You can’t experience all of God unless you give him all of you. 
We are all prone to pretending to be someone we’re not. We all have things in our lives that we try to hide. But God can’t bless who we are pretending to be. 

Jacob, who we meet in Genesis 25,  illustrates that better than anyone else in the scriptures. This study looks at the life of Jacob, a man whose name means deceiver. Jacob deceived his brother and his father trying to get the birthright & blessing. But because of his deception he was never able to truly enjoy them. He got the blessing but had to run away. And while on the run, the deceiver was deceived by Laban. His life was filled with chaos because of his deception. Yet this pretender met reality and finally understood that God wanted him to stop pretending. God had a blessing from Jacob, and it wasn’t until Jacob owned his deception that God truly blessed him. And changed his name from deceiver (Jacob) to overcomer (Israel). 

LISTEN TO MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES BELOW

Pretender
​by Eric Gray
01 • Pretender Series
October 13, 2019

You can’t experience all of God unless you give him all of you. We are all prone to pretending to be someone we’re not. We all have things in our lives that we try to hide. But God can’t bless who we are pretending to be.  Jacob, who we read about in Genesis 25, illustrates that better than anyone else in the scriptures. This message looks at how and why Jacob got his name, and what that means for us.

Bad Trades
​by Andrew Howell
02 • Pretender Series
October 20, 2019

Have you ever made a bad trade? Maybe you got ripped off. Genesis 25 tells us of the time Esau made a bad trade. But his trade didn’t just affect him for a short time, it affected his entire future.

My Way or God's Way
​by Allan Eldridge
03 • Pretender Series
October 27, 2019

In Genesis 27, Jacob decides (with the encouragement from his mother), to take his future into his own hands. Even though the blessing was already his because of God’s prophecy, Jacob manipulated his father to steal the blessing promised to the oldest child. But Jacob’s story is our story. We also struggle with living our way vs. God’s way.

Middle Of Nowhere
​by Andrew Howell
04 • Pretender Series
November 3, 2019

What do you do when you’re in the middle of nowhere? God can do amazing things in our life when we find ourselves in the middle of nowhere. Jacob, in Genesis 28, found himself in the middle of nowhere. What he didn’t realize was that God would use this event as a transformational moment for his life.

Never Enough
​by Eric Gray
05 • Pretender Series
November 10, 2019

Approval and Achievement. It’s what we’re all seeking. We require it as part of our self-worth. But when we seek approval and achievement in unhealthy ways, it can lead to devestating results. This is seen in the lives of two women in Genesis 29-30 named Leah and Rachel.

The Wrestling Match
​by Allan Eldridge
06 • Pretender Series
November 17, 2019

In Genesis 32, Jacob is preparing to meet with his brother, Esau who he had not seen since stealing his brother’s blessing. The night before he meets Esau, God appears and begins wrestling with Jacob. It was on this night that Jacob learned a lot about God and about himself. And it’s in this story that we learn a lot about ourselves too.

Call It What You Want
​by Eric Gray
07 • Pretender Series
November 24, 2019

With her dying breath, Rachel names her newborn son “Ben-Oni”, which means “son of my sorrow.” But Jacob decides to call this child a blessing, so he names him Benjamin (Genesis 35:16-18). This story teaches us so much about ourselves and how to handle difficult situations in life.