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Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull. And I'm U.S. paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull. As athletes, our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came to getting the best mortgage, we chose PennyMac. PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services, LLC, Equal Housing Lender and NMLS ID 35953 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply. Hey, this is Steven Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. I want to go back to Jacob. Jacob is going to be our Valentine's date. We're going to learn some lessons about life and love and loneliness from Jacob. We'll pick up in Genesis 32:19, Genesis 32:19. He also instructed the second, the third, and all the others who followed the herds. You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And be sure to say, your servant Jacob is coming behind us. For he thought, I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead. With these gifts I am sending on ahead. Later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me. So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives. Touch somebody say, don't get any ideas. His two female servants and his eleven sons. And crossed the ford of the jabbok. And crossed the ford of the jabbok. After he had sent them all across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. I want to speak to you today on the subject hidden issues. Hidden issues. I pray that the Spirit of God would help make application to the truth in this text. Let's pray to that end. Father, I lift up every need before you today and ask that you administer. Do surgery. Provide knowledge, wisdom, insight, conviction. Yes, God. Even comfort and encouragement to every heart so that we may leave this place very different and very assured that you are with us and for us in all we do. In Jesus. Name. Everybody who loves Jesus and who wants to hear a little sermon about Jacob shouted Amen. Before you take your seat, if you're married, turn to your spouse and say, this counts as our date. We got you a concert, a feast on the word of God. What more could you want? Amen. Thank you, worship team. Have you guys been enjoying the Hearers in Heaven album? Well, praise the Lord. I hope so. There's blood and sweat, tears, joy in those songs. Listen to them and crank them up. Roll up beside somebody at a red light, turn it up loud, and say, this is my church. Well, it's the first weekend of our next decade. How about that? Your response is not indicative of the gravity of this occasion. It is the first weekend of. Of our second decade as a church. To celebrate. I want to talk about your issues. Touch your neighbor and say you have issues. They're not surprised by that. Depending on your proximity, you could continue that conversation in great detail, depending on how you see them. It's an interesting season in America because, well, we're in a season where almost every three days there are people on stages debating about issues. Have you been watching the debates? No, Stacy, you don't watch Them. I don't understand why you wouldn't watch them. They're fascinating. Where else are you going to see grown people demonstrate that level of selective hearing and answering? Usually you only get this with 4 year olds and 5 year olds. To me it's fascinating. I watch not because I'm so civically informed or patriotically inclined. I'll admit to you, I've. I do consider myself engaged, but really I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated by the ability of some candidates more than others. I won't name names, but there is one candidate that trumps all the other ones who just has the ability. Whenever you think about him, you have to marvel at how he can take any question and pivot. They call it a pivot. That's not just for NBA. They can pivot. It's like an all star watching somebody who is so adept at the art of pivoting from whatever issue is raised to the platform he has established. They all do it, but one candidate does it exceptionally well. This particular candidate, who shall remain nameless. He enjoys conversations about walls. If you ever watch him, anything they ask him, anything they ask him, he can take it to a wall in less than a second. Just real quick, it all comes back to the wall. Touch somebody and say, it's all about the wall. With this guy, it's all about the wall. You ask him a question. Mr. Candidate, what do you think about the education issues in our country? Well, I think the children in our schools need to feel safe while they're being educated. So I'm going to build a wall so they feel safe. It all comes back to the wall. Anything you ask him, what's your foreign policy? I'm going to build a wall. What about women? Women love walls. Just anything you ask him is quick. I don't care what you believe about politics or even where your value says system is. That's not my point. My point is some people can pivot from any issue to their platform. None does it better than Jacob. I want to keep him back there on the pulpit for a minute. I want to talk about how sometimes you can have a real strong opinion and be really ignorant of the issues. Because I asked a young staff member at our church the other day, if you're voting today, who would you vote for? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. He told me real quick who he wanted to vote for. I said, wow, why? He said, I like him, I like him. I said, I didn't ask you who you wanted to have wings with. I said, who do you want to be the leader of the free world? So why do you like him? He said, I don't know, Just something about his personality. It baffled me that a grown up could be so narrow in their thinking that you would reduce your decision about who you want to be the president of your country to a personality type. Don't even care where they stand on the issues. Don't even really want to understand the issues. Just, I like him. It seems pretty crazy that you would put more weight on someone's personality than you would on their position on the issues. If this person is going to make decisions that will affect not only you, but your children, it seemed crazy to me. It hit me on Valentine's Day that some of us enter relationships on the same basis. By which my staff member said they would pick a president is that you connect with people based on their personality and have no idea about their issues. Tell your neighbor again, you have issues. You have issues. Look back at them in response, say, well, you have a subscription, so get off me. Issues. I see Jacob as someone who was greatly blessed by God, even though he had deep issues. Jacob had issues. Jacob was born with issues. Jacob started a fight in Rebekah's womb because of his egocentric issues. He was born with a twin brother who was scheduled to come out ahead. But something within him wanted to disrupt the birth order. Issues. Everybody say issues. Come on. I'm a participatory preacher. Say issues. We met a guy on our Valentine's Day. You got to do it four days early, by the way, for all you rookies that are trying to go out on Valentine's Day, you'll learn. The guy seated at the table, come to church. I love it. He said, what's up with the touch your neighbor stuff? I said, what do you mean? He said, you always touch your neighbor this and touch your neighbor that. I told him, I said, motion creates emotion. I can't have you falling asleep in my sermon. So every once in a while, I'd like you to turn to your neighbor and tell them you have issues. Do it again. Tell them you have issues. I noticed some of y' all are saying that really emphatically, by the way. Some of you are making a list. It's true, though. When you get into a relationship with someone, you often see their personality before you discover their issues. This is not necessarily a relationship sermon or marriage sermon, but I thought in the spirit of the season, I would just throw some little bit of advice in there before you get Engaged to somebody. Take inventory of their issues. I don't mean you have to know everything about them, but don't ignore their issues because you like their personality. Do you see what I'm saying? Jacob had issues that ran so deep that when he couldn't be born first, he tried to find a way to trick himself into the birth order. By the way, for those of you who are new to our church and you want to study this in greater detail, you can check out a series I did. I did a whole series on Jacob called Death to Selfie. The church loved it. It was a good time. It's actually on Netflix. You can go watch it on Netflix. It's on there. So instead of binging on the House of Cards, you can binge on the Word of God. Amen. Put it on the Netflix. Jacob deceives his brother. Later in life, he comes out ahead in a sense. And I won't review all the material, but I was going to a pastor's conference, and I preached on Jacob to our church for several weeks. And the Lord took me back to this passage. I thought I had worn out. So when I was looking at it, I was like, God, I got Jacob. I preached in five weeks. The spirit of God said, you haven't even scratched the surface of Jacob because you talked to the church about his relationship with God, but you never got to his encounter with Esau. That's what I want to talk about today. There comes a time in your life where you have to make peace with Esau. See, Esau is the one. Let me teach a little bit. Esau was the one Jacob had struggled with but never prevailed against his whole life. Esau was the one Jacob pretended to be to get what he thought he needed to have. Esau was the one Jacob even subconsciously and prenatally had problems with. He was predisposed to wrestle with Esau before he had a conscious thought. Now he's 97, and he's preparing to meet with Esau. And if you have a Bible with pages, there's probably a heading on chapter 32 of Genesis that says, jacob prepares to meet Esau. Because there comes a time that no matter how much God has blessed you and no matter how much you've grown to accumulate stuff, or no matter how good your body looks, or no matter how fit you are in your physique, you cannot outrun your dysfunctional relationships forever. One of the greatest blessings that God gives is peace. If you want to pray for anything, pray for peace. Because if all of your prayers center around provision. If you have the provision, but not the peace, you have the external stuff without the internal infrastructure to even enjoy what you prayed for. Pray for peace. The greatest blessing God gives us often has little to do with the resources he provides, but the relationships he restores. We're looking at an Old Testament picture in Genesis 32 of Jacob, who has been able to pivot his whole life. Pivot. So when he gets in trouble at home, he runs to his Uncle Laban's house. When he accidentally marries Leah after serving God for Rachel seven years, he's able to pivot and get Rachel. Anyhow, when Laban begins to cheat him, the Bible says his heart turned against him. Jacob was able to have the business savvy and the common sense to devise a system by which he could stay ahead. But Esau. Esau is that enemy. Esau is that thing he has been fighting against and fleeing from his whole life. By the time he prepares to make peace with Esau, he has been hiding from him for 21 years. I want to ask a question. What are you hiding from? It is the central question of my discourse today, and I believe it's a penetrating question if you'll really answer it in your heart. What are you hiding from? No matter where Jacob turned or where Jacob went, what Jacob did, what he accomplished, there was always Esau. It's the battle he was fighting when he was nine months old. It was the battle he was fighting when he was 97. What is your Esau? What is the thing that no matter how many herds and cattle and goats and relationships you acquire, there is always an Esau? It's your hidden issue. It is not the thing you mention to the people in your egroup. It is not the thing you talk about to people you just met. It is the thing beneath the thing beneath the thing. It is not your behavior. It is not your symptom. It is your issue. Church is ineffective when preachers only address behaviors, because until you get to the issue that creates the behavior, the behavior will manifest because the issue wasn't healed. Where are you hiding from? Your heart may be in hiding because of your fear of rejection. Your heart may be in hiding because of your fear of failure. I understand why Jacob had issues. It's pretty plain in the text. Well, the Bible says there was a lot of favoritism going on in Isaac's household. In fact, I'll show you the scripture. In Genesis 25:28, it says that Isaac, his father, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau. But rebekah loved Jacob. There it is. No wonder the guy spent his whole life in hiding. Because from a very early age, he discovered that he didn't have what his father wanted. He didn't have the skills to be acceptable in the sight of the ones whose affirmation meant the most. When that happens to you, you develop all kinds of devices to hide behind psychologically. They call this abandonment issues. They say that when you have abandonment issues, it can happen through a divorce. It can happen through abuse. It can happen through love with help. It can happen through a circumstance that is so embedded, you can't even remember what it is. But when you have these abandonment issues, they tell us that you tend toward two extremes. One is attachment, and the other is avoidance. You attach. This is Jacob grabbing the heel of Esau, or you avoid. This is Jacob running from that same brother he was trying to attach himself to. One thing I love about God's Word is that it doesn't just address my spirituality, it addresses my psychology. In Jacob, I see an illustrated sermon about the psyche of someone who is running toward and chasing something they can never get, meanwhile running from something they don't want to face. I believe every person in our church can relate to Jacob hiding from an Esau in your life, hiding and hoping, hoping that no one sees you for who you really are. So you invent methods by which to be impressive. That's what Jacob did. He makes a plan. He makes a plan to hide his issues. He gets his messengers. You have to understand, in the last 21 years, Jacob was not struggling. Jacob was prospering. Jacob was succeeding. Jacob was accumulating. Jacob was working his way up. By this time, Jacob is very rich and he has a lot of kids. So he's on the external level, doing pretty well for himself. What he does, and I think we all do this, is he tries to use what he has accumulated to hide who he is. It's the right amount of quiet today. I can tell I'm on that nerve. I'm up in your stuff. Touch your neighbor, say, come out of hiding. Come out of hiding. Come out of hiding. Jacob gets a strategy. He gets a plan. He calls his messengers. He has a lot of people working for him. He has a lot of representatives. And he calls his representatives and he says, here's what I want you to do. Line up the goats and line up the rams. Line up the camels and line up the cows. Line up the bulls. Get some donkeys, male donkeys, female donkeys. Put the servants out there. He arranges what's around him to hide what's within him. Maybe Esau will accept me if I send him a goat. Maybe Esau will accept me if I send him a donkey. Maybe people will like me if I make them laugh.
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Ha ha ha ha ha.
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I'm the life of. When I get alone. What I had out in front of me can't help me for the battle I have to fight within me. We all have herds that we hide behind. It is those things. It is those inauthentic personality traits that you project, fearing that who you are is not enough. How could it be enough? Isaac never loved me. How could it be enough? Nobody has asked me to marry them yet. How could it be enough? I'm the last person invited. How could it be enough? I sound stupid when I talk. How could it be enough? I don't know what other people know. How could it be enough? I wasn't raised right, so now I'm hiding behind my herds. It can be money. Some people hide behind money. It can be labels. Some people hide behind labels. It can be brands. Some people can't hide behind brands. It can be language. Some of you talk in a way that is not even indigenous to your personality. I'm listening to you, trying to figure out who you're mimicking. I put something in my book. I'm going to preach on my book in two weeks. You got to come. It's going to be great. I'm going to preach on it. My mom asked me one time when she heard my band play. She listened to the concert. We did all kinds of COVID songs from Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish, and Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam and Kurt Cobain from Nirvana and all these great bands. The kind of music you just can't get anymore out there in the cold streets of today's modern society. She said, it sounded good tonight because I was a lead singer. She said, I have a question. When are we going to hear you sing? She said, tonight, I heard an imitation Hootie. I heard somebody trying to sound like Pearl Jam. But it's kind of hard to sound like Pearl Jam when you just hit puberty. But see, what I was doing was I was trying to project what I thought would impress. And you cannot be blessed while you're projecting to be impressive. You can't be really blessed that way. Jacob had a plan. He said, I have issues with Esau, but if I send my gifts, this is why I preached it at a pastor's conference. I told the pastors I was preaching to in California. I said, you, gift can only get you so far. Because if you're good with a microphone, you can hide behind a microphone and suck as a husband, Hide behind a microphone and be absent as a father. Hide behind a microphone and inwardly not have a real connection with God and be preaching stuff God showed you 13 years ago because you've mastered the technique. I ministered that to the pastors and it was really tense in the room. Because anytime God peels back your Persona, anytime you can't do what you do and you have to come to terms with who you are, it puts you in an awkward position. But that's the place where God blesses you the most. Not while Jacob was lining up the cattle. Not while Jacob was configuring the cows. But the Bible says I have to show it to you again. It's so beautiful. I love the way the scripture weaves together the historical narrative and brings it into alignment with my current psychological condition to show me that there is a way forward, no matter what I've been through. It said Jacob thought, look at verse 20. Jacob thought, I will pacify him with these gifts. I will pacify my problem with my Persona. I'm not going to make peace with it. I'm just going to pacify it. So I develop ways to get through. I'm really sarcastic. And the reason I'm sarcastic is because if I'm sarcastic, I don't have to be sincere. So I hide behind sarcasm. People think I'm cocky, but what they really don't know, that what they see is overconfidence, is really just a little girl scared to death because I'm hiding behind my herds. People think I'm arrogant, but what they really don't know is the reason I'm coming across so strong is because I'm scared to death that they're going to find out I'm a fraud. And I don't know what I need to know. So I'm hiding behind my herds. And this Esau, this issue, it remains hidden behind my herds. And what I hide, God cannot heal. I cannot make peace with what I am content to pacify. So I'm sending out my best. I'm sending out my stuff. I'm sending out all my stuff. And maybe then they'll like me. And maybe then they'll love me. Maybe then if I buy them stuff, maybe I'll buy them stuff. Maybe that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll sleep with him. If I sleep with him, then maybe I can keep him. If I give him my body, maybe then he'll give me my heart. I'm going to hide behind my herds. But the only problem with this approach to life is what you get them with is what you have to keep them with. So if you get them with a fake you, what are they going to.
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Do when they see the real you?
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Man, Help me preach this sermon. It's those hidden issues I'm encouraged because the Bible says that when Jacob sent his gift ahead, he remained alone in the camp to every lonely person. Today, I want to encourage you to know that the places of your greatest isolation will often become the places of your greatest revelation. Jacob had seen God in the form of an angel when he was with people. But he only saw God's face when he was all alone, separated from his stuff. He sent his gift ahead, but he himself spent the night in the camp. And God dealt with him. And God pushed him around a little bit. God brought him to his breaking point. So much so that the Bible says when he got done and left that camp, he was limping. He was limping, but he was blessed. His hip was dislocated, but his identity was now securely in place because he found out who he was. God said today through the preaching of his Word, he was going to restore unto you an awareness of your identity because you've gotten so enmeshed and entangled with your stuff and your skills that.
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You'Ve lost your sense of substance. But today is the day that the hand of God is upon you heavy to show you who you are.
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Wow. So he crossed the ford. Look at verse 22. He crossed the ford of the jabbok. Say what?
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The who now?
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The Jabba.
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Jacob.
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Crossed the jabbak. Let me try it like this. All his life, he thought he was fighting against Esau. For 21 years, he thought he was running from Esau. But God showed up to show him that the only real enemy he was ever fighting against. See, I've learned this because I want to digress for a minute, that the real enemy is not the issue. I see. Your life will change, your marriage will change, your relationships will change when you stop trying to fix Esau. Jacob crossed the Jabok. Do you think those two sound similar on accident? Do you think there's a sense of poetic justice in the mind of God that he wants to show us that all the time you were running from Esau, all the time you were running from issues, all the time you were running from relationships, all the time you were running from Fears. The only issue is you. And if you can get right with you, you can get right with God.
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And if you can get right with God, God can make it right with Esau. That's three people.
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Tell them, get over yourself. That's the real enemy.
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It's the enemy in me. It's the chippok I have to cross. It's my pride I have to get over. It's my regret I have to get over. It's my scars I have to get over. It's not your issue that's holding me back. It's me, God, it's me. It's me. I won't let you go till you bless me.
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The practical implications of this revelation are staggering. If the only thing you really have to cross over is your own misconceptions of what it means to be accepted by God, you're going to be all good. Single, you're going to be all good. Married, you're going to be all good. Touch them again. Say, get over yourself. That's my message today. Get over yourself, Jacob. If you can get over your conniving, scheming, dysfunctional ways, God will fix your relationships. On the other hand, if you don't get over yourself, you're going to carry your issues into your next relationship. And your issues are only going to increase when they are multiplied by the human interaction that is required for you to connect with another person. When you have not even learned to correctly connect with yourself. That's free. The issue is you. I am not responsible for fixing Esau. When I do battle with the enemy in me, the insecurity in me, it starts with an I. People issue starts with I. I'll try to get an Apple endorsement here. You need to start sending more I messages. Not you need to. And you need to. And if you would just. And if they would just. And they don't want you to. And I don't want. And they don't want. No. I will bless the Lord at all times. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am the head and not the tail.
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I am a child of God. I will not fear, though the darkness beset me, though the enemy and rage around me. I, I, I.
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How can I make peace with Esau if I can't even make peace with me? God is so good. Because if you will devote yourself to the issues within you, he'll handle the issues around you. He'll do it. I'm going to prove it. I'm going to prove it. You have nine minutes. I Can prove it in nine minutes. When Jacob finally met Esau after he left the jabab, touch somebody and say, it's you, it's you. It's you. It's you. It's you. It's you. It's you, it's you. It's you. It's you. You have to wrestle with. It's you. You have to contend with. It's you. You're misinterpreting people. It's you. You're blowing things out of proportion. Even if it's not, what can you do if it's them? I can only do me. So Jacob crossed the Jabba. He was preparing to meet Esau. But Esau was wasn't even his enemy anymore. Can I show you? Can I show you? I didn't get to this in Death to Selfie. I'm the one to get to it. I'm waiting a year and a half, so you have to watch this. That night, when Jacob got ready to set out, it says in verse. I think it's actually later than that, guys. It's verse 33:1. Jacob looked up and there was Esau. There was Esau. This is the guy. This is the thing. This is what I need. This is it. This is why here comes Esau. He thinks Esau is going to kill him. Because when he saw him 21 years ago, the last thing that was echoing was Esau said, I'll kill him if I ever get my hands on him. Jacob was fast. So Jacob got out of there. And now Jacob has to come back. Because you can only run for so long. You can only hide for so long. It's eventually going to catch up with you. Eventually you have to deal with the real issue. You can only pivot so much. Fighting against people, it's going to wear you out. Jacob is 97. He can't run anymore. Now he has a bad hip. So he's limping up to Esau in a compromised position, in a vulnerable state. Here's Esau with 400 men. Esau, the skilled hunter. Esau, still steady with a bow, even though his hands have arthritis. Esau, I'm filling in some details for the imaginative time. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants. He put the female servants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear, because that's the ones he loved the most. But he himself, that's my phrase. He himself went on ahead and bowed down. He himself, before he had sent his stuff out ahead. But now he sent himself before. He had surrounded himself with the appearance of success. But now he steps out from behind all of that and bows down. It is in that weakened state that a limping Jacob meets his enemy of 97 years as he lays prostrate, all of the pain he has caused now cumulating in this moment. The Bible says when he went out ahead of his stuff, when he came out from behind his Persona, when he came out behind the appearance of having it all together, when he came out behind his need to look cool and look right and sound right, when he came out from behind. It is when you come out from behind that God can bless you. It is when you stop hiding that he can heal you. What are you hiding from? What are you hiding behind? Do you want to be healed bad enough to step out in front of it and say, it's me, God, it's me, Esau. And present yourself in a position of vulnerability. I haven't been the husband I ought to have been. I haven't been the friend I ought to have been. You want right relationships, it's going to require the right posture. The right posture is not for you to try to make yourself appear impressive. If you really want to connect with people and stop pivoting from issue to issue, you have to deal with what's within. Come out from behind your herds. Stand before Esau and face your fears and face your failures and face your frustration. When Esau saw Jacob on the ground, he took out his buck knife and put it in the. Wouldn't that be crazy if that happened next and Jacob died right there, Wouldn't that be crazy? Isn't that just what you expect is going to happen if you ever get real and come out from behind what you're hiding behind? Come on, be honest. You are scared to death that if you ever show the real you, you, if you ever get out from behind all the religious talk. One of the things people hide behind more than anything else is their religious pretension, Spiritual sounding and seeming stuff. But he comes out from behind that. And watch what Esau did. This is like the father in the prodigal son story. This is how God treats every son, every daughter that comes running home with no excuse, excuses, but just an admission. I have said Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him.
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The thing he had been hiding from for two decades was handled the whole time. I came with an announcement. What you're hiding from has already been handled. The shame, the guilt, the disgrace, the disappointment, the uncertainty. I need you to turn to your neighbor and tell them in your best Olivia Pope voice, tell them it's handled. It's handled. Come on, tell five people it's handled. It's handled. It's handled.
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His handle.
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That's the gospel that he already took my sin. He already took my shame. He already nailed it to the cross. My sin on the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole. It is nailed to the cross. It's handled.
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You don't have to flee it anymore. You don't have to fight it anymore. All you have to do is face it. Face it. I'm not running from relationship to relationship to relationship, from job to job to job, from church to church to church, With my hidden issues unhealed. He blessed him with. He came out of hiding and opened his heart. Now, if you will open your heart, God can handle your issues. The only thing that has kept God from doing a maturing work in your life, Jacob, is that you've been so busy collecting herbs and the appearance of blessing, you've never made yourself vulnerable. When you make yourself vulnerable, when you lift your hands to God, you're not ashamed to say, I need thee. O. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to Give now or visit elevationchurch.orgpodcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us evationchurch. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
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In this episode titled “Hidden Issues,” Pastor Steven Furtick uses the story of Jacob from Genesis 32 as a metaphor for the psychological and spiritual battles we face with our own hidden struggles. He explores how many people go through life projecting impressive personas and acquiring external markers of success, all while avoiding, pacifying, or hiding deep-seated internal issues. Through Jacob's encounter with Esau, Furtick illustrates the necessity of vulnerability, self-awareness, and facing one's inner struggles in order to experience true healing and spiritual wholeness.
“You connect with people based on their personality and have no idea about their issues.” ([12:34])
“He arranges what's around him to hide what's within him. Maybe Esau will accept me if I send him a goat.” ([22:56])
“What are you hiding from? … It is the thing beneath the thing beneath the thing. It is not your behavior. It is not your symptom. It is your issue.” ([19:15])
“I will pacify my problem with my persona. I'm not going to make peace with it. I'm just going to pacify it.” ([27:35])
“The places of your greatest isolation will often become the places of your greatest revelation.” ([29:14])
“The only real enemy he was ever fighting against… It's the enemy in me.”
“Get over yourself. That's the real enemy.” ([33:06])
“If you can get right with you, you can get right with God. And if you can get right with God, God can make it right with Esau.”
([33:01])
“It is not your behavior. It is not your symptom. It is your issue.” ([19:15])
“You cannot be blessed while you're projecting to be impressive. You can't be really blessed that way.” ([25:46])
“What you get them with is what you have to keep them with. So if you get them with a fake you, what are they going to do when they see the real you?” ([29:07])
“If you have the provision, but not the peace, you have the external stuff without the internal infrastructure to even enjoy what you prayed for. Pray for peace.” ([17:57])
“People issue starts with I... I will bless the Lord at all times. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” ([35:07])
“The thing he had been hiding from for two decades was handled the whole time. … What you're hiding from has already been handled.” ([41:31])
Pastor Steven Furtick’s “Hidden Issues” challenges listeners to confront the deeper, often concealed issues that shape their relationships and spiritual lives. Drawing from Jacob’s journey, Furtick urges authenticity, vulnerability, and a willingness to cease hiding behind accomplishments or personas. The episode emphasizes that true transformation, lasting peace, and restored relationships come not from masking our struggles, but from stepping courageously out of hiding and allowing God to bring healing where we’re most vulnerable.
Key Takeaway:
If you keep hiding your Esau, you’ll never be healed. The very thing you’re running from, God has already handled. Come out of hiding—step forward with honesty and trust, and you will find blessing and restoration on the other side.