# Hidden Issues

An episode of [Elevation with Steven Furtick](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/216015753), 13 Feb 2026, 43 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/cbb40a38-726f-4243-a86e-b0ed01477640/dabaa794-aa24-4b0c-9c79-b3e000ef6ad6/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=ff9164b2-aa64-410d-9ee1-b0ed0147765c

What are you hiding from? In “Hidden Issues,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church shows how the fears we avoid and the wounds we bury can keep us from peace, and reminds us that God can only heal what we’re willing to bring into the light. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
[0:02] Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
[0:05] Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
[0:08] Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
[0:12] Speaker 2: in your life.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
[0:17] Speaker 2: I want to go back to Jacob. Jacob is going
[0:22] Speaker 2: to be our Valentine's date. We're going to learn some
[0:27] Speaker 2: lessons about life and love and loneliness from Jacob, and
[0:34] Speaker 2: we'll pick up in Genesis thirty two nineteen. I love you,
[0:42] Speaker 2: guys man Genesis thirty two nineteen. He also instructed the second,
[0:47] Speaker 2: the third, and all the others who followed the herds.
[0:50] Speaker 2: You are to say the same thing to Esau when
[0:53] Speaker 2: you meet him, and be sure to say your servant.
[0:55] Speaker 1: Jacob is coming behind us. Before he thought I will.
[0:59] Speaker 2: Passify him with these gifts. I'm sending on ahead with
[1:03] Speaker 2: these gifts. I am sending on ahead. Later when I
[1:09] Speaker 2: see him, perhaps he will receive me. So Jacob's gifts
[1:13] Speaker 2: went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the
[1:17] Speaker 2: night in the camp. And that night Jacob got up
[1:21] Speaker 2: and took his two wives touch somebody say, don't get
[1:24] Speaker 2: any ideas his two female servants and his eleven sons
[1:33] Speaker 2: and crossed the ford of the Jabakh and crossed the
[1:38] Speaker 2: ford of the Jabak. And after he had sent them
[1:42] Speaker 2: all across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
[1:47] Speaker 2: So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with
[1:50] Speaker 2: him till daybreak. I want to speak to you today
[1:53] Speaker 2: on the subject hidden issues, hidden issues, and I pray
[1:59] Speaker 2: that the Spirit of God would help make application to
[2:01] Speaker 2: the truth in this text.
[2:02] Speaker 1: Let's pray to that end.
[2:04] Speaker 2: Father, I lift up every need before you today and
[2:07] Speaker 2: ask that you administer do surgery, provide knowledge, wisdom, insight, conviction, Yes, God,
[2:13] Speaker 2: even comfort and encouragement to every heart, so that we
[2:17] Speaker 2: may leave this place very different and very assured that
[2:21] Speaker 2: you are with us and for us in all that
[2:23] Speaker 2: we do in Jesus' name. And everybody who loves Jesus
[2:27] Speaker 2: and who wants to hear a little sermon about Jacob
[2:29] Speaker 2: shouted Amen. Hey, before you take your seat, if your
[2:32] Speaker 2: Mary turned to your spouse and say this count says
[2:34] Speaker 2: our date got you a concert the feast on the
[2:43] Speaker 2: word of God. What more could you want?
[2:45] Speaker 1: Amen?
[2:47] Speaker 2: Amen, thank you worship team. You guys been enjoying the
[2:50] Speaker 2: heroes and have an.
[2:51] Speaker 3: Album, Well, praise the Lord, I hope.
[2:55] Speaker 2: So there's blood and sweat, tears joy in those songs.
[3:01] Speaker 2: So listen to them and crank them up. Man, roll
[3:04] Speaker 2: up beside somebody and a red light. Turn it up,
[3:08] Speaker 2: law say this is my church. Well, it's the first
[3:16] Speaker 2: weekend of our next decade.
[3:18] Speaker 1: How about that?
[3:22] Speaker 2: Your response is not indicative of the gravity of this occasion.
[3:27] Speaker 2: It is the first weekend of our second decade as
[3:30] Speaker 2: a church. Wow, And to celebrate, I want to talk
[3:39] Speaker 2: about your issues. Touch your neighbors say you have issues. Now,
[3:43] Speaker 2: they're not surprised by that. Depending on your proximity, you
[3:51] Speaker 2: could continue that conversation in great detail, depending on how.
[3:56] Speaker 1: You see them.
[3:58] Speaker 2: And it's an interesting season in a America because.
[4:02] Speaker 1: Well we're in a season where.
[4:05] Speaker 2: Almost every three days there are people on stages debating
[4:09] Speaker 2: about issues. Have you been watching the debates? No, Stacey,
[4:17] Speaker 2: don't watch them. I don't understan why you wouldn't watch them.
[4:20] Speaker 2: I mean they're fascinating. Where else are you? Where else
[4:23] Speaker 2: are you going to see grown people demonstrate that level
[4:31] Speaker 2: of selective hearing and answering I mean usually you only
[4:35] Speaker 2: get this with like four year olds and five year olds.
[4:37] Speaker 1: To me, it's fascinating. I watch not because I'm.
[4:40] Speaker 2: Specifically informed or patriotically inclined. I'll admit to you I
[4:46] Speaker 2: do consider myself engaged, But really I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated
[4:50] Speaker 2: by the ability of some candidates more than others. And
[4:55] Speaker 2: I won't name names, but there is one candidate that
[4:58] Speaker 2: trump's all the other ones. So just as the ability,
[5:03] Speaker 2: whatever you think about him, you have to marvel at
[5:06] Speaker 2: how he can take any question and and pivot. They
[5:10] Speaker 2: call it a pivot. That's not just for NBA. They
[5:13] Speaker 2: can pivot. It's like an all star uh, watching somebody
[5:18] Speaker 2: who is who is so adept at the art of
[5:21] Speaker 2: pivoting from whatever issue is raised to the platform that
[5:28] Speaker 2: he has established and and and they all do it,
[5:31] Speaker 2: but one candidate does it exceptionally well. This particular candidate,
[5:35] Speaker 2: who shall remain nameless, He enjoys uh. He enjoys conversations
[5:42] Speaker 2: about walls. And so if you ever watch him anything,
[5:47] Speaker 2: they ask him anything they ask him, he can put
[5:50] Speaker 2: He can take it to a wall in less than
[5:54] Speaker 2: a second, just real quick, and it all comes back
[5:56] Speaker 2: to the wall. Touch somebody say, it's all about the
[5:59] Speaker 2: wall with this This guy is all about the wall.
[6:01] Speaker 1: So you ask him a question.
[6:02] Speaker 2: You know, mister candidate, what do you think about the
[6:07] Speaker 2: education issues in our country? Well, I think that the
[6:10] Speaker 2: children in our schools need to feel safe while they're
[6:14] Speaker 2: being educated, and so I'm going to build a wall
[6:17] Speaker 2: so that they feel safe. It all comes back to
[6:19] Speaker 2: the wall. Anything you ask him, what's your foreign policy,
[6:23] Speaker 2: I'm going to build a wall. What about women? Women
[6:26] Speaker 2: love walls? Just anything you ask him, it's quick. I
[6:29] Speaker 2: don't care what you believe about politics or even where
[6:31] Speaker 2: your value system is.
[6:32] Speaker 1: That's not my point.
[6:33] Speaker 2: My point is some people can pivot from any issue
[6:40] Speaker 2: to their platform. None does it better than Jacob. But
[6:46] Speaker 2: I want to keep him back there on the pulpit.
[6:47] Speaker 1: For a minute.
[6:48] Speaker 2: I want to talk about how sometimes you can have
[6:52] Speaker 2: a real strong opinion and be really ignorant of the issues.
[7:02] Speaker 1: Because I asked a.
[7:03] Speaker 2: Young staff member at our church the other day, if
[7:05] Speaker 2: you're voting today, who would you vote for. You don't
[7:07] Speaker 2: have to tell me if you don't want to, And
[7:09] Speaker 2: he told me real quick, we want to vote.
[7:10] Speaker 1: For I said why? Why? He said, uh, I like him.
[7:16] Speaker 2: I like him, I said, I didn't asked you who
[7:23] Speaker 2: you wanted to have wings with. I said, who do
[7:27] Speaker 2: you want to be the leader of the free world?
[7:32] Speaker 1: So why do you like him? He said, I.
[7:34] Speaker 2: Don't know, just something about his personality. And it baffled
[7:40] Speaker 2: me that a grown up could could could be so
[7:46] Speaker 2: narrow in their thinking that you would reduce your decision
[7:51] Speaker 2: about who you want to be the president of your
[7:53] Speaker 2: country to a personality type. Don't even care where they
[8:00] Speaker 2: stand on the issues, don't even really want to understand
[8:03] Speaker 2: the issues, just I like them. Seems pretty crazy that
[8:09] Speaker 2: you would put more weight on someone's personality than you
[8:13] Speaker 2: would on their position on the issues. If this person
[8:17] Speaker 2: is going to make decisions that will affect not only
[8:19] Speaker 2: you but your children, seems crazy to me. And it
[8:25] Speaker 2: hit me on Valentine's Day that some of us inner
[8:30] Speaker 2: relationships on the same basis by which my staff member
[8:36] Speaker 2: said they would pick a president, is that you connect
[8:41] Speaker 2: with people based on their personality and have no idea
[8:46] Speaker 2: about their issues. Tell your neighbor again, you have issues.
[8:57] Speaker 2: You have issues, and look back at them and respont say, well,
[9:00] Speaker 2: you have a subscription, so.
[9:02] Speaker 1: Get off me. Issues, issues, And.
[9:12] Speaker 2: I see Jacob as someone who was greatly blessed by
[9:18] Speaker 2: God even though he had the issues.
[9:23] Speaker 1: Jacob had issues.
[9:26] Speaker 2: Jacob was born with issues. Jacob started a fight in
[9:32] Speaker 2: Rebecca's womb because of his egocentric issues.
[9:38] Speaker 1: Got to be first. He was born with.
[9:41] Speaker 2: A twin brother who was scheduled to come out ahead,
[9:44] Speaker 2: but something within him wanted.
[9:46] Speaker 1: To disrupt the birth order. Issues. Everybody say issues.
[9:50] Speaker 2: Come on, I'm a participatory preacher, say issues. We met
[9:54] Speaker 2: a guy on our Valentine's Day. You gotta do it
[9:56] Speaker 2: four days early, by the way, for all you rookies
[9:58] Speaker 2: that are trying to go out on vallence on Time's Day,
[10:00] Speaker 2: you'll learn. And the guy seated at the table, I'm like,
[10:07] Speaker 2: oh my, George, I love it. He said, what's up
[10:09] Speaker 2: with to touch your neighbor stuff? I said, what do
[10:13] Speaker 2: you mean? He said, you always touch your neighbor this
[10:14] Speaker 2: and touch your neighbor that. And so I told him,
[10:17] Speaker 2: I said, motion creates emotion. So I can't have you
[10:23] Speaker 2: fallen asleep in my sermon. So every once in a while,
[10:26] Speaker 2: I like you to turn to your neighbor and tell
[10:28] Speaker 2: them you have issues. Do it again, tell them you
[10:30] Speaker 2: have issues. I noticed some of y'all are saying that
[10:34] Speaker 2: really emphatically, by the way, some of.
[10:38] Speaker 1: You are making a list.
[10:39] Speaker 2: It's true, though, when you get into a relationship with someone,
[10:47] Speaker 2: you often see their personality.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Before you discover their issues.
[10:53] Speaker 2: And this is not necessarily a relationships sermon or marriage sermon.
[10:58] Speaker 2: But I thought, in the spirit of the season, I
[10:59] Speaker 2: would just throw some little bit of advice in there.
[11:02] Speaker 2: Before you get engaged to somebody.
[11:05] Speaker 3: Take inventory of their issues.
[11:08] Speaker 1: I don't mean you have.
[11:09] Speaker 2: To know everything about them, but don't ignore their issues
[11:12] Speaker 2: because you like their personality.
[11:15] Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying.
[11:19] Speaker 2: And Jacob had had issues that ran so deep that
[11:25] Speaker 2: when he couldn't be born first, he tried to find
[11:28] Speaker 2: a way to trick himself into the birth order. By
[11:30] Speaker 2: the way, for those of you who are new to
[11:31] Speaker 2: our church and you want to study this in greater detail,
[11:33] Speaker 2: you can check out a series that I did. I
[11:35] Speaker 2: did a whole series on Jacob called Death to Selfie.
[11:37] Speaker 2: The church loved it. It was a good time.
[11:40] Speaker 3: We learned. It's actually on Netflix.
[11:42] Speaker 2: You can go watch it on Netflix.
[11:44] Speaker 1: It's on there.
[11:45] Speaker 2: So so instead of instead of binging on the House
[11:48] Speaker 2: of cards.
[11:49] Speaker 1: You can binge on the word of God. Amen. Put
[11:51] Speaker 1: it on the Netflix.
[11:58] Speaker 2: Jacob deceives his brother later in life, and he comes
[12:01] Speaker 2: out ahead.
[12:02] Speaker 1: In a sense.
[12:02] Speaker 2: And I won't review all the material, but I was
[12:04] Speaker 2: going to a pastor's conference and I preached on Jacob
[12:07] Speaker 2: to our church for several weeks, and the Lord took
[12:11] Speaker 2: me back to this passage that I thought I had
[12:13] Speaker 2: worn out.
[12:14] Speaker 1: So when I was looking at.
[12:15] Speaker 2: It, I was like, God, I got Jacob. I preached
[12:17] Speaker 2: in five weeks and the Spirit of God said, you
[12:19] Speaker 2: haven't even scratched the surface of Jacob because you talked
[12:22] Speaker 2: to the church about his relationship with God, but you
[12:27] Speaker 2: never got to his encounter with Esau. And that's what
[12:31] Speaker 2: I want to talk about today, is there comes a
[12:34] Speaker 2: time in your life where you've got to make peace
[12:38] Speaker 2: with Esau.
[12:41] Speaker 1: See Esau is the one. Let me teach you a
[12:43] Speaker 1: little bit.
[12:44] Speaker 2: Esau was the one that Jacob had struggled with but
[12:47] Speaker 2: never prevailed against his whole life. Esau was the one
[12:52] Speaker 2: that Jacob pretended to be to get what he thought
[12:56] Speaker 2: he needed to have. Esau was the one that Jacob
[12:59] Speaker 2: even subconsciously and pre natally had problems with he was
[13:04] Speaker 2: predisposed to wrestle with Esau before he had a conscious thought,
[13:09] Speaker 2: and now he's ninety seven and he's preparing.
[13:12] Speaker 1: To meet with Esau.
[13:13] Speaker 2: If you have a Bible with pages, there's probably a
[13:16] Speaker 2: heading on chapter thirty two of Genesis that says Jacob
[13:19] Speaker 2: prepares to meet Esau because there comes a time that
[13:23] Speaker 2: no matter how much God has blessed you, and no
[13:27] Speaker 2: matter how much you've grown to accumulate stuff, or no
[13:30] Speaker 2: matter how good your body.
[13:32] Speaker 3: Looks, or no matter how fit you are in.
[13:34] Speaker 2: Your physique, you cannot outrun your dysfunctional relationships forever. One
[13:47] Speaker 2: of the greatest blessings that God gives is peace. If
[13:53] Speaker 2: you want to pray for anything, pray for peace, because
[13:57] Speaker 2: if all of your prayers center around provision, if you
[14:00] Speaker 2: have the provision but not the peace, you have the
[14:04] Speaker 2: external stuff without the internal infrastructure to even enjoy what
[14:08] Speaker 2: you pray for.
[14:09] Speaker 1: Pray for peace.
[14:15] Speaker 2: And the greatest blessing that God gives us often has
[14:20] Speaker 2: little to do with the resources he provides, but the
[14:23] Speaker 2: relationships that he restores. And so we're looking at an
[14:28] Speaker 2: Old Testament picture in Genesis thirty two of Jacob, who
[14:33] Speaker 2: has been able to pivot his whole life pivot, So
[14:38] Speaker 2: when he gets in trouble at home, he runs to
[14:41] Speaker 2: his uncle Laban's house. When he accidentally marries Leah. After
[14:45] Speaker 2: serving God for Rachel seven years, he's able to pivot
[14:48] Speaker 2: and get Rachel.
[14:49] Speaker 1: Anyhow, when Laban begins.
[14:50] Speaker 2: To cheat him and the Bible says that his heart
[14:52] Speaker 2: turned against him, Jacob was able to have the business
[14:55] Speaker 2: savvy and the common sense to devise a system by
[14:58] Speaker 2: which he.
[14:58] Speaker 3: Could stay ahead.
[15:00] Speaker 1: But Esau. Esau is that enemy.
[15:06] Speaker 2: Esau is that that thing that he's been fighting against
[15:14] Speaker 2: and fleeing from his whole life. By the time he
[15:18] Speaker 2: prepares to make peace with Esau, he's been hiding from
[15:23] Speaker 2: him for twenty one years now. I want to ask
[15:25] Speaker 2: a question, what are you hiding from? It is the
[15:32] Speaker 2: central question of my discourse today, and I believe it's
[15:36] Speaker 2: a penetrating question if you'll really answer it in your heart?
[15:40] Speaker 1: What are you hiding from?
[15:44] Speaker 2: Because no matter where Jacob turned or where Jacob went,
[15:49] Speaker 2: what Jacob did, what he accomplished, there was always Esau.
[15:55] Speaker 2: It's the battle that he was fighting when he was
[15:58] Speaker 2: nine months old. It was the battle he was fighting
[16:01] Speaker 2: when he was ninety seven.
[16:03] Speaker 1: What is your esau?
[16:07] Speaker 2: What is the thing that, no matter how many herds
[16:11] Speaker 2: and cattle and goats and relationships you acquire, there is
[16:17] Speaker 2: always an esau. It's your hidden issue. It is not
[16:21] Speaker 2: the thing that you mentioned to the people in your
[16:23] Speaker 2: e group. It is not the thing that you talk
[16:26] Speaker 2: about to people you just met. It is the thing
[16:29] Speaker 2: beneath the thing beneath the thing. It is not your behavior,
[16:34] Speaker 2: It is not your symptom.
[16:35] Speaker 1: It is your issue.
[16:37] Speaker 2: Church is ineffective when preachers only address behaviors, because until
[16:41] Speaker 2: you get to the issue that creates the behavior, the
[16:45] Speaker 2: behavior will manifest because the.
[16:47] Speaker 4: Issue wasn't healed. What are you hiding from hiding from?
[17:00] Speaker 2: Your heart may be in hiding because of your fear
[17:03] Speaker 2: of rejection. Your heart may be in hiding because of
[17:05] Speaker 2: your fear of failure. I understand why Jacob had issues.
[17:10] Speaker 2: It's pretty plain in the text.
[17:14] Speaker 1: Well. The Bible says that.
[17:15] Speaker 2: There was a lot of favoritism going on in Isaac's household.
[17:22] Speaker 1: In fact, I'll show you the scripture.
[17:24] Speaker 2: In Genesis twenty five twenty eight, it says that Isaac,
[17:27] Speaker 2: his father, who had a taste for wild game, loved
[17:31] Speaker 2: esau but Rebecca loved Jacob.
[17:32] Speaker 1: There it is.
[17:35] Speaker 2: No wonder the guy spent his whole life in hiding
[17:40] Speaker 2: because from a very early age he discovered that he
[17:45] Speaker 2: didn't have.
[17:47] Speaker 1: What his father wanted.
[17:49] Speaker 2: He didn't have the skills to be acceptable in the
[17:53] Speaker 2: sight of the ones whose affirmation meant the most. And
[17:56] Speaker 2: when that happens to you, you develop all kinds of
[18:00] Speaker 2: vices to hide behind. Psychologically, they call this abandonment issues,
[18:06] Speaker 2: and they say that when you have abandonment issues, it
[18:08] Speaker 2: can happen through a divorce, It can happen through abuse,
[18:11] Speaker 2: It can happen through love with help. It can happen
[18:13] Speaker 2: through a circumstance that is so embedded that you can't
[18:16] Speaker 2: even remember what it is. But when you have these
[18:18] Speaker 2: abandonment issues, they tell us that you tend toward two extremes.
[18:22] Speaker 2: One is attachment and the other is avoidance. So you
[18:28] Speaker 2: attach this is Jacob grabbing the heel of Esau, or
[18:32] Speaker 2: you avoid this is Jacob running from that same brother
[18:36] Speaker 2: that he was trying to attach himself to. One thing
[18:41] Speaker 2: I love about God's Word is that it doesn't just
[18:43] Speaker 2: address my spirituality, it addresses my psychology. In Jacob, I
[18:50] Speaker 2: see an illustrated sermon about the psyche of someone who
[18:55] Speaker 2: is running toward and chasing something that they can never get,
[19:00] Speaker 2: are running from.
[19:01] Speaker 1: Something that they don't want to face.
[19:04] Speaker 2: And I believe every person in our church can relate
[19:10] Speaker 2: to Jacob hiding from an esau in your life, hiding
[19:17] Speaker 2: and hoping, hoping that no one sees you for who
[19:24] Speaker 2: you really are, so you invent methods.
[19:29] Speaker 1: By which to be impressive. That's what Jacob did. He
[19:34] Speaker 1: makes a plan.
[19:35] Speaker 2: He makes a plan, He makes a plan to hide
[19:38] Speaker 2: his issues. He gets his messengers. And you got to understand,
[19:42] Speaker 2: in the last twenty one years, Jacob was not struggling.
[19:45] Speaker 2: Jacob was prospering. Jacob was succeeding. Jacob was accumulating. Jacob
[19:50] Speaker 2: was working his way up. And by this time Jacob
[19:53] Speaker 2: is very rich jam He's got a lot of kids,
[19:55] Speaker 2: so he's on.
[19:56] Speaker 3: The external level, doing pretty well for himself.
[19:59] Speaker 2: So what he does, and I think we all do this,
[20:01] Speaker 2: is he tries to use what he's accumulated to hide
[20:05] Speaker 2: who he is.
[20:10] Speaker 1: You know, it's the right amount of quiet. Today. I
[20:12] Speaker 1: can tell I'm on that nerve.
[20:14] Speaker 2: I'm up in your stuff, touch your neighbors, say come
[20:17] Speaker 2: out of hiding.
[20:17] Speaker 1: Come out of hiding, Come out of hiding.
[20:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, Because Jacob gets a strategy, he gets a plan.
[20:22] Speaker 2: He calls his messengers. He's got a lot of people
[20:24] Speaker 2: working for him. He got a lot of representatives, and
[20:26] Speaker 2: he calls his representatives and he says, here's what I
[20:28] Speaker 2: want you to do. Line up the goats, and line
[20:31] Speaker 2: up the rams, and line up the camels, and line
[20:34] Speaker 2: up the.
[20:34] Speaker 1: Cows, and line up the bulls.
[20:38] Speaker 2: Get some donkeys, male donkeys, female donkeys. Put the servants
[20:42] Speaker 2: out there, and he arranges what's around him to hide
[20:47] Speaker 2: what's within him. Maybe Esau will accept me if I
[20:56] Speaker 2: send him a goat. Maybe Esau will accept me if
[21:00] Speaker 2: I send.
[21:01] Speaker 1: Them a donkey.
[21:02] Speaker 2: Maybe people will like me if I make them laugh.
[21:06] Speaker 3: So ha, I'm the life of the party.
[21:15] Speaker 2: When I get alone. What I had out in front
[21:18] Speaker 2: of me can't help me for the battle I have
[21:22] Speaker 2: to fight within me. We all have herds that we
[21:32] Speaker 2: hide behind. It is those things. It is those inauthentic
[21:37] Speaker 2: personality traits that you project, fearing that who you are
[21:41] Speaker 2: is not enough. How could it be enough? Isaac never
[21:44] Speaker 2: loved me, How could it be enough? Nobody has asked
[21:47] Speaker 2: me to marry them. Yet, how could it be enough?
[21:50] Speaker 2: I'm the last person invited. How could it be enough?
[21:52] Speaker 2: I sound stupid when I talk. How could it be enough?
[21:55] Speaker 2: I don't know what other people know. How could it
[21:57] Speaker 2: be enough? I wasn't raised Right now, I'm hiding behind
[22:01] Speaker 2: my herds. And it can be money. Some people hide
[22:03] Speaker 2: behind money. It can be labels. Some people hide behind labels.
[22:07] Speaker 2: It can be brands. Some people can hide behind brands.
[22:09] Speaker 2: It can be language. Some of you talk in a
[22:14] Speaker 2: way that is not even indigenous to your personality, and
[22:22] Speaker 2: I'm listening to you trying to figure out who you're mimicking.
[22:27] Speaker 2: I put something in my book. I'm a preaching on
[22:28] Speaker 2: my book in two weeks. You got COM's gonna be graun.
[22:30] Speaker 1: I'm appreciate it.
[22:32] Speaker 2: My mom asked me one time when she heard my
[22:35] Speaker 2: band play, and she listened to the concert, and we
[22:38] Speaker 2: did all kinds of cover songs from Darius Rutcker from
[22:41] Speaker 2: Hoody and the Blowfish, and Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam
[22:44] Speaker 2: and Kirk Cobaine from Nirvana and all these great bands,
[22:47] Speaker 2: the kind of music that you just can't get anymore
[22:49] Speaker 2: out there in the cold streets of today's modern society.
[22:54] Speaker 1: But she said, she.
[22:55] Speaker 2: Say sound good tonight because I was the least singer.
[22:57] Speaker 2: She said, I got a question, when are we going
[22:59] Speaker 2: to hear you sing? She said tonight. I heard an
[23:06] Speaker 2: imitation hooting. I heard somebody trying to sound like pearl Jam.
[23:13] Speaker 2: But it's kind of hard to sound like pearl Jam
[23:15] Speaker 2: when you just hit puberty.
[23:16] Speaker 1: But see what I was doing was.
[23:20] Speaker 2: I was trying to project what I thought would impress.
[23:26] Speaker 2: And you cannot be blessed while you're projecting to be impressive.
[23:33] Speaker 2: You can't be really blessed that way.
[23:37] Speaker 1: Jacob had a plan.
[23:38] Speaker 2: He said, I got issues with ESAU, but if I
[23:41] Speaker 2: send my gifts. This is why I preached it at
[23:44] Speaker 2: a pastor's conference. I told the pastors that I was
[23:47] Speaker 2: preaching to in California, I said, your gift can only
[23:50] Speaker 2: get you so far, because if you're good with a microphone,
[23:55] Speaker 2: you can hide behind a microphone and suck as a husband,
[24:00] Speaker 2: hide behind a microphone and be absent as a father,
[24:04] Speaker 2: hide behind a microphone and inwardly not have a real
[24:07] Speaker 2: connection with God, and be preaching stuff that God showed
[24:10] Speaker 2: you thirteen years ago. Because you've mastered the technique. And
[24:14] Speaker 2: I ministered that to the pastors, and it was real
[24:17] Speaker 2: tense in the room, because anytime God peels back your persona,
[24:24] Speaker 2: anytime you can't do what you do and you have
[24:28] Speaker 2: to come to terms with who you are, puts you
[24:32] Speaker 2: in an awkward position.
[24:35] Speaker 1: But that's the place where God blesses you the most.
[24:44] Speaker 2: Not while Jacob was lining up the cattle, not while
[24:48] Speaker 2: Jacob was configuring the cows.
[24:53] Speaker 1: But the Bible says, I got to show it to
[24:55] Speaker 1: you again. It's so beautiful.
[24:56] Speaker 2: I love the way that the scripture weaves together the
[24:58] Speaker 2: historical narrative and brings it into a alignment with my
[25:00] Speaker 2: current psychological condition to show me that there is a
[25:03] Speaker 2: way forward, no matter what I've been through.
[25:05] Speaker 1: It said.
[25:07] Speaker 2: That Jacob thought, look at verse twenty.
[25:10] Speaker 3: Jacob thought, I will pacify.
[25:13] Speaker 1: Him with these gifts.
[25:17] Speaker 3: I will pacify my problem with my persona.
[25:24] Speaker 2: I'm not going to make peace with it. I'm just
[25:27] Speaker 2: going to pacify it so I develop ways to get through.
[25:31] Speaker 2: You know, I'm real sarcastic. And the reason I'm sarcastic
[25:35] Speaker 2: is because if I'm sarcastic, I don't have to be sincere.
[25:39] Speaker 2: So I hide behind sarcasm and people think that I'm cocky,
[25:43] Speaker 2: but what they really don't know that what they see
[25:45] Speaker 2: is overconfidence is really just a little girl scared to
[25:49] Speaker 2: death because I'm hiding behind my herds. People think I'm arrogant,
[25:55] Speaker 2: but what they really don't know is the reason I'm
[25:58] Speaker 2: coming across so strong is because I'm scared to death
[26:01] Speaker 2: that they're gonna find out that I'm a froug and
[26:03] Speaker 2: I don't know what I need to know. So I'm
[26:07] Speaker 2: hiding behind my herds. And this he saw this, this issue,
[26:12] Speaker 2: everybody say issue. It remains hidden behind my herds. And
[26:17] Speaker 2: what I hide, God cannot heal. I cannot make peace
[26:26] Speaker 2: with what I am content to pacify. So I'm I'm
[26:32] Speaker 2: sending out my I'm sending out my best I'm sending
[26:36] Speaker 2: out my stuff. I'm sending out all my stuff. And
[26:38] Speaker 2: maybe then they'll like me, and maybe then they'll love me.
[26:41] Speaker 1: And maybe then if I.
[26:42] Speaker 3: Buy them stuff, May I buy them stuff?
[26:44] Speaker 1: Maybe that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll sleep with him.
[26:47] Speaker 2: If I sleep with him, then maybe I can keep him.
[26:49] Speaker 2: If I give him my body, maybe then he'll give
[26:51] Speaker 2: me my heart. I'm a hive behind my herds. But
[26:54] Speaker 2: the only problem with this approach to life. Is what
[26:57] Speaker 2: you get them with is what you have to keep
[26:59] Speaker 2: them with. So if you get them with the fake you,
[27:02] Speaker 2: what are they going to do when they see the
[27:03] Speaker 2: real you? Man, help me breach the sermon. It's it's
[27:12] Speaker 2: those hidden issues. Yeah, I'm encouraged because the Bible says
[27:22] Speaker 2: that when Jacob sent his gift ahead, he remained alone
[27:28] Speaker 2: in the camp. And to every lonely person today, I
[27:35] Speaker 2: want to encourage you to know that the places of
[27:41] Speaker 2: your greatest isolation will often become the places of your
[27:46] Speaker 2: greatest revelation. Jacob had seen God in the form of
[27:52] Speaker 2: an angel when he was with people, but he only
[27:55] Speaker 2: saw God's face when he was all alone, separated from
[28:01] Speaker 2: his stuff.
[28:03] Speaker 1: He sent his gift a head, but he himself spent the.
[28:07] Speaker 2: Night in the camp, and God dealt with him, and
[28:12] Speaker 2: God pushed him around a little bit, and God run
[28:15] Speaker 2: him to his breaking point, so much so that the
[28:19] Speaker 2: Bible says, when he got done and he left that camp,
[28:24] Speaker 2: he was limping.
[28:26] Speaker 1: He was limping, but he was blessed.
[28:29] Speaker 2: His hip was dislocated, but his identity was now securely
[28:34] Speaker 2: in place because he found out who he was. God
[28:37] Speaker 2: said today through the preaching of his word. He was
[28:41] Speaker 2: going to restore unto you and awareness of your identity,
[28:45] Speaker 2: because you've gotten so enmeshed and entangled with your stuff
[28:49] Speaker 2: and your skills that you lost your sense of substance.
[28:53] Speaker 2: But today is today that the hand of God is
[28:56] Speaker 2: applaud you heavy to show you who you are.
[29:06] Speaker 3: Wow.
[29:07] Speaker 2: So he crossed the ford. Look at verse twenty two.
[29:11] Speaker 2: He crossed the ford of the Jabbak. Say what.
[29:18] Speaker 3: The who now.
[29:21] Speaker 1: The Jabbab?
[29:24] Speaker 3: Jacob crossed the Jabbak.
[29:34] Speaker 1: Let me try it like this.
[29:36] Speaker 2: All his life he thought he was fighting against Esau.
[29:43] Speaker 2: For twenty one years. He thought he was running from Esau.
[29:48] Speaker 2: But God showed up to show him that the only
[29:54] Speaker 2: real enemy that he was ever fighting against. I've learned
[30:00] Speaker 2: this because I want to digress for a minute, that
[30:03] Speaker 2: the real enemy is not the issue.
[30:07] Speaker 1: I see.
[30:09] Speaker 2: Your life will change, your marriage will change, your relationships
[30:15] Speaker 2: will change when you stop trying.
[30:17] Speaker 3: To fix Esau.
[30:24] Speaker 2: Jacob crossed the Jabbakh. Do you think those two sounds
[30:30] Speaker 2: similar on accident? Do you think that there's a sense
[30:34] Speaker 2: of poetic justice in the mind of God that he
[30:37] Speaker 2: wants to show us that all the time you were
[30:40] Speaker 2: running from Esau. All the time, you were running from issues,
[30:44] Speaker 2: all the time, you were running from relationships, all the time,
[30:47] Speaker 2: you were running from fears.
[30:48] Speaker 1: The only issue is you.
[30:52] Speaker 2: And if you can get right with you, you can get.
[30:55] Speaker 1: Right with God. And if you can get right with.
[30:58] Speaker 5: God, God can make your right with a Saul. That's
[31:01] Speaker 5: three people. Tell them, get over yourself. That's the real enemy.
[31:06] Speaker 5: It's the enemy in me. It's such bac I gotta cross.
[31:10] Speaker 5: It's my pride I gotta get over. It's my regret I've.
[31:14] Speaker 3: Gotta get over.
[31:15] Speaker 1: It's my scars.
[31:16] Speaker 3: I gotta get over.
[31:17] Speaker 6: It's not your issue that's holding me back.
[31:20] Speaker 3: It's me, God, it's me.
[31:23] Speaker 1: It's me.
[31:24] Speaker 3: I won't let him vol to you.
[31:27] Speaker 1: Bless me.
[31:32] Speaker 2: The practical implications of this revelation are staggering. If the
[31:38] Speaker 2: only thing you really have to cross over is your
[31:42] Speaker 2: own misconceptions of what it means to be accepted by God,
[31:48] Speaker 2: you're gonna be all good, Single, You're gonna be all good, Mary,
[31:53] Speaker 2: You're gonna be all good. Touch them again, say get
[31:56] Speaker 2: over yourself. Get over yourself. That's my message today. Get
[32:00] Speaker 2: over yourself, Jacob. If you can get over your conniving
[32:04] Speaker 2: scheming dysfunctional ways.
[32:06] Speaker 3: God will fix your relationships.
[32:08] Speaker 2: On the other hand, if you don't get over yourself,
[32:10] Speaker 2: you're gonna carry your issues into your next relationship. And
[32:13] Speaker 2: your issues are only going to increase when they are
[32:15] Speaker 2: multiplied by the human interaction that is required for you
[32:17] Speaker 2: to connect with another person. When you have not even
[32:19] Speaker 2: learned to correctly connect with yourself, that's free.
[32:27] Speaker 1: The issue is you.
[32:30] Speaker 2: I am not responsible for fixing Esau because when I
[32:36] Speaker 2: do battle with the enemy in me, the insecurity in me,
[32:43] Speaker 2: it starts with an eye. People issue starts with I.
[32:51] Speaker 2: I'll try to get an Apple endorsement here. You need
[32:54] Speaker 2: to start sending more I messages not you need and
[33:00] Speaker 2: you need to and if you would just and if
[33:02] Speaker 2: they would just, and they don't want you to, and
[33:04] Speaker 2: I don't want they don't want. No no no, no,
[33:05] Speaker 2: no no no. I will bless the Lord at all times.
[33:11] Speaker 2: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
[33:15] Speaker 2: I am the hand and not the tale. I am
[33:19] Speaker 2: a child of God. I will not fear full the darkness,
[33:24] Speaker 2: beset me full the enemy and raise around me. I
[33:28] Speaker 2: I I I. How can I make peace with Esaul?
[33:35] Speaker 2: If I can't even make peace with me. And God
[33:43] Speaker 2: is so good because if you will devote yourself to
[33:49] Speaker 2: the issues within your he'll handle the issues around you.
[33:56] Speaker 2: You do it, but I'm approven. You got nine minutes.
[34:02] Speaker 2: I can prove it in nine minutes. When Jacob finally
[34:04] Speaker 2: met Esau after he left the Jabbak, touch somebody say
[34:07] Speaker 2: it's you. It's us us us us us u, s usu.
[34:10] Speaker 2: It's you. You got to wrestle with. It's you you
[34:12] Speaker 2: got to contend with. Is you you're misinterpreting people?
[34:15] Speaker 1: Is you?
[34:15] Speaker 2: You're blowing things out of proportion? And even if it's not,
[34:18] Speaker 2: what can you do? If it's them? I can only
[34:20] Speaker 2: do me. So Jacob crossed the Jabbab. He was preparing
[34:25] Speaker 2: to meet Esau, but Esau wasn't even his enemy anymore.
[34:30] Speaker 1: Can I show you? Can I show you?
[34:33] Speaker 2: Because I didn't get to this in depth of selfie,
[34:35] Speaker 2: I'm the one to get to him.
[34:35] Speaker 1: Wait a year and a half.
[34:36] Speaker 2: So you let's just that night when Jacob got ready
[34:39] Speaker 2: to set out, it says in verse what is it?
[34:42] Speaker 2: I think it's actually later than that guy's is verse
[34:45] Speaker 2: thirty three, Verse one. Jacob looked up and there was Esau.
[34:48] Speaker 1: There was Esau.
[34:49] Speaker 2: This is the god, this is the thing, this wing,
[34:51] Speaker 2: this is it, this warming womb.
[34:52] Speaker 1: Here comes Esau.
[34:54] Speaker 2: He thinks Esau is going to kill him because when
[34:56] Speaker 2: he saw him twenty one years ago, the last thing
[34:57] Speaker 2: that was echoing was Esau said, our ca him if
[35:00] Speaker 2: I ever get my hands on him.
[35:01] Speaker 1: And Jacob was fast. So Jacob got out of there.
[35:03] Speaker 2: And now Jacob's got to come back. Because you can
[35:05] Speaker 2: only run for so long, you can only.
[35:11] Speaker 1: Hide for so long.
[35:14] Speaker 2: He's eventually gonna catch up with you. Eventually, I have
[35:18] Speaker 2: to deal with the real issue. You can only pivot
[35:19] Speaker 2: so much fighting against people. That's gonna wear you out.
[35:27] Speaker 2: Jacob's ninety seven. He can't run anymore. Now I got
[35:30] Speaker 2: a bad hit. So he's limping up. The Esau in
[35:35] Speaker 2: a compromised position, in a vulnerable state. And here's Esau
[35:40] Speaker 2: with four hundred men, Esau, the skilled hunter. Esau still
[35:45] Speaker 2: steady with a bow, even though his hands have arthriders. Esau,
[35:47] Speaker 2: I'm filling in some details for the imaginem at the time.
[35:51] Speaker 2: So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the
[35:54] Speaker 2: two female servants, and he put the female servants in
[35:58] Speaker 2: their children in front, her children next, and Rachel and
[36:02] Speaker 2: Joseph in the rear, because that's the ones he loved
[36:04] Speaker 2: the most. But he himself, that's my phrase, He himself
[36:13] Speaker 2: went on ahead and bowed down. He himself before he
[36:20] Speaker 2: had sent his stuff out ahead, but now he sent himself.
[36:26] Speaker 2: Before he had surrounded himself with the appearance of success.
[36:33] Speaker 1: But now he steps.
[36:33] Speaker 3: Out from behind all of that and bows down.
[36:36] Speaker 2: And it is in that weakened state that a limping
[36:41] Speaker 2: Jacob meets his enemy of ninety seven years, and as
[36:46] Speaker 2: he lays prostrate, all of the pain that he's caused
[36:50] Speaker 2: now accumulating in this moment. The Bible says that when
[36:54] Speaker 2: he went out ahead of his stuff, when he came
[36:56] Speaker 2: out from behind his persona, when he came out behind
[36:59] Speaker 2: the appearance of having it all together, when he came
[37:02] Speaker 2: out behind his need to look cool and look right
[37:06] Speaker 2: and sound right, when he came out from behind. It
[37:09] Speaker 2: is when you come out from behind that God can
[37:12] Speaker 2: bless you.
[37:14] Speaker 3: It is when you stop hiding that He can heal you.
[37:19] Speaker 2: What are you hiding from?
[37:21] Speaker 1: What are you hiding behind?
[37:23] Speaker 2: And do you want to be healed bad enough to
[37:27] Speaker 2: step out in front of it? And say it's me God,
[37:34] Speaker 2: it's me Esaul, and present yourself in a position of vulnerability.
[37:42] Speaker 2: I haven't been the husband I aughto have, Bet, I
[37:45] Speaker 2: haven't been the friend I aughto have. Bet. You want
[37:49] Speaker 2: right relationships, it's going to require the right posture, And
[37:54] Speaker 2: the right posture is for not for you to try
[37:57] Speaker 2: to make yourself appear impressive. If you really want to
[38:00] Speaker 2: connect with people and stop pivoting from issue.
[38:03] Speaker 1: To issue, you gotta deal with what's with them.
[38:09] Speaker 2: Come out from behind your herds and stand before he
[38:15] Speaker 2: saw and face your fears, and face your failures, and
[38:22] Speaker 2: face your frustration. And when he saw Jacob on the ground,
[38:30] Speaker 2: he took out his buck knife and.
[38:33] Speaker 1: Put it in there.
[38:34] Speaker 2: Wouldn't that be crazy if that happened next and Jacob
[38:36] Speaker 2: died right there? Wouldn't that be crazy? In that just
[38:40] Speaker 2: what you expect is going to happen. If you ever
[38:43] Speaker 2: get real and come out from behind what you're hiding behind.
[38:46] Speaker 2: Come on, be honest, you are scared to death that
[38:48] Speaker 2: if you ever show the real you, if you ever
[38:51] Speaker 2: get out from behind all the religious talks, Because one
[38:54] Speaker 2: of the things that people hide behind more than anything
[38:56] Speaker 2: else is their religious pretension. Spiritual sounding and seeming stuff.
[39:06] Speaker 2: But he comes out from behind that and watch what
[39:08] Speaker 2: he saw. The This is like the father in the
[39:10] Speaker 2: prodigal son's story. This is how God treats every every son,
[39:14] Speaker 2: every daughter that comes running home with no excuses, but
[39:17] Speaker 2: just an admission.
[39:18] Speaker 3: I have said.
[39:19] Speaker 6: He saw, ran to meet Jacob and embraced him.
[39:27] Speaker 2: The thing that he had been hiding from for two
[39:32] Speaker 2: decades was handled.
[39:36] Speaker 1: The whole time. I came with an announcement.
[39:42] Speaker 7: What you're hiding from has already been handled. The same,
[39:49] Speaker 7: the guilt, the disgrace, the disappointment, the uncertainty. I need
[39:55] Speaker 7: you to turn to your neighbor and tell him in
[39:57] Speaker 7: your best Olivia Hope voice, it is handled.
[40:01] Speaker 6: It's handled, it's handled, it's handled. On top five people,
[40:05] Speaker 6: it's handled, it's handled, it's handled, it's handled.
[40:13] Speaker 1: Well, that's the.
[40:14] Speaker 6: Gospel that he already took my sin. He already took
[40:18] Speaker 6: my sin.
[40:19] Speaker 1: He already.
[40:20] Speaker 5: Now it's to the cross, my sin on the bliss of.
[40:24] Speaker 1: This glorious song.
[40:26] Speaker 3: My sin not it, but but.
[40:29] Speaker 2: No, it is now to the cross.
[40:33] Speaker 3: It's handled, it's handled.
[40:39] Speaker 2: It's handle, it's handled, and you don't have to flee it.
[40:47] Speaker 1: Anymore.
[40:48] Speaker 2: You don't have to fight it anymore. All you have
[40:52] Speaker 2: to do is face it. Face it.
[41:00] Speaker 8: I'm not running from relationship to relationship to relationship, from
[41:04] Speaker 8: job to job to job, from church to church to church.
[41:19] Speaker 1: With my hidden issues unhealed.
[41:26] Speaker 2: He blessed him when he came out of hiding and
[41:31] Speaker 2: opened his heart. Now, if you will open your heart,
[41:38] Speaker 2: God can handle your issues.
[41:42] Speaker 1: The only thing that.
[41:43] Speaker 2: Has kept God from doing a maturing work in your life, Jacob,
[41:47] Speaker 2: is that you've been so busy collecting herds and the
[41:52] Speaker 2: appearance of blessing that you've never made yourself vulnerable. When
[42:00] Speaker 2: you make yourself vulnerable, when you lift your hands to
[42:04] Speaker 2: God and you're not ashamed to say, honey, oh he
[42:14] Speaker 2: need Thank you for joining us special thanks to those
[42:19] Speaker 2: of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
[42:22] Speaker 2: of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
[42:25] Speaker 2: the link in the description to give now, or visit
[42:28] Speaker 2: Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information, and if
[42:33] Speaker 2: you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
[42:35] Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
[42:37] Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
[42:39] Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
[42:41] Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
[42:42] Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

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