DEATH TO SELFIE: NAMING RIGHTS - STEVEN FURTICK

"God is waiting for you to call things in your life according to what He said, not what you see."

~Steven Furtick

These are notes from Steven Furtick's message shared at the Deeper Conference at Grace Church in Humble, Texas

Thursday August 14, 2014
Steven Furtick of Elevation Church
#Deeper14

NAMING RIGHTS
#DeathToSelfie Series about Jacob

http://elevationchurch.org/sermons/deathtoselfie#

Genesis 35:3
Jacob discovered the presence of God was portable.
It could be carried to different places and people.
Bethels set up in different places.
The second time Jacob went to Bethel he went under position of surrender.
Throughout our ministries we try to negotiate with God.
God do this for me and Ill give you my heart.
Jacob loved Rachel because she had a good figure.
Leah didn't have a good figure.
Steven doesn’t know how drunk Jacob was to sleep with Leah instead of Rachel and not know.
When he worked for Leah, it represents the law.
After the bridal week he got Rachel and then worked for her.
This is a picture of grace: you get the blessing first and then serve out of love.
Jacob becomes a multi-millionaire.
He still has a limp.
If he doesn't walk right he'll feel it.
A reminder of his encounter with God.
Even Esau got blessed. [Genesis 33:9]
Jacob met with God, set up an altar, and made sacrifices.
¹⁴ Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. ¹⁵ Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel. Genesis 35:14-16
Genesis 35:16
They probably expected a blessing after making a sacrifice.
Some of the blessings in your life will come from relationships you never wanted (Leah was the one who had the sons).
God was creating a nation.
They were having babies out of dysfunction.
Rachel had Joseph and prayed for another child.
It happened, but not in the way she wanted/hoped.
Genesis 35:17 And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.”
The midwife - sometimes we need people to remind us of what God is doing.
As the baby breathes his first breath Rachel breathed her last.
There's always something dying in your life and something giving birth.
It's a matter of your focus.
She named her son Ben-Oni - Son of my sorrow.
The child took her last breath from her.
Oni also means strength.
Jacob watches the love of his life that he worked 14 years for die, and the servants say she wanted the baby to be called Ben-oni.
Jacob says "No way".
Fathers have naming rights.
John couldn’t speak until he said John's name. [Luke 1:63]
Benjamin
Jacob builds an altar makes a sacrifice then watches the thing he loves the most die.
Part of what we do is helping people name stuff that died in front of them, and helping them see a new thing is being born.
I have naming rights.
It used to be called Luz but I renamed it Bethel. [Gen 35:6-7]
Jacob lost the wrestling match but still was renamed.
Jacob knew he had naming rights when he looked at the baby; his father taught him how to do this.
Call him Benjamin - son of my right hand.
The hand of blessing.
All Jacob's life all he wanted was the right hand of blessing.
He takes something bad and calls it a blessing.
I’m renaming this situation.
It doesn’t feel like a blessing, it doesn’t look like a blessing, but it is a blessing.
Call it what you want!
I'm calling this sucky thing Victory.
Some people might call ministry an interruption.
Ministry is interruption.
As a minister you don’t get to create every situation that comes into your life, but God does.
Adam named the animals but God created them.
Whatever he called them, was their name.
I do get to choose what I call my circumstances.
Call it what you want.
Rewrite your story.
And the names of situations that you’ve been through.
Most people call it what it is.
That doesn’t take faith.
What takes faith is when you call it what you want.
Somebody here has been calling stuff incorrectly.
Gods waiting for you to open your mouth Zechariah and say His name is John.
God has exalted Jesus to the highest place and given Him the name above every name.
The Spirit of God is our Jacob's ladder.
Only fathers have naming rights.
He gets to name me.
He called me Righteous, Pure...
That other label is unauthorized.
You’d better start calling it what you want.
Warning: But this isn’t a message to justify mess.
Don't rename your promiscuity friendliness.
You know you have a birthright, but did you know you also have naming rights?
If you’ll pay the price for it you can call it what you want.
You owed a debt that you couldn’t pay.
You are the temple of God.
He said I’ve given you power to overcome.
I don’t feel like a conqueror, I feel like Ben-Oni.
God says I’m waiting on you to call Simon Peter.
I see you Simon, but I call you Peter, because on this rock I will build my church. [Matt 16:18]
I have naming rights over your dysfunction.
Quit calling yourself stuff that I didn’t ordain.
Let's rename some situations.
God I thank You for the place that I'm in.
I thank You for the place where You wrestled with me.
I’m calling this place blessed.
I bless You Lord!
Not because you changed my situation but because You changed my name.
You have naming rights.
God is waiting for you to call things in your life according to what He said not what you see.
You have too many midwives telling you how to interpret your situation.
Steven knows a man whose 5 yr old daughter died of asthma attack in his arms.
The couple never says "when Linda died" when speaking about their daughter.
They say "when Linda went to heaven".
I refuse to accept death as the end.
Because she still lives.
Now this is not a faith game of saying stuff we don’t mean.
Not denying reality; it's living according to a higher reality.
As Rachel died she named him Ben-Oni but his father named him Benjamin.
Genesis 35:19
Ask God what you should name things in your life.
Then God calls him Israel.
Israel moved on.
He felt like saying "bury me too".
He moved forward.
He might have come to Bethel strutting, but he left limping.
He moved on and pitched his tent beyond that place of death. [Gen 35:21]
Let's declare that we're moving on!
This is not the end in Jesus name!
You turn my mourning into dancing and my weeping into laughing.