Pastor Loran Livingston 🔥[A SHOCKING WORD FROM GOD] You Must Hear This NOW! | Prophecy

[applause] >> That's good singing, isn't it? Thank you choir musicians. Thank you for all your hard work all the time.

Good to see you today. Merry Christmas everybody. What?

That was it? Merry Christmas everybody. That's more like it.

It is a delight to see you and for the next month we're going to be enjoying lots of traditional things. Have some great services here at Central. And >> [music] >> who knows?

This could be our last Christmas before we get to see him. Amen to that. Lots of times Pastor Greg will get up and he will welcome everybody as I've done today.

And then he will mention Lake Park in Wilmington, right? Well, I welcome Lake Park in Wilmington today, but I'm going to welcome some other people that are watching right now from all over the world. Right watching this service now worshipping with us are friends and brothers and sisters from Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Caracas, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, man, JAPAN, JAPAN, KENYA, Lao People's Republic, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Poland, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, SIERRA LEONE, SINGAPORE, SLOVENIA, SPAIN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAIWAN, TANZANIA, THAILAND, TOGO, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turks and Caicos, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, UNITED STATES, VIETNAM, VIRGIN ISLANDS, ZIMBABWE.

WELCOME TO THE SERVICE TODAY. >> [applause] [cheering] >> THERE THEY ARE, WATCHING YOU RIGHT NOW. >> [applause] >> AND THAT INCLUDES 49 states in this country.

We don't know what's happened to Wyoming. We just can't get anybody to watch. It's Wyoming.

Maybe nobody's left. Who knows? We're going to go to God's word today.

It's a beautiful day, and this is Our hearts have been prepared by the music. And God is here. Thank you, Father.

Words can never fully express our praises to you. Let it be our lives that cry out, "Thank you," by the way we live. I pray for everybody here today.

I pray for Johnny. Lord, I ask you to touch his body. I pray for the people who force themselves to come to church today because they are in such a a struggle.

I pray for people here who don't yet know you. They are searching. They're not sure.

They don't think the Lord can save them. They think their sins are worse than anybody else's. I pray that you will help them to know that you died for all sins, for all people.

And there is no sin that your blood cannot wash away. So, as we delve into your word today, speak to our hearts, open our eyes. In Je- Jesus' mighty name we pray.

Amen. Thank you for being seated. I'm going to the 32nd chapter of Genesis.

I'm going to go over the life of Jacob. And I have to tell you something. Last Tuesday morning, as I was in the shower, the Lord gave me a message for today.

So, from Tuesday in the shower until 4:00 this morning, I thought that was the message. Man, did I pray over it and work on it. And at 4:00, the Lord woke me up.

I don't understand all this. And I've been doing it a long time. The Lord changed my mind.

So, what I'm about to preach to you, I give to you since uh 4:00 this morning. His name is Jacob, grandson of Abraham. Jacob's got problems.

He is socially inept. He can't get along with anybody. When he was in his mother's womb, he started the first fight with his brother.

You know that sibling rivalry? Um when he grew up in life, he tricked his dad into giving him his brother's blessing. He couldn't get along with neighbors, couldn't get along with his other relatives like Uncle Laban.

Because he was a deceiver. He spent his whole life thinking he had he had to stay one step ahead of everybody. That everybody was out to get him.

And he had to fend for himself. He spent those formative years trying to slick up his approach to life. He always had plan B.

Are you like that? You already know if this happens, you're going to do that. And if that doesn't happen, you're going to do this.

Are you one of those that's always thinking got to stay one step ahead of everybody else? It's a bad way to live. It's a terrible life.

And Jacob lived that life. Well, now that he has prospered greatly, he has wives and uh children and lock lots of uh livestock. He's He's a pretty wealthy man.

But since he tricked his brother Esau, they haven't seen each other in a long time. But now he's about to move into Esau's territory and he's uh thinking about what he did. Yeah, it's coming back to haunt him.

And so he says, "I know what I'll do. I'll send some people on ahead with some gifts for my brother." And he sent them and said, "Go tell my brother Esau, I want to see him. Oh, but be sure and give him all these gifts." Then he got thinking about it cuz that's what deceitful people do when they try to stay ahead of everybody else.

They got to thinking, "Well, what if that doesn't work? Um what will I do?" And so the messengers came back and said, "Oh, we gave him the gifts, but he's coming with 400 soldiers." And Jacob said, "Okay. Next step.

I'll divide up my family. I'll send half of them this way and the other half that way. That way if he attacks this family, this one will be safe or vice of versa." He all You know, he had it planned.

So the Bible says that he took his female two female servants and his two wives and his 11 sons and they crossed over the Jabbok and he sent them over. He said, "Goodbye. Go." Now the story gets interesting.

The Bible says at night. Did you know half of your life is dark? There are 12 hours of darkness every day.

You're going to spend about half your life in darkness. The same is true for your walk with Christ. About half of it's going to be spent saying, "What?

I don't understand this." He arose that night. The Bible says he sent them over. And Jacob was left alone.

Alone at night. Family gone. Nobody to talk to.

Thinking about what could happen next. And here's what he did. On the previous page, the Bible says that he said to God, "Lord, you said You said, 'I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'" Ever been there?

Dark, alone, God's word isn't working, and you're reminding him, "But you said this, Lord. It's in your word. This is what you said, Lord.

What is the problem here, Lord?" Have you ever made a decision you thought was the right one, but it wasn't? I have. I'm thinking of two right now.

I thought it was the right thing. They were prayed over. I felt blessed.

And it was wrong. Then Then what's the problem, Pastor? I don't know.

I want to talk to you for a moment if you're a new Christian. Christianity cannot be uh glamorized. Christianity's warfare.

It's hard. There are difficult days in the faith. There are days when there is no answer, and there are days when the answer you thought you got was the wrong one.

And if you live long enough and serve the Lord long enough, you will find yourself in a dark place by yourself saying, "But your word says." "And Lord, I thought I did the RIGHT THING. I PRAYED ABOUT IT. I don't know what else to do." Oh, yeah, you'll find yourself there.

And there won't be anywhere to go, and there's nobody to talk to except you and the one I'm about to read to you now. Then Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

Everybody knows that that man was God, Jesus preincarnate. Even Jacob acknowledged it. When Jacob was at his lowest, darkest point with no answers and trying to tell God what God had promised him, but it wasn't working, that man showed up and wrestled with him.

I I have to point this out. I'm not reading that Jacob wrestled with him. I'm reading that he wrestled with Jacob.

What's the difference? Jacob wasn't in a wrestling mood. Have you ever been too weak to wrestle?

Have you ever been so weary in well-doing that you say, "I can't do this anymore. I don't understand this scripture. I don't understand God.

I don't understand me. I can't do this anymore. And what I want you to understand today if not you rushing after God to take him down and a wrestle a blessing out of him.

It's God taking you in your weakest, lowest moment and saying, "Now I've got you right where I want you." See, God knew how deceitful Jacob was. God knows how deceitful you are. He knows how deceitful I am.

Don't look at me like that. We all got a streak of deceit in us that would shock us if they'd put it on that screen up there. And God sees it all, and God knows it all, and God can't stand any of it.

But God loves us enough to say, "I'm going to get it out of you." You see, ladies and gentlemen, Jacob was a rotten guy. A a sinister, slick, deceitful dude. But God's hand was on him.

Yeah. God's hand was on him. And when God's hand is on you, God will, for the rest of your life, be working you out of you.

My mother used to make the best biscuits I ever put in my mouth. Besides the ones Sandra's made. Ooh.

Holy Spirit just said, "There's that deceit." I got it. It's there. Let me just just Let me just tell the story.

What? >> Hers were the best. >> Hers were the best, she said.

And here's what we would do, Janice, Dennis. We've seen this how many hundreds of times. Mom would have that wooden dough trough.

Do you young people even know what I'm talking about? And she would put the flour in it and then the buttermilk and then some butter. And she would roll that and stir that and roll it and it would begin to dry and then she'd put in a little more flour and a little more buttermilk and a little more this, that, and the other.

Finally, she had a a nice ball of dough. Then she would lay it out flat and knead it. K N E A D, if you're a millennial.

Or a Gen Z-er or an X Y Z or F T H or A T F or L G B T I don't even know anymore. So, she would lay it out and take her her knuckles and knead it. Just like that.

Now, I just loved to watch that. I'd walk up and stick my finger in it. Then she'd take the rolling pin and roll it out to just the right depth.

She was making something that would be absolutely luscious in just a little while. Now, I'm sure if dough were alive, dough would say, "Does it take all this?" But you are alive. And I'm telling you that's exactly why God lets you go through the things you do.

God loves you too much to let you stay the way you are. He loves you so much. He wants that nasty deceit, that attitude, that sin, that selfishness, that self-reliance out of you.

And so he puts you in a place. Yes, he does. I made the wrong decision.

Did you? Or did God let you walk into that place? I THOUGHT I PRAYED ABOUT IT.

YOU MAY HAVE. BUT YOU SEE the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. See what I'm telling you today?

You can pray and read and and find yourself in a lonely, dark place saying, "BUT YOUR WORD SAID, LORD." And God shows up for a wrestling match. God says, "Don't just tell me what I said. Get down here on the ground with me.

Let's see what you're made of." Don't just yell at me and remind me, "Lord, you said. Lord, you said." Go with me to the mat. And let's see who wins this.

And that's exactly what God did. Let me explain something to you, brothers and sisters. You are never closer to anybody than when you are wrestling with them.

You can't get any closer. You can't be any more involved than when you are locked in combat. And that's why God likes wrestling matches with his children.

Because if he did everything the way we think he should, if every scripture was really simple, there would be no pursuit of God. There would be no times where we just lay in front of him and wait on him. I come I have come to believe that God has put some scriptures in the Bible to confuse you.

So, you will keep after it. Because God wants to wrestle. I don't know if you heard me or not.

So, I'm going to say it again. You cannot be closer to God than when you are in a dark, lonesome, lonely place and the scriptures don't seem to speak. And yet God is there.

One time Jacob said, "Surely the Lord was in this place and I didn't even know it." You see, we're looking for God I'm going to preach. Some of you are looking for God in a big service like we're having right now. MAN, I FELT GOD THERE.

Listen to you who are new in the Listen to me, you who are new in the faith. This is not really everyday Christianity. This is weekend worship.

Everyday Christianity is when you walk out of here. And you don't have all your compadres. And you don't all have have all your support group.

And you don't have everybody patting you on the back and saying, "Come eat lunch with us." No, real Christianity kicks in when everybody's gone and you get alone and your heart is broken and the prayer isn't answered and the scriptures just don't seem to work anymore. And we think that we left God back at Central Sanctuary. But God said, "No, I'm going home and we going to wrestle." Dennis and I used to wrestle a lot when we were growing up.

And it's true, you know, it usually turned into a fist fight. Where did he go? You want to check on Johnny?

Well, now I can say anything I want to now. You know, sibling brothers. And we would watch uh wrestling, professional wrestling, and get all worked up.

We even made our own championship belt. We got an old belt of daddy's and wrapped it up in aluminum foil and that was the championship belt and we'd fight every day for the championship belt. We'd wait for mom and daddy and Janice to leave the house and we'd rearrange the furniture in the living room, make a ring out of it.

And just fight, just beat each other half to death. Hear the car drive up in the driveway, get all the furniture straightened up, daddy walk in, "What y'all been doing?" "Oh, we've been studying in there." He said, "Why is your lip bleeding?" "Oh, I Dennis hit me." Point is, without being really silly, wrestling is a part of Christianity. Wrestling is when there is opposition.

There is contest. And God relishes wrestling with the people for whom his son died. God will do what it takes to get us close to him.

God will do what it takes to get Jesus to shine out of us. It's one thing to get saved and get Jesus in us. But then God starts the process of getting Jesus outside so people can see him.

And we forget that we're not home yet. We're not in heaven yet. We're still on Earth.

We're still in the needing process. We're still being prepared by God to be more and more like his son Jesus Christ. And so as they wrestled the man Jesus said, "Let me go for the day breaks." That doesn't mean Jesus couldn't stand the sunlight.

It just meant this battle is over. You have wrestled with me and I have wrestled with you and this one is over. Now let me go for the sun is coming up.

But Jacob said, "No, you started it. And I will not let you go until you bless me. I need help.

I'm alone. I'm scared. I don't know what my brother's going to do.

I don't even know where my family is right now. I need help." And so the Lord said to him, "What's your name?" He said, "Jacob." He admitted it. "I'm a deceiver." That's what Jacob means, deceiver, trickster.

"What's your name? Admit it. CALL IT WHAT IT IS.

I I'm a deceiver." "What's your name?" "I'm Jacob." And he said, "Well, your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel." Israel means prince of God or one who wrestles with God. One who contends with God. For you have struggled WITH GOD AND WITH men and have prevailed.

God said, "I see your faithfulness and your determination in this matter. Now let me go. The sun's coming up.

It's time for you to get out and go do what you're supposed to do." Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me your name, I pray." And he said, "Why are you asking about my name? You already know who I am." That's what he's saying. But, he blessed him right there.

So, Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, "for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. Therefore, to this day, the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank. Can I tell you something?

This is a nugget. Wrestling with God will change your walk with God. You ever wonder why God hit him in the hip, and he had to limp for the rest of his life?

So, HE WOULDN'T RUN ANYMORE. ALWAYS RUNNING AHEAD OF GOD. ALWAYS STAYING OUT IN FRONT of everything else.

Not anymore. He limped the rest of his life. You know, I just thought of something.

Thank you, Lord. If you remember when Moses was before the burning bush, and the Lord said to him, "Take the sandals off your feet, for you are on holy ground." I looked at that. I chewed on it.

I wondered about it. Boy, did I come up one time with an answer for that. Why would he tell him to take his sandals off?

Because that dirt, that ground there in that part of the world, every rock is like glass. There's nothing really smooth about that kind of rock and sand. It's like glass.

That's why Moses had his sandals on, AND GOD SAID, "YOU PROBABLY WANT TO TAKE YOUR SANDALS OFF, cuz when I tell you what I'm about to use you to do, you're going to try to run away. I want you to understand something, ladies and gentlemen. If you knew what God had in store for you, you might want to run away.

THEREFORE, GOD JUST GRABS YOU IN A wrestling move and takes you down and wears you out and needs your selfishness out of you SO THAT WHEN YOU STAND UP, HE SAYS, "YOU'VE WON THIS BATTLE. YOU HAVE PREVAILED WITH GOD AND MAN. IT IS A NEW DAY.

NOW, GO OUT AND BE WHO I MADE you to be." >> [applause] >> Folks, listen to me. And this is it. Listen to me very carefully.

God will do these things so YOU WILL STOP RELYING on you. YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH SENSE TO HELP YOURSELF. YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH STRENGTH TO DELIVER YOURSELF.

YOU DON'T HAVE IT. WHAT YOU NEED CAN ONLY COME FROM GOD. AND GOD KNOWS THAT YOU DON'T WILLINGLY GIVE it up.

So, he's got to wrestle it from you. But thanks be to God, WHEN HE GETS THROUGH, I MAY BE LIMPING, BUT I'VE BEEN BLESSED IN THE PRESENCE OF ALMIGHTY GOD FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. >> [applause] >> STAND WITH ME.

THAT'S SOME GOOD PREACHING right there. When I mention the fact that sometimes you're just too weary to wrestle. That's a real thing.

I also found this over in Galatians. Galatians chapter 6 verse 16. You got to hear this part of it, too.

None of this is complete without this. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. In other words, works and religion don't cut it with God.

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Then he says, "And as many as walk according to this rule, as many as believe what he just wrote, peace and mercy be upon them." Listen, "and upon the Israel of God." Upon the Israel of God. You see, all of those who believe in Jesus Christ, Jews and Gentiles alike, become the true Israel of God.

But notice what he called them, Israel. Strugglers. WRESTLERS.

GUYS, BROTHERS, SISTERS, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE YOU'RE GOING TO STRUGGLE WITH GOD. STRUGGLE WITH HIS WORDS, STRUGGLE with his ways. Wrestle.

Be confused. Feel like stomping the ground. I've done it many times.

Just slam the Bible shut and say, "I can't do this anymore." You mean a pastor does that? Yeah. Cuz I'm just like you.

The Israel of God. Which means if today you happen to be having one of those high moments and life is kind of in order right now, go ahead and enjoy it. Hey, enjoy.

Cuz the rest of us are down in the dust and the dirt, sweating and wrestling with an almighty God, having us needed out of a stretch. It's you just do this all the time. Israel of God.

But here's the promise. You have prevailed with God and man. Anybody that can get up one more time, do it one more time, believe it one more time, sing it ONE MORE TIME, PRAISE IT ONE MORE TIME, has prevailed WITH GOD AND WILL prevail with man.

I JUST What about this scripture? Didn't even use it in the first service. What about this scripture?

When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace [music] with him. Who heard me? How does that work, preacher?

Folks, I don't know how it works. I just preach this stuff. And you work it out.

When a man's ways please the Lord, WHEN A MAN JUST WANTS TO OBEY GOD, WHEN SOMEBODY JUST WANTS WHAT GOD WANTS, God prepares things in front of them. God will even make enemies be at peace with you. They may still hate you, but they can't harm you.

I just made myself happy. Praise the Lord. >> [applause] >> If you find yourself if let me say this first.

Council members, elders, wives, come on up. Whoever's involved in the prayer this morning. If you find yourself in a wrestling match, if you find yourself confused, don't know what to do next, [music] thought you did the right thing, ended up in the wrong place, now you don't have any idea what to do, God ordained all of this.

Your father woke me up this morning and changed the message so you could walk down here and have somebody that's already been through a lot agree with [music] you in prayer. So, while we hum and sing, I want you to come on down if you want somebody to agree in prayer with you. And that's exactly how we're going to spend the remainder of this service.

Come right on down. These are good people. They know of the faithfulness of God.

God bless you. >> Out in the FLC, feel free to go down front. They're there [music] to pray with you.

>> His love >> [music and singing] >> is great. He's so wonderful, my Lord. >> [music] >> Thank you, Lord.

We lift up holy hands today. We thank you, Jesus Christ, for every struggle, every wrestling match, we look back and see that it was you who started it >> [music] >> and you will finish it. And when you finish it, we will be more like you.

I praise you for that, Lord. I can't make myself more like you, Lord. You have to do it for me.

So, may we all be surrendered. May we all be receptive. May we all be patient because you've got a lot to get out of us.

Thank you for what you've done so far. >> [music] >> In Jesus' name we pray and the whole church said, "Amen." Love you, church. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, my redeemer.

Amen. Next time, God be with you. >> I need you.