October 31, 2020

SPOOKTACULAR | Pastor David Hughes


welcome and thank you for joining us for the Church by the Glades Podcast. If you would like
more information about church by the Glades, including service times and directions, visit CB
glades dot com Way. Hope you enjoyed today's message. Wow! Wow! Oh, y
eah. Give it up for
the kids. What a great job they did Reading a tough passage that was Genesis Chapter 27 If you
have your Bible, take your Bible. Turn on Open your Bible to Genesis Chapter 27 This is our
spookiest weekend of the year is Halloween weeken
d and we have a lot of fun with this. And by
the way, uh, 11. 30 crowd you one of our largest crowds since we've come back from Kobe. But
guess what? The crowds Last night, we had no ideas. We did our our modified touch free candy
drop zone. It was ingenio
us. How many? How many kids would come? Dozens, Hundreds? Oh
my gosh, parents and kids came like crazy. We had easily our biggest attendance since the
Kobe's shut down by over 100% more than doubled, and you should try my job. You should try
on a Saturday
night preaching to a room full of costume kids and their parents hyped up on
sugar. I feel like I was preaching to a room full of puppies, puppies chewing on the furniture and
peeing on the floor, and it was chaos and fun. But people came out and everywher
e they're
mass. Thank you so much for doing that and a great great reach. So thank you for inviting folks.
It was phenomenal, and I didn't learn this. If you're watching right now in Nebraska or
Zimbabwe, that's awesome. But if you're in South Florida and
you are healthy, you're not
immune compromised. You're not sick. You're not a senior adult. It's time to get back to church
because people are doing what they want to do. And they brought their. They brought their
kids. It was so fun. So I get it. If you'r
e watching some other other place, some churches don't
do Halloween. That's fine. I respect that. But we embrace it here, and I do know the reason
some churches don't do it. Three Origins, three Origins of somewhat dubious. They go back
many, many centurie
s ago to I. I think the ancient Druids and in Northern Europe is somewhat
sketch and suspect a bit sinister. But as far as I know at our campuses here in South Florida, in
fact, no one watching online in our church, we don't have any ancient druids in our
congregation, do we? Any surveys? An ancient druid I need to be careful about. I don't see
maybe 11 on the camera right there. No one is an ancient druid. So look, I think you can co
mingle to ideas that are not mutually exclusive Christianity and common s
ense. So in South
Florida, for 99.9% of people, Halloween means three things. Costumes, spooky and candy. We
could embrace those right to bring people to the house. Hope they bring people on a journey.
They meet God. So ah, lot of fun. The creativity was j
ust on spirituals. Steroids last night. So
much fun. Let's pick up the conversation. Genesis Chapter 27 it's the story of a family. A story of
two brothers. One is named Essel. He's the older brother, the other is Jacob and the kids had a
great job reading
this phenomenal chapter in the first book of your Bible, the first book of the
Torah. If you get a chance this week, sometimes for homework, read Genesis Chapter 27 and
you'll see, uh, the reason I chose this. I think it's appropriate. I think it describe
s the first
costume in history, the first costume in the Bible. Now, if you have a biblical world view, you
might snow. Maybe Dave David, maybe Genesis three, when the, uh, the Satan disguised
himself as the serpent. Or maybe later on, when Adam and Eve de
cked out the fig leaves fig
leaves, I think it's more first fashion statement. This is clearly the first costume, because if you
catch with the younger brother Jacob did his mom. Some of the best costumes are homemade.
Mom made a costume from the skin of a
goat because his brother was was a hairy guy and
used to cover the younger brother's arms and his next. So if his dad, who touched him, whose
eyesight was going, Isaac was older and age couldn't see very well, he would assume it was the





brother Essel. So
Jacob dawns history's first costume, which tells us two things that Jacob was
willing to use deception to get what he wanted and he wanted something called the Blessing. A
good thing, but he's willing to use the doubles tactics to get a God thing. And the
number two
we learned based on this costume made of goat hair that his brother Issa was a really hairy
dude. I mean, he was like a hairy brother, you know, Somebody like a really hairy brother,
right? I mean, I'm talking Essel was crazy, Harry. Like, like
hipster Harry. Harry. I mean, he was
like that. Kind of like Chia Pit Harry. Like, uh, first time you went to the beach with your Uncle
Phil and Uncle Phil took off his shirt. You saw his back hair. Uh, I'm sorry you can't even see
that. Can you? About, li
ke, kids think this way, Like Chewbacca hair. I mean, he was He was a
goatskin. That's really really Harry. He was. He was a hairy brother. Harry. Brother. So it's a
great story. I wanna take it apart this week and next week. Why? It describes family dynam
ic
and the bottom line. I think this story is all about Is Jacob the one who dawns the costume?
Jacob. He's not during this story. Chapter 27 Genesis. He's not six. He's not 16. He's a full grown
adult. He's a grown man. You see, no matter how old you are,
that Children crave the
affirmation and the acceptance of appearance. He was scheming and conniving to get his father
to bless him. And so I'm gonna tell you this. If you're new to the word of God, the greatest
manual on relationships ever written is the
Bible far away, not even close. It has the best, most
powerful and practical stuff on how you do relationships, friendships and how you do
relationships with co workers and clients and your balls and especially family. Because in your
life you have people
in your life like they're easy to love. Amen. In the chat, you have someone
easy to love. Give me a thumbs up if you do. Or, um, Emoji, you have it easy to love person here
in the house. Do you have some of your life? And they're just a blessing. They're a
wesome,
beloved. They're they're kind. They're you make some noise. You got something like that on.
And there's other people in our life who are far from easy to love, right? There's some tough to
love people. I call them or grace required people. I don't
know why they're annoying. They're
loud. They have bad hygiene, awkward social skills. Close talkers who has Ah, hard to love
person makes a noise. Makes a noise. Yeah, yeah. The Bible helps us love them. Who brought
your heart to love? Person to church. R
aise your hand. You break notice. Get Don't raise your
hand. Raise your hand. So the Bible. I don't know if you're pushing back. You think? Well, the
Bible. So, old David. The newest parts of your Bible or 2000 years old. How can that be
relevant? I get it
. You know, customs are different languages. Different clothing is different
technology very different. But the human hearts, the same man. The dynamics of interpersonal
relationships the same and God created relationships. He knows how to maximize every v
alued
interpersonal relationship in your life. Especially family now, if you like. But David, my family
was weird. My my family of origin was very broken. My family was messed up. Okay, guess
what? In the Bible, we see a continuum of families. We see all d
ifferent kinds of families. Think
about families on the spectrum like, uh, there's some families, beautiful families, nice,
nurturing, kind, very, very little mess, these kind of families. Then on the other end of the
spectrum, there's what weird families
Strange. I didn't know who to pick their. I don't want to
offend anybody. So I picked a non animated family that Z Cletus and his family from The
Simpsons right there. Kind of a weird family. So your family is somewhere on there. Who would
say Yes, I have
a bit of a weird family. Yes, a bit of a weird family. We all have a degree of
dysfunction in our family. Is your family is a good loving but has some weirdness. Alright. But if
your family is, like way over here, like really messy, strange, broken, dysfun
ctional Jacobs family





would be pretty far on that side. His family was weird. David, how is it weird? Couple examples
quickly for no takers. Number one. They gave their kids weird names. I got some of my team
names, his kids, weird names. I won't mention a
ny names, but something My team picks out
exotic names for his kids who I love him dearly, just saying I probably should have said that. But
good names. Good, good. Weird, weird names, weird names. So, uh, the weird names were so
the first son. And they're
twins, By the way, his name Essel s A When I say three shout the name
is a 123 Esa s on s saw in a glaring moment Lacking all creativity They named the sun number
one s A which sounds like the Hebrew word for red. So this kid was Harry and had a red
compl
exion. So they named him Read, right? Not re created by the way he's history's first
ginger. That's the older brother Essel. And then Son number two, the second twin they just had
The two boys is named Jacob. When I say three, shout the name Jacob put it i
n the chat ready
123 Jacob and Hebrew Jacob translates the grabber. That's a terrible weird name and it the
grabber. And that was a synonym for someone who is deceptive. The king James says, a PSA
planter or ah, trickster. A trickster. Jacob is the patron
saint for trick or treat. So appropriate
first costume and his name, the grabber or the trickster. So they had weird names for poor kids.
I have weird names. Get beat up in middle school, get wedgies, loser lunch money. All right, All
that stuff. So weird
names. And then then they had a weird competition between the two
brothers. Now a lot of brothers were close in age or competitive. It's healthy, it's fine. But
there's was toxic. It was there was sabotage. It was manipulative. It was conniving all the tim
e.
All this drama in the family and another way. They were weird. The parents openly played
favorites openly, without apology. Now look, I know parents. If you have more than one kid,
you might connect little Mawr. Find one easier to parents. Have more rep
ort. You need to love
all your kids. Amen. In fact, a really good parent they have multiple does a really good parent
will make every kid feel like deep down they're the favorite. My parents were not perfect
parents. They were good godly parents. And I hav
e a brother and sister. I think you hooked us
all to light lie detector machine. We'd all say if you asked us who was the favorite would say
Well, don't tell my brother and sister but me. They were brilliant with that, and that did not
happen in this famil
y. Jacob was Mama's favorite far in a way, and Mama had almost no time
for the other brother. Essel was adored by his dad, and his dad gave no time to Jacob. Guess
what? That would mess you up. These family dynamics. Nothing's changed, right? How many
peop
le in this room, how many guys, this room and way worked too hard way performed way.
Feel like we're judged on time because we have issues with our dads. How many women have
problems with men going on because you have daddy issues to continue? So Jacob has
daddy
issues. He's looking for validation. He's looking for a blessing. Ah, blessing from his father. So
the blessing was a technical idea. I'll explore in detail. There's something called the Birthright
and the blessing in this story. They're not the sam
e thing, but they're both vital. But he wants a
blessing from his father, and the custom was of the day that only one child received the father's
blessing. Typically the oldest son. That was not Jacob. That was Essel and Harry read. Estelle
was the favorit
e anyways, so he wants a blessing. What was a blessing? It was three things. It
was touch your kids need appropriate and affectionate touch. It was talk. It was tender words
of encouragement. Then finally, the father would make positive pronouncements abou
t the
child's future. Huge. Hey, I I see amazing things in your future. You have God given abilities and
aptitudes. If you work hard, if you're humble, if you give your best, I see God taking you and
shaking up your generation. I see amazing things in your
life. I see power. I see potential. I can't





wait to see the adventure God unleashes in your life as a pastor who loves, loves, to pour into
and release young leaders is vital. You speak into the future. What kid wouldn't want that? But
his dad had none of
that for him. So he puts on a costume to deceive and scheme to get the
blessing to get the blessing. A couple of ideas so vital and let you go again, Please. Next week,
next week I really wanna take this part one more time Critical conversation. And by th
e way, if
you have anyone in your life and they grew up with the world dysfunctional family, weird family
of origin. Because our family of origin is a big deal, isn't it? Come on. How many of our toxic
behaviors how much of, ah, mental and emotional illnes
s and struggle. How much a bad
financial practices, How many socialization issues? How many addictions did we pick up in
families of origin? That family of origin is huge. It's a monster facilitator of dysfunction in your
life. But know this as well. Based
on what the Bible teaches, the family that framed you doesn't
have forever form you because you can break the chain and break free and have a new life and
legacy in Christ. Alright, so here it is. So here we got Jacob. He's pretending he's conniving, puts
on the costume, puts on a persona toe full his dad and to steal a blessing. And here's a couple
ideas and let you go. Number one this I see what he did. I see why he did it. But God cannot
bless who you pretend to be. Hey, if you missed the last couple of
weeks, we set this up. Eso we
do undivided in two weeks I want to finish this chapter next week. Uh, hope you came last
week. Last week was sensational. Did you miss that? Thank you. Thank you. Porsche, you and I
we enjoyed last week. I came to every surf
ace last week. Didn't matter what campus we gave it
to the young guns last week. Uh, the young teachers took over. I've been speaking, I guess all
10 weeks since I got back from my quarantine night co vid and, uh so I took a little break. And
so it Lake Wo
rth Pastor. A pastor. Abe is a great leader of that campus with our best team
members. He's, like, 31 he did a great job. And then here at this campus, Charlie, thank you. Did
a great job, man. Always proud of you. But that was one of your best teachings e
ver. So if you
missed my son Todd, he's he's 20. But, gosh, it was a great message. But for the first time, both
those two young guys were so good. I felt kind of funny. I felt kinda They were so good. If you're
a football fan, I felt like, you know, if yo
ur NFL fan how Brett Farve must have failure. Brett Farr
was a great player at the peak of his career, and the moment they drafted Aaron Rodgers on his
team, I mean, he had to think, Oh, my gosh, Oh, my gosh, Wow, This this, this young guys really
good. Wh
at's gonna happen to me? I'll be playing for the New York Jets. In a couple of years
ago, I'd be playing for the Jets. I'm not sure what the preaching equivalent is for the Jets, but it's
not good. It's not good. So I'm not sure if I'm moving to the Jets a
t some point because the
young guys did so well. By the way, if you're watching right now and you're a Jets fan, we love
you. But we love to make fun of you because you are a Jets fan and probably deserve that.
After all these years of misery, you're still
hanging on the Super Bowl three anyways, anyways,
so God cannot bless who we pretend to be. It's all serious about the idea that we would like to
put on a mask. Call it mass hysteria and we just feel this pressure. I mean, smart people grown
people like w
hen you go out, you could put on this mask of this facade that you have it way
mawr together. Then you really dio Hey, I'm good. We're cool. It's fine if you acknowledge a
problem is small. If you own an issue, it's benign. It's inconsequential, right? We
feel this need
and we do it at work and we do in the neighborhood and we do it at the club. We do it. Flag
football. We even do the church. We do the church role in the church. You've had a terrible
week. You lost your job. You've been fight with your spou
se rolling. Hey, brother, this is the day
the Lord hath made. Let us be glad, you know, put on this this mask. And so we explored a voice





averse couple weeks ago in second Corinthians, you stay. You stay in Genesis second
Corinthians. It's on the side scre
en right now in Chapter four. Look what Paul says here as the
church as God's chosen for giving people, we refuse toe wear but masking the shot we don't
wear man, we don't do mask is God. People. We don't play games, we don't maneuver and
manipulate behind
the scenes, and we surely don't twist God's word to suit ourselves. It's a
strange topic, but I wanna talk to you about the idea of being authentic, having the courage to
be candid, resolved just to be riel. It's okay, especially in this very safe place c
alled the Church
of Jesus Christ to say, Hey, I don't have it all together right now. I am not cool right now. I'm far
from it. We're not doing good. I am struggling. I need help. I need prayer. Will you pray for me?
I don't. I need community. Where do I s
ign up for a live group? My finances are a mess. What's
this FP you think? Cause I need some help. I'm battle addiction. What does celebrate recovery?
We don't have food this November. How do I sign up? I'll help, but I need food when you're
feeding the ci
ty, just to be honest to God. So back to Jacob Jacob Jake had issued this. Jacob is
by nature. He's not honest. He struggles. He puts on the mask. He puts on the facade, history's
first costume. He's pretending to be his brother to steal a blessing that wa
s not rightfully his
and does not benefited by the way he steals this. He successful because Dad can't see Dad is
full. Did you see the story? Hey is fooled. At the same time, he never benefits from the blessing
that he steals. You've never been in from he
r blessing that you steal, and he spends the next 21
years on the run in a distant place with distant relatives. You see, you didn't have your kids in
church. If you're watching online, that's great. We got online materials for the kids, but it's not
the s
ame if you're in South Florida getting your family to the house. If I take off my pastor hat
and put on my parent hat. The church and the kid's ministry and the Wave Ministry been so
critical because I need allies. The pressures are kids face. Right now, w
e need all the help. Even
good parents even were not perfect. The parents on that side, right, trying to be good, healthy,
nurturing parents, trying to bless our kids. We need all the help we confined and at some point
even my smart kids wouldn't listen to
me and mom. But there's cool young volunteers in the
wave or in CPG Kids and then in those youngest ministries. I love the values they teach our kids.
They teach them spiritually systems for success on and they do, by the way of Bible stories.
Thes beauti
ful biblical bio. So my kids learn courage by studying the story of David and they
learned integrity. I started the story of Daniel and a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. How to
stand against intense peer pressure and the story of Jacob. You learn the dange
r of duplicity
because it's not just parents to struggle with this work with your co workers, your ball. Surely
your clients being authentic and honest is kids. It breaks my heart when, like a middle school
boy who's this sweet kids to put on the mask bein
g, ah, hard tough or they get bullied or they
bullied into becoming a bully or she's a sophomore and she's a good kid. But now she's doing
stuff, and she's using stuff she never would, because she has to put on the costume of
conformity because she wants t
o fit in again. The story of Shadow Rack Michelle could have
been to go. She learned that. Hey, sometimes it's lonely. We have two good friends. You can
stand against that pressure. Our kids need this stuff. They need that moral compass because
God cannot
bless you. Pretend to be so Take off the mask. Not not this one. Keep this in one,
please. But take off the mask, man. The church is the one place you could be authentic. You
could be transparent, will love you just the way you are. So if you take off, the
mask is so
critical, so vital Because God cannot bless who we pretend to be and we do it all the time. We
put on that Prasad. You know, Jacob put on a persona, but God cannot pour out his power on





your persona. There is no God favor on your facade. There'
s never a miracle for your mask.
There's no anointing for your avatar. Be who God has called you to be beautiful and more than
a little bit broken. It's OK because here's the second idea. I'll cut you loose. Number one God
cannot bless who we pretend to be
. Number two. The good news is God loves you just the way
you are. Let me say that again. God loves you just the way you are. I don't want your personal
life the personalized and say God loves me. Read it with me. God loves me just the way I am
one more ti
me God loves me. And if you miss everything today and please don't miss the other
stuff it was pretty good. That's the big idea Based on the clear teaching of Scripture. There's
nothing I could do to make God love me more. Nothing I could do So stupid, so
simple, so
selfish that God will ever love me less. We're loved. We're loved, were loved. Here's first time I
get shared one of my favorite versus most famous versus John 3 16 because right now, literally
people watch all over the world every weekend peopl
e watch them in Japan, they watched
from Brazil. We got people watching from the Zimbabwe right now in the first half of the most
famous verse in the Bible. Says this on the side screen right now for God so loved the basic even
habit Planet Earth. Your lov
ed unconditionally. Well, David, what about sanctification? What
about sanctification? What about growing in spiritually maturity? What about taking on the
image of Jesus. What about seeking to find fulfill the fullness of your God given potential?
Brillia
nt. Do all that? All that is taught in the Scriptures Clarity. I want to grow. I want a mature I
wanna get better. So here is the balance. Alright? God loves you just the way you are. But he
loves you too much to leave you that way again when I sin or do s
omething broken or selfish or
dysfunctional is not that God stops love me or even loves me less. But he sees the damage I
bring to myself and to the other people I have relationship with. That's why God loves us but
hates our sin. Get us right. He loves us
but hates our sin. Our sin brings damage to the kids that
God loves. And so God wants to grow up. So back to Jake. Back to Jacob. So anyway, so Jacob
tries to use deception history's first costume to steal, to see his father and steal a blessing that
belo
ngs rightly to his brother s saw. What happens is sa gets mad and Jacob has to flee. And
he's going for 21 years 21 years again, never enjoys the benefit of a stolen blessing. But guess
what? It's not all bad. Why he's going in a far away place. He gets ma
rried. Getting married is a
good thing. Single people. If you get married, God bless you. In fact, all the brothers, the Bible
says When a man has found a wife, he has found a good thing. Ladies, there's no parallel verse
about the husband. When a man has
found a wife, we have found a good thing and Jacob finds
a wife and he gets married. That's awesome. He gets married. Then he finds another wife.
That's not a good thing. By the way, they'd be married to people at the same time. He's married
to two women t
he same time. But they did weird stuff like that back in the Bible. Then, on top
of that, he ends up with wife number one and wife number two. I think it's a baby mama, then
another baby mama. He's having all these kids. Now you've got these four women, al
l these
baby mama drama. I mean, it's just it's all this stuff 12 sons, and after 21 years, this giant family
and he's prospered. God says, Hey, hey, Jake, Time to go home. You remember? Well, God, I
want to do that. But my brother is a was mad at me and r
ightly so, because back in Chapter 25 I
cheated him out the birthright. That's next week. And then in Chapter 27 I I cheated and stole
and deceived and denied I took the blessing that belonged to him, and he promised Bay back
revenge. He promised he'd take
me out. And by the way, he gets the word he starts back with
his whole family is entourage and other flocks system. He starts back in a messenger come
because they had no Facebook, right? A messenger came. They had no texting, came and said,





By the way, y
our brother is going to meet you and he's bringing an army of personal army of
400 men. So his brother stay with me. Drama has promised payback because what he did those
20 plus years ago, he's bringing his army to meet him. So Oh, my gosh, he is sweating
right now.
He's doing the mental math. Forget the army. He's like thinking about the Bible says a little
biblical detail that East all the Bible says Older brother, you know, read. Harry Guy was an
outdoorsman, Have any outdoorsman in the room and rugged,
outdoorsy kind of guys like six of
us. Yeah, yeah, I mean you, brother, all right. I love that hunting and fishing. Since he was 100
fishing, Bible says he was skilled with a bone marrow and he was great with the spirit of
Japanese outdoors. Guy Right love
s to go to bass pro watches, ESPN. Costly is that kind of guy,
Harry Red Sweaty guy uses aftershave and and deodorants always Old Spice. He's that guy,
right? And then? Then Jacob says, by contrast, is an indoor dude. I wanna ask you any indoor
dudes, mayb
e an indoor dude. That's fine. He's gonna indoor dude kind of soft brother Bible
says he likes to Cook, probably likes to Cochet Do needle point watch HD TV. Big fan of Chip in
Joanna, Right? That's who he waas and he journeys back as he journeys back. Her
e comes his
brother in the Army. He's doing the math with my my brother like he's outdoor guy, Old Spice
guy, Bow Arrow, me I like to cook. I got a saucepan and I'm not sure how you play rock, paper,
scissors, but, you know, bow and arrow beat Saucepan and
so he's praying and honest, a
transparent prayer for the first time. Maybe ever so. God, I've made a boatload of missed
aches, done some things I shouldn't do Now I hurt my family. I've kind of paid a price. I've been
kind of recycling my family drama, as
you could see, because I've never broke that chain next
week, by the way, never broke that chain, but I sure need some help here. The scripture says
this is in Genesis 32 Genesis 32 Genesis 32. So after 21 years now he sends his family across the
jab. Bac
k River sends the wives and the kids and the goats and the servants and everything. And
since all across and for the first time, the brothers alone, probably first time brothers with his
wife and kids, is quiet. He's having some quiet, and God answers pray
er in Verse 25 of Genesis
32. The Bible says God sends a man a man when this generic words for a male and our ah
person in the Bible. A man. They prayed for supernatural help, and this man shows up and they
start. They start in Verse 25 Chapter 32. The wre
stling there wrestling the Bible says they
struggle and they wrestled. I don't think like, Oh, cute little pillow fight or tickle fight. No, Think
like Octagon. MM, a beat down smack down. It goes on for hours. It is bloody, It is brutal. It is
injurious.
And he's wrestling this man because he recognized that he's some supernatural man.
He's not sure exactly who this guy is because in the Tora, not sure exactly who this guy is, but
he thinks maybe it's an angel. Or maybe it's God. My best guess is it's clea
rly something called a
Christophe une Christoph. Knee is an appearance of Jesus before Bethlehem. It is Jesus in the
Old Testament because it's God physically manifested himself, but he doesn't know exactly who
it is, but he keeps wrestling. I love that be
cause there's somebody in the room right now. You
don't know exactly who Jesus is. You're not exactly sure about the Bible, but you're wrestling
with it. You're struggling with it. You're not tapping out if you recognize. Gosh, it is the biggest
question o
f all. Is there really a God? Is this book true? Because if it's true, he made me and he
loves me. He can cover my missed aches. He could save me. And Jesus is my messiah, the
savior. Wow! Thank you for wrestling with it. You're watching right now, Topeka
or Tanzania
and you're wrestling, Keep wrestling. And then this supernatural being this angel or aka Jesus
says, Guess what? I gotta go. I gotta curfew and it's going to be daytime. I gotta leave. Go, Let
me go! Let me go! And I love in Verse 26 I'll put o
n the big led in the verse 26. How he responds





to the supernatural, being saying, I got to go. And so it says. But Jacob replied loudly, I will. Not
unless you bless me. He's finally figured it out. Sweat. He's hurt his exhausted. And by the way,
you watch
this happen. He's not young. He's an old guy. In this happened all night long, he's
been struggling with this band. My dad never saved me a blessing. My mom couldn't steal me a
blessing. Couldn't scheme me a blessing. I got I got some good things. I got a
family, I got, I got
beautiful Children. I got wealth, I got flocks and herds. I got servants and have a degree of fame.
But there's this empty place inside that All that success and all those relationships cannot feel. I
got this hole in my soul and I ne
ed God. I need God to bless me. I need God to step in, so I ain't
sure exactly who you are, but I think your God and God, you want to go. But, God, I can't
scheme this. But I'll struggle for this and I will not let go. They call me the Grabber, so I'm gonn
a
grab hold of you. God, I'm gonna grab hold of your Grace until you bless me. Brilliance!
Amazing. Go, Jacob. Go, trickster. Go grabber. Awesome. Then what happens if you get a
chance? Read both Chapter 27 chapter 32. You see three things happening. Progr
ession
Number one God breaks him. God breaks him. God loves you, but he'll let your dumb decisions
in life beat you up. Yeah, especially if you're stubborn hard headed bit of a knucklehead like a
Jacob. You know, learn by mistake's life, just beat you up t
o you. Finally get humble and you
finally get teachable. When you find those same strategies and systems or bring the same
broken results, I will try something new. So it says in the struggle. You know God smote him.
You struck him on his hip and his hip w
as dislocated for the rest of his life. Now, by the way,
they envision him like as a 20 year old in this battle. No, he's probably his nineties. No wonder
the brother broke his hip and again. So after this, he's gonna not no longer lean in or pressing to
h
is conniving and scheming. That's a lien on God. So God breaks him. And then number two.
God blesses him the blessing he wanted and I'll show you a guy actually blessed him many years
before. He just didn't know it. I'll show you that next week, but the bl
essing of God does
something a broken earthly father can never do. And so God blesses him. What was a blessing
again? It was It was tender talk, encouraging talk, you know, I believe in you. I love you. It was
touch Ryan. Now, sometimes it got touches you
most times it za holy high five or it's a pat on
the back. Or sometimes when you're hurting, God gives you that. That embraced that. That
comforting hug. But other times, when your difficulty, God's touches the holy headlock. Yeah,
to God. Paul Driver. Tha
t's what he did, man. They rustled all night long. And then finally, I love
this. So he blesses him. He breaks him, he re brands him. God says no one things wrong with
you when you were born and they give you a weird name, man. They gave you a weird name,
Samir. Right now, life is giving you a weird name. Hey, there's the addict. There's the
underachiever. Hey, there's the screw up there. Can't get a man can't keep a marriage. All right,
But God give you a new name. God love to give a new name. Jesus gave n
icknames, people all
the time. Take Simon named him Peter. James and John caught him. Bioenergy. Sons of thunder
given nicknames all time. Uh, Saul Saul, a hater turns into Paul the Prophet New name. So he
gives Jacob the grabber, right? The trickster. New
name, Your new name. By the way. First time
this amazing brilliant word shows up in the Bible. That's why you should read Exodus Chapter to
me. Genesis, Chapter 32 It's in verse 28. He names him Is Royal no longer why I call you Jacob.
Your new name is Is
rael. Israel is a royal name. A powerful name, A priestly name literally
translates translates the one who struggles and prevails. That's so rich, the one who struggles
and prevails. So Jacob, you struggle. But you will have victory. You struggle, but you
prevail. Oh,
you aren't feeling And I say three. Shout the word struggle loudly. 123 Struggle in the chapter of





the word struggle. Ready 123 Struggle. Now say the word prevail. 123 Seeing the Christian life,
we do both. Yeah, some creature stands up and sa
id, If you know Jesus, you just go from victory
under victory Under victory, under victory under victory. Praise God ain't true, Doesn't work.
We don't just prevail, Prevail, prevail. We struggle. But listen. If right now you've been
struggling for some ti
me, don't you tap out. Don't you quit Because God has promised,
Eventually you will prevail. You might struggle, but someday you'll prevail. He may not even be
fully in this life, but someday that victory is assured. Israel, Israel, Israel. Now, if I can p
ut the
rewind on the sermon quickly and go back to a couple of weeks ago, we were studying the next
book in the Bible. Book of Exodus. When God meets Moses. Remember the whole burning Bush
thing? Famous story. It was such a great conversation. Remember ear
ly on Exodus Chapter
three God introduced himself because that's just good manners. Whole burning Bush Moses
shows up, has to slip off his Reeboks and the whole thing. Let me put that first quickly on the
screens. I love the way God defines God, he says. D
on't come any closer. God said, Take off
your sandals. The place where you're standing is holy ground. Then he said, Get ready. I am the
god of your father. Hey, Moses. I knew your family. I knew your people. I am the god of your
father. Ready? I am the go
d of I am the god of Isaac and I am the God of Israel. What's it say?
Yeah, Jacob. God didn't say I'm the God of Abraham Isaac in Israel. The new name, the princely
name. The powerful name, the victorious name Jacob. I'm the God of the grabber on the God o
f
the Trickster on the God that hopelessness guy. Now here's crazy thing as you read through the
Bible after Genesis 32 God rebrand him and renamed him off to the Bible. Calls him Israel. Israel
and his Children is no whole whole nation. God's chosen peopl
e named for him, not name the
nation of Abraham Nation of Israel so many times he's called Israel. But other times it still calls
him Jacob. Though his name has been changed, though he's been blessed. He still called Jacob.
Why simply said, Because sometim
es he acts like Israel. Other times he acts like Jacob. Just be
honest. Gonna take off the mask? Are you like me? And sometimes you feel like a schizophrenic
Christian. Yeah. Don't judge. I'm being transparent. Sometimes I'm Israel. Sometimes I'm not
new p
erson in Christ. New nature. Second Corinthians, Chapter five, New creature, New nature.
New future. Look at me, man. I'm storing other times Romans. Chapter six is the old Me is dead
in Christ. But they told me, is dead. He sure makes a lot of noise for a
dead person because a lot
of trouble brings me embarrassment. Do you ever feel like you're schizophrenic? You're
schizophrenic Christian. Rest of his life. Sometimes he's Israel. Israel's also man. That's Israel.
But Israel in the City Council. Make him a
deacon at the church. O Mr Israel, Can I get a selfie
with you? Would you please tag me? Mr. Israel, You're amazing. Other times Oh, he's Jacob.
He's acting like Jacob. He's conniving. He's cheating. He's lying. He's not trusting. Oh, Jacob.
Jacob. Want t
o try for the worship team? Could even sing. I don't know. The worship team. He
was the lead A life group can't legally can attend a life group. But he's so messy. So why does
God associate himself through all of time as the god of Abraham Isaac, not Israe
l. But Jacob, I
think you're saying this. I am the god of the good people. Oh, Abraham Abram. Good man,
Abraham. Good father of faith. Put his family wherever there, man. Amazing. Remember what
he did. He was phenomenal. Isaac Isaac has a parent initiative
. Isaac Overall. Very solid. Good
man, Wonderful person. I'm the god of the Abrahams and God the Isaacs. But I'm also the God
of Jacob. Some of the god of the messy people that broken people. Oh, people can't figure it
out. They cause dysfunction and pain.
Guess what? Let's be honest. Take off the mask. Not
physically. Keep it on. But other mask. Take off the persona. Delete the avatar. Be honest with


 
God because you're both your your your Jacob and your Israel. Your Israel and your Jacob. I'm
both were bot
h, but we're still blessed. God blessed him and spy the fact he continue to be
both. We're both We're blessed. Take off the mask. You could be honest with God. Father. God
help us. To be transparent and true is my prayer. The church would be the one place
where
people are not plastic. Now I get it. We should continue are fighting and cussing and screaming
each other here in the tunnels. But God help us to have the courage to say I need your help. I
need your prayer. I don't have it all together. I'm anxious
. I'm nervous. I'm hanging on by the
skin of my teeth right now. God, I pray will be honest. We're honest. You could bless who we
truly are. That's our prayer in Jesus name. Amen.