From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Here is Jacob. He can't fight anymore. He's just clinging on to this man from heaven, this angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me go. I will not let you go unless you bless me. Now, was the Lord really wanting Jacob to let him go? No. That's a test. Don't ever give up. Develop in your heart this attitude of tenacity that says I will not let you go unless you bless me. I am not giving up, Lord. I'm not going to give up on my marriage. I'm not going to give up on my finances.

God responds to that. He loves that. And see if you will get brutally honest and you will get boldly tenacious, then you will get abundantly blessed and you'll be changed by God.

Larry Nobles: How can a man whose life had been so utterly rooted in scheming and deceiving find such tremendous blessing from the Lord? Would you like to know that God still loves you and has a great plan for your life even in your brokenness? In fact, even more so because of it. This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And thank you for joining us today as you'll discover how that can happen to you in a final message from the series Do you want to be blessed? How to experience the goodness of God? It's not too late.

Today's lesson and really plea from God is never let go. And if you missed part one from last time, just go to promiseheart.org, click the listen link, and you can catch up. Now though, turn to the Old Testament story of Jacob in the book of Genesis chapter 32 as Pastor Jeff continues a message filled with strong encouragement for all of us to never let go.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hey, do you want to be blessed? You really and truly want to be blessed? Three certainties for those who would say I'm serious about this thing called a relationship with Jesus Christ. Three certainties. Number one, certainty number one, if you're serious, God will meet you. And here is an instance where Jacob, who was hungry for the blessing of God, God met him in a difficult time in his life. God met him when he was trying to sleep and he was so afraid of what tomorrow was going to hold because he had to face Esau and he thought Esau was going to kill him.

And see, that's the way the Lord does us. The Lord wants to meet those. The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. And God will meet those who have a heart for him, who desire him. But he does some prep work in our before our meeting. Some prep work inside. See, the Lord, what he will do is he will work to get you needy. Jacob was needy. And God does his best work, his deepest work when we're alone and we see our need.

And so that's the very first certainty in this story. Hey, if you're serious, God will meet you. My God in his loving kindness will meet me. God met Jacob. And then secondly, second certainty, if you are serious, really serious, you really want to be blessed, watch this. God will not only meet you, God will break you. What happened with Jacob? Then Jacob was left alone and a man, an angel of the Lord, I believe it was a pre-incarnate visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ, he wrestled with him until day break. And what are they wrestling about?

Jacob is not unlike so many people in church, so many people who know know the Lord. Jacob knew the Lord and Jacob depended upon God, but not completely. Jacob is leaning big time on his own understanding. How am I going to get out of this jam I'm in with Esau? And he's got this elaborate plan, bringing all these gifts and doing all these things and there are going to be waves of gifts and I'm going to I'm going to you know, just wear Esau down and and soften his heart and he's going to do this all.

So God comes to this guy who wants to be in control. And he wrestles for control. And it's illustrated and pictured through the wrestling match. What did the Lord do? He touched his hip. Just touched him. Boom, and his hip goes out. He's lame and he can't fight and he can't run. And he's facing Esau in just a few hours. It would be really good if he could run or if he could fight. He can't do either. He's broken. Wow. He's in a tough spot, broken, but that's where God wanted him to be. Now listen, you get this down in your mind and in your heart.

God cannot really bless you until you're broken. And God cannot really use you until you're broken. Hey, if you're serious, you're serious about God really blessing your life and God's hand really being upon your life, God will meet you. Certainty number one, certainty number two, God will break you. And then certainty number three, God will teach you to depend on him. Here's Jacob, like so many of us, trusting God but not fully, depending on God but not really fully. And when he's in a jam, he trusts in himself and he schemes and he connives and he tries to get everything to go the way he wants to do.

He's a control freak. And in order to walk with God, you have to yield control to him. So God is going to do a great work to get Jacob dependent completely and totally on God. He touches his hip and then the scripture says let me go, verse 26, for the dawn is breaking. But he said I will not let you go unless you bless me. He can't fight anymore. He can't wrestle anymore. All he can do is hold on. I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him what is your name?

And he said Jacob. Interesting. Interesting. Hey, if you really The blessing is getting ready to come and it comes to him in verse 29. Verse 29, that's where the scripture says and the Lord blessed him there. Well, the blessing is getting ready to come. So hey, how does the blessing come? What does Jacob do? There are two things that he does. See, this other stuff God did. God met him. God put him in dire straits. God orchestrates everything. If you're in dire straits today and you think what has happened, God must not love me anymore.

God orchestrates all those things to get you in a place where you have to look up. That's not necessarily the devil that's attacking you. God is allowing things to happen to you. Why? So that you'll look to him so he can bless you. And so here is Jacob and God did all these things and God touched his hip and God brought the brokenness. But now here are two things that Jacob did. Number one, if you want to be blessed, you must get brutally honest. Brutally honest with God. And when the Lord says to him when he says in response I will not let you go unless you bless me, then the Lord said to him a strange question What is your name?

Well, didn't the Lord know his name? Of course he knew his name. Lord knows everything. Anytime God asks a question, he's not asking for information, right? He knows everything. But he 's asking to test Jacob. He's asking to say Jacob, are you willing to face up to who you are and what you are? What is your name? 20 years ago before this event, Isaac asked Jacob when he was feeding him the food, he says who is this, my son? And he said I am Esau, your firstborn liar. You're not Esau. Hey, what is your name?

Remember back then your name was your your character and your name fit together. What is your name? My name is Jacob. My name is heel grabber. My name is trickster. My name is swindler. My name is cheat. My name is supplanter. You're asking me about who I am. That's who I am. And he got brutally honest with himself. He looked squarely in the mirror of self to see what he could see. Have you noticed how we don't like to do that? We do not like to do that cuz it's an ugly picture and so we don't want to look at that.

We want to dress it up. We want to say I I don't want to look at that. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about somebody else. I have a good friend of mine and he used to talk about things in my life and he was kind of like, you know, the log and the speck. You know that kind of deal? And Jesus said don't don't deal with the speck in your brother's eye when you got a log in your eye. Deal with the log in your eye first. Well, a friend of mine, he was always dealing with the specks in my eye and I would say to him well yeah, but what about you?

He said Jeff, we're not talking about me right now. How nice. I found out from him we never talked about anything other than me. I mean he was all It's like hey, when is it your turn? You know? Redwood eyes. I mean they just hitting everybody, you know? He's wanting to pick out the speck. And we're like that. Jesus said don't be like that. Deal with a log in your own eye before you mess with the specks in your brother's eye. I heard about a couple, man and his wife once or twice a week as they would sit down for breakfast.

The wife would comment on the neighbor who was putting out the laundry on the clothes line. And she would say look at that woman. She doesn't know how to wash. Look at her laundry. Her clothes are dingy and dirty and she's putting them out on the clothes line. They're not ready to be dried. They're still dirty. And she was just appalled and she would always tell her husband look at that. And then you know, couple times a week when she would do laundry, the woman would always come and look at the It's dirty clothes on the Somebody needs to help that poor woman to teach her how to wash.

Well, that happened week after week after week. Then one day she looked out the window at the breakfast table with her husband. She goes well, would you look at that? Somebody taught that woman how to wash. She finally has clean clothes on the clothes line. Who do you think helped her? And her husband says I don't know if anybody helped her, but I do know I got up early this morning and washed our windows. That's the way a lot of us are. We're looking out at dirty windows and pointing out all the things in other people's lives.

Hey, it's not my brother, it's not my sister, but it's me, oh Lord. Standing in the need of prayer. Hey, you want God to really bless you? You have to get brutally honest. In the book Good to Great, they talk about businesses becoming great. It's one of the first things they have to do, face the brutal facts. You got to look at the brutal facts of your business. In a life, you got to look at the brutal facts of your life. Where are you right now? Who are you? How have you been living? If you're not willing to face the brutal facts, God can't work in your life.

God doesn't work in darkness. He doesn't walk in darkness. You have to come to the light. Remember what Jesus said? He was in the world and he was the light of the world. But why didn't men come to him? Because men's deeds were evil. And they didn't come to the light lest they should be exposed. The Pharisees You know why they hated Jesus? Because he was the light and he exposed them for being fakes and hypocrites. So much better for them if they had just come to him and said all right, here I am. My name is Caiaphas and I'm a fake and I'm a hypocrite and it is all about me and I want to be changed.

And the Lord would have changed him. The Lord would have saved him and his life would be would have been so much different. Hey, what about you? Are you willing to face the brutal facts? If you really and truly want to be blessed, you're never going to be blessed unless you face the brutal facts until you get brutally honest. And then the second thing he did, you must get boldly tenacious. Verse 26 should be a life verse for many of us. Let me go for the dawn is breaking. But he said I will not let you go unless you bless me.

Get the picture. Here is Jacob. He can't fight anymore. He has no more base anymore. He's just clinging on to this man from heaven, this angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me go. I will not let you go unless you bless me. Now, was the Lord really wanting Jacob to let him go? No. Well, he says let me go. That 's a test. That 's a test. How much do you want me, Jacob? How much do you want to be blessed by me? How much do you want my hand to be upon your life?

Let me go. You know what many of us do? We get that little test from the Lord. Let me go and we say okay, we'll forget it then. You're not going to answer my prayer. You're not going to help me. Forget it then. All you do is break me. I don't want to follow you. Forget it. We get all puffed up. We get mad at the Lord. We just let go so quickly. Do you remember the story about the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus and she said help me, Lord, for my daughter is cruelly demon possessed?

He didn't even answer her. So she came and she bowed down before him and she said help me, Lord. And he said I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she said please, Lord, please help me. Please help my daughter. And he said this to her it's not good to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. Wow. Do you have to be so rude? Do you have to be so insulting, Lord? Here I am broken. I am weeping before you. I am asking you for help and you call me a dog?

Well, forget you. Why did I ever come here? You're nobody's friend. You're nobody's savior. You're nobody's Lord. You need to have a go to a remedial course and just common courtesy. It's the way a lot of us would have been. You know what she said when he said it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs? She looked up at him with faith, with a clinging kind of faith. And she said yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And Jesus said oh woman, your faith is great.

Be it done to you as you wish. Did Jesus want to heal her daughter? Did he want to perform a miracle for her? Yes. But he put up an obstacle. He put up a test to see how much do you want this. Are you going to come and then get tired and then just quit or are you going to do what the scripture says and knock and keep knocking and seek and keep seeking of ask and keep asking? There is something about the heart of God that just responds to tenacity, that responds to persistence. And Jesus, when he told that story in Luke chapter 11 about the friend who had somebody visit him at midnight and he didn't have any food for him, so he goes over to his other friend's house down the street and he begins to knock on the door.

He says hey, let me It's midnight. He says hey, hey, let me in. I need to get some some bread for my friend who came to visit me. I don't have any bread and I got to put some bread before him. And the guy is like go away. It 's midnight. Do you know what time it is? It's midnight. We're all asleep. You you're bothering us. And the guy just kept knocking. Please help me, help me, help me. And he wouldn't go away. And Jesus said this. He said I tell you even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

And then he went on to say ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. And the Greek means to ask and keep asking, to seek and keep seeking, to knock and keep knocking. And don't ever give up. Develop in your heart this attitude of tenacity that says I will not let you go unless you bless me. I am not giving up, Lord. I'm not going to give up on my marriage. I'm not going to give up on my finances. God responds to that.

He loves that when we do it. And he blessed Jacob because of his honesty, because of his tenacity. And see if you will get brutally honest and you will get boldly tenacious, then you will get abundantly blessed and you'll be changed by God. Verse 28 And he said your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him and said please tell me your name. But he said why is it that you ask my name? And he blessed him there. Do you really have to ask my name, Jacob?

Jacob named that place Peniel. Why? Cuz I've seen God face to face. I wrestled with God. I know who this is. Is God himself. The Lord blessed him. How did he bless him? He changed his name. Once you get honest about who you are and where you are and what you've done, you get honest before the Lord, he changes you. He says you're no longer Jacob. You're no longer trickster, supplanter, cheat, liar, conniver. Your name is Israel. Israel, one who strives with God. G. Campbell Morgan said this the significant of that name literally means is meant to mean to us Israel is a God-mastered man.

Israel is a God-empowered prince. Why? Now you're dependent upon me, Jacob. You're not dependent upon yourself. You're dependent upon me. Your name is no longer Jacob. It's Israel, prince with God. You fought with God and prevailed, but he didn't really prevail, did he? I mean he he was the guy with a dislocated hip just holding on. He prevailed against God because he lost and he yielded. And he was broken before the Lord. And he was able to say basically in effect not my will, but thine be done. And that's when you win when you yield.

Larry Nobles: Have you been brought to that place of brokenness and dependence on God? Well, you're listening to Promise Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today who is really pleading with all of us to never let go. Why? Well, because God wants to bless your socks off. That's a fact. And Pastor Jeff Schreve will conclude the lesson Never Let Go in just a moment. Now you've just heard part two of this message, the entire lesson available on CD, DVD, or MP3 download when you go to our website at promiseheart.org. It's also one of eight in the series Do You Want to Be Blessed?

How to Experience the Goodness of God? And you can find out how to get this series when you go to promiseheart.org, click the listen link. There too you can listen again to any of the broadcasts from this month that you may have missed. The theme this past month has been about God's grace and the wonderful and miraculous part of God's grace is that when you become a child of God with a surrendered and repentant heart, he never lets you go, never. Some people mistakenly believe that all human beings are children of God, but the Bible doesn't say that.

Those who surrender their hearts to Christ are According to the Gospel of John, those who believe in and receive Jesus are given the right to become the children of God. The apostle Paul writes that believers receive adoption as sons and daughters, allowing them to call God their father. And being God's child means a person is defined by divine love and divine grace rather than any past mistakes or worldly status. He never lets go of his children. If you'd like to know more about this and find out how to become a child of God, we'd love for you to go to our website at promiseheart.org, click the Y Jesus link.

Now let's conclude the lesson Never Let Go. Here again is Pastor Jeff to describe the second way that God blessed Jacob through his brokenness.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And not only was he given a new name, he was given a new walk. And he didn't walk the same after he met God. It's totally different. Now in our story he he is limping on his thigh in verse 31 cuz his thigh was dislocated. It was dislocated the rest of his life. It says in Hebrews speaking of Jacob by faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on the top of his staff. Why? Why was he leaning on his staff? Cuz the rest of his life his hip was dislocated and he walked with a limp and he walked with a cane and a staff.

And here he was at the end of his life blessing the sons of his son Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, blessing those boys. And he does it leaning on his staff. You know what that tells me? Tells me he learned to depend upon God. We sing that song Learning to Lean, Learning to Lean. I'm Learning to Lean on Jesus. He was learning to lean. God had taught him to depend upon him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. God blessed him, gave him a new name, gave him a new walk to signify to you and me hey, if you really get honest and tenacious with the Lord and let him break you and desire more than anything to say I will not let you go unless you bless me, the Lord will give you a new walk with him.

And people will notice and it will be a blessing to others. So we end the series with the question do you really and truly want to be blessed? Will you get honest, brutally honest? And will you get boldly tenacious to say God, I will not let go unless you bless me. How serious are you?

Larry Nobles: Are you truly desiring God's best for you, his full blessing? If you're serious, God will break you and he'll teach you to depend on him. And the blessing will be far greater than you could even imagine as a child of God. What a dynamic and comprehensive understanding of God's grace today on Promise Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. As a listener of Support a Ministry, we would like to ask you to come alongside us this month with a gift of any amount. And when you do, we'll send you his series Beyond Amazing Understanding the Grace of God.

Just go to promiseheart.org or call 866 40 Bible. And when you do go online, you can also download any broadcast in MP3 format along with Pastor Jeff's sermon outlines and notes. Click the listen link to get those. And when you're there online, be sure to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly Real Hope email encouragement devotional letter. You'll receive it every Friday morning in your inbox. Again, go to promiseheart.org and click the sign up right there on the home page. Thank you for being here today. I'm Larry Nobles. Trusting you'll be right back here next time.

Pastor Jeff will again open God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart.