good is it that 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 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. God can't minister to your mask. God can't save yourself. "I'm Esau. 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. No, you're losing yourself. What good is it? He can only bless who you really are, not who you pretend to be.
The Wrestle That Leads to a New Name
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. You see, he's worked for his uncle Laban, and he's married these women, and he's had all these kids. 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 going to 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 25, 30, somebody said teenager, a young buck with smooth skin, a shaved chest, strong legs. Remember, he stays among the tents. And yet, if I do a little math, this is public school math, but if I do a little math, it would 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. It wasn't the man's fault. Jacob's just 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 onto 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… Now, you're going to 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 him. Do you hear 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 go." But that isn't the part I like. That isn't the part I like. What I like about it is, he said, back to the verse, 26, "I will not let you go." See it? "Unless you bless me." See, I've been holding on to heels 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 it? 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. I'm not holding on to status. Let them think what they want. I'm not holding on to success, whether I succeed or fail. I'm holding on to Jesus. Jesus, I'm preaching myself so happy right now. I will not let you go. I have a hold of something now, and I don't know where it's leading, and I don't know where it's taking me, and I don't even know exactly what it is because 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. You know, 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?" Jacob said, "I am Esau." 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, and he says, verse 27, he says, "Jacob," "I'm Jacob." The deceiver, the backstabber, I'm Jacob. He'll grab her, supplant her, the one always trying to be first, I'm Jacob. I was telling my boys the story of Jacob and Esau, and I told them the whole story, and I thought they'd like it because it has wrestling, and they fight all the time, and I thought it was something they could relate to. I went to pray with them one night, and I had told them the whole story about four nights earlier. I told them 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 firstborn, and the right hand confers the blessing. Well, I told them 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, my left hand on Graham. Graham's the youngest, Elijah's the oldest, and this is how they happened to fall. I didn't really even think about it until I felt Graham's hand reach up. Now, I'm not making this up, and grab my right wrist, and he pulls it over off of Elijah's head onto his head, and he says, I kid you not, "just call me Jacob, sucker." In that classic, "just call me Jacob." It gets me every time remembering. He must have only been four. "Just call me Jacob, sucker." You have to put the sucker on the end.
And this angel wants to know, I see who you pretended to be. Who are you really? Okay. I'm out here alone. I've done it my own way, but now I'm finally ready to take off Esau's clothes and let go of heels and let go of myself, and I'll just. .. I'll just tell you like it is. I'm Jacob. I'm Jacob. That's who I am. I struggle. I've got some issues. I'm Jacob. Jacob. And when he admits it, when he finally admits who he is, 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, watch, "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 have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome."
The New Name and the Ongoing Conflict
Oh, aren't you glad God gives you a new name today? Aren't you glad he doesn'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. Supplant her. Do you know what Israel means? "Triumphant with God." I know I told you to call me Jacob, but I have a new name too. Jacob is who I am. Israel is who he is in me. I have a new name. But you know what's 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 going to use it all the time? And then I realized it's because change is complicated. Just because I have a new name doesn't mean I'm not going to have the same struggles. Just because I know God doesn't mean I'm going to 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 and things I need from the grocery store. I put everything on Evernote. Have you 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. It will go on all your devices. You can put it in on your phone and it will be on your computer when you get home, so I can study for a sermon anywhere because I have it on my phone and my computer. I want to show you something. This is a screenshot of what happens sometimes. This is real frustrating because I have all these folders. Do you see all these folders where it says, "conflicting changes"? 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 yet. It's frustrating because I go, I think I'm going to put that there. It's supposed to be there. Where are you? And I'll get real, Jacob. "Where is it? I 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 going to tell you this, and I'm going to 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 it all." But I'm going to tell you this, and I'll be back next week. Many years later, because 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. Lived 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 going to happen in this series. You get a connection. Many years pass. And this is going to touch you. I'm telling you, this is going to touch you. This minister to me deeply. And here's a verse I preached a lot before. He said, "I'm the God of Jacob."
A Prayer for a New Beginning
Would you lift your hands? He's in my future. He'll bless you now. He'll bless you here. Every head bowed, every eye closed. No one moving. There's someone here today who needs a new beginning. There's someone here today who came in as Jacob and you're leaving as Israel with a new name. Everyone standing at all of our location, heads bowed, eyes closed. I'm going to lead you in a prayer now. If you need to place your faith in Christ either for the first time or come back home to him after 21 years of running, I believe that God gave me this message today so that you would know you can have a new name. So that you would no longer be called sinner, but you could be called Saint. And it happens when you call on the name of Jesus. We're praying together now as a church family, everyone praying out loud for the benefit of those who are coming to God. Pray this after me.
Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe he died on a cross to forgive my sin, and he Rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. I repent of my sin. I trust in you as my Lord and Savior. I will follow you all the days of my life. Head still bowed, eyes still closed. If you just prayed that prayer, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand in the air. It's going to be a sign of your new beginning, and God will see your heart and your hand in this place on three. 1, 2, 3, shoot them up. Shoot them up. New beginnings. Hands up everywhere. Hands up everywhere. Come on, stretch them high. We see you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Come on, church. We ought to celebrate. Come on. We owe him a praise. Shoot up. And you, you are my first. You are my last. You are my last.