From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Are you experiencing the blessings of God today? Do you really believe in the real God who is good? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Or have you believed in an imposter God who doesn't like you, who is disgusted with you, who has a disapproving look at you, who's turned his back on you? That's not God. God is a good God. God longs to bless his children.

Larry Nobles: Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. You know, most people want to be blessed, but they're not ready to receive the blessing. And you may say, well, how do I get on blessing ground? We'll find out today as Pastor Jeff Schreve shares biblical truth that will reveal how you can get on blessing ground and of course experience all God wants for you. Today's message is entitled Will the real God? Please stand up. We'll have part two today. It's from Pastor Jeff's eight-lesson series that we're airing for the rest of this month entitled Do you want to be blessed?

How to experience the goodness of God. If you like a copy of the entire series, go to fromhishart.org and click the listen link. Now turn to chapter six of the book of Numbers as Pastor Jeff answers this question and the title of today's lesson, Will the real God please stand up?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now we're going to look at the classic blessing passage today in Numbers chapter six. So if you have your Bible, turn to Numbers chapter six and I'll begin reading in verse 22. Number 6:22, Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and to his sons saying, thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. So they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel and I then will bless them.

Now I want you to notice with me six insights into the character and the heart of God. And we're going to go through these fairly quickly so you keep up. What do we learn about God from this blessing? Number one, we know that God is a good God who wants to bless you. Very simple, very straightforward, but very obvious. God is a good God who wants to bless his children. Look at it again. He says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and to his sons saying, thus you shall bless the sons of Israel.

Now God is not giving them a suggestion. He's not thinking, you know, Moses, I was kind of thinking about this. Might be a good idea to every now and then have Aaron say this to the sons of Israel. No, this is what Aaron is supposed to say. He shall bless the sons of Israel and he shall bless them in this way. It's a command given God to Moses to tell Aaron, do this to my people. Now why would God do that? Why is he saying that? Why is he commanding this blessing? Because God wants to bless his people.

So that's the very first insight. God has a good heart and the good heart of God wants to bless his children. He wants you to be happy. Second insight, God wants to give you protection and care. The Lord bless you and keep you. Keep you. The word for keep in the Hebrew is an interesting word, shamar, s h a m a r, shamar. It literally means to hedge about with thorns. It's a picture of being protected and being watched over and being cared for and attended to. It's the picture really keep, shamar. It's the picture of a shepherd who keeps his sheep.

Isaiah 41 says this, he will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. God wants to bless you. He wants to make you happy and God wants to keep you, to give you protection and care. And then it says in verse 25, the Lord make his face shine on you. Insight number three, God wants to make his face shine on you. He really does. So the Lord make his face shine on you. Why is why is he saying say that over my people?

Why? Cuz that's what he wants to do. God is looking in your direction. He's wanting you to look to him. He's saying, oh, will you just look to me? He He says in his word, all day long I've stretched out my hand to a disobedient and obstinate people. He's looking and waiting for you to look to him so he can make his face shine on you. His face is toward you. Insight number four, God wants to pour out his grace on you. The Lord make his face shine on you verse 25 and be gracious to you and be gracious to you.

Have you experienced God's grace in your life? God's grace is the unmerited favor of God. That means you didn't earn it. That means you don't deserve it. He just gives it to you anyway. Why? Because he's the God of all grace. And he wants to pour it out. Ephesians says he lavishes his grace upon us. God is a good God. Now here's one of the lies that the devil will uh propagate is you know the the God that uh that's the real God, you know, as he puts the his panel of imposters there, the God who's the real God, well, you have to please that God.

You have to do things to earn that God's favor, to earn that God's uh way into heaven. You have to do a lot of works. There was a man who lived in the 1400s, 1500s who was a monk who tried so hard to please God, so hard to please God. His name was Martin Luther. Luther said this, if ever a man could be saved by monkery, I was that man. He said I prayed more than anybody. I fasted more than anyone I knew. I I read more than anyone. I would beat my body to put it under subjection to the will of God and all the things that he did to try and earn God's favor and merit God's favor.

And one day he learned about grace. Wow. It set him free. But the righteous man shall live by faith. Wow. His faith in God's grace. Ephesians 2:8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, lest any man should boast. So you're not saved by your works. You're saved by his work on the cross. You're not saved by your sweat. You're saved by his blood. It's all about grace. Have you entered into his grace? Hey, listen, by his grace he approves of you.

By his grace, not by your works does he approve of you. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before God. It's by his grace that he approves of you. Numbers 6:26 in the amplified says this, the Lord lift up his approving countenance upon you. How does the Lord approve of me? By his grace. That's the only way he approves of me, by his grace. Because in and of myself I have nothing to commend myself to God and neither do you and neither does Billy Graham. Nobody does. It's all by grace.

But by his grace he lifts up his approving countenance. Ephesians chapter one and verse six says that we're accepted in the beloved because of grace. The beloved is Jesus and God accepts Jesus and God approves of Jesus and when I accept Jesus, I am in Christ and so God approves of me and accepts me because of Jesus because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. And when he looks at me, he looks at me with approval. Some of you are here and you say, you know what? I know God this is disapproves of me. I know he disapproves of what I do, what I did last night.

It's amazing that I'm even here today. The sin that I committed just yesterday. Wow. God, there's no way God could approve of me. He doesn't approve of the sin that you committed, but he approves of you if you're in Christ. He accepts you if you're in Christ. Do you remember what happened in Jesus' life at the very start of his ministry when he was baptized in the Jordan River? He came up out of the water. The Bible says the heavens were opened and the spirit descended on him like a dove and a voice came out of heaven that said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

Did you know that's true? If you know Christ that God says that same thing to you and about you, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter in whom I'm well pleased. Not just sins is he pleased with. He's pleased with you. My three daughters, I am pleased with them. Now I'm not pleased when they were whining and griping in the backseat on some of those trips. I wasn't pleased with what they did, but I was pleased with them because they were my beloved children. It's by grace God approves of you. By grace you can claim his favor, the favor of God.

Number 6:26 in the New Living says, may the Lord show you his favor. His favor. It's all by grace. The first sermon that Jesus preached in Nazareth, he preached from Isaiah 61 proclaiming the favorable year of the Lord. Favorable year. God wants to show his favor to you. It's the favorable year of the Lord. It's the day of grace where you can enter into God's grace and receive his favor.

Larry Nobles: We'll continue exploring this truth when Pastor Jeff Schreve returns on From His Heart in just a moment. You're listening to part two of the lesson, Will the real God? Please stand up. It's from the eight message series, Do you want to be blessed? How to experience the goodness of God. Speaking of blessings and the goodness of God, I want to tell you what happened to Alex because Alex's story says everything about why your support matters to us. Alex had drifted and he knew it. He had simply grown distant from God. The world slowly pulled Alex away from the Lord.

And then he began listening to From His Heart's broadcast and he wrote to us. He says, the Lord used your messages to soften my heart, to remove the scales from my eyes and a slow sanctifying process was taking place to turn my back on the world again and to run to Jesus. And that a wonderful letter. What brought Alex back wasn't guilt. It wasn't fear. It was the amazing grace of God. And through your faithful support to From His Heart, that life-changing message reached Alex every time he turned in. And we want to continue to reach more Alexes and Alexes and bring them back to serving the Lord.

For your gift this month of any amount, we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's impactful series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. It's available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download. Just make that gift at fromhishart.org or call 866-40 BIBLE. 866-40 BIBLE and request it by name called Beyond Amazing. Join us on this incredible journey of changing hearts from hopelessness to heaven bound. Now let's get back to today's lesson. Will the real God please stand up?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: See some people think, well, you know, God's just against me. I had a friend of mine in college and you know what his kind of his life verse was? Judges chapter two. I believe it was verse 15. And wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil. Do you ever put that on a card, on a card to encourage somebody? Put a little card in there. Judges 2:15, wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil. I mean, yikes. And that how my friend, he kind of believed in this imposter God who was against him because why?

He was struggling with sin in his life. God doesn't love me. God is against me. Wherever I go, the hand of the Lord is against me. And my friend, he desired to walk with God. He was just struggling. And what he needed to know was, hey, it's the favorable year of the Lord. God wants to help you out of that pit. God wants you to start claiming what is yours as a child of God. And what is yours as a child of God? His favor. His favor. That means when you're in a situation, you say all you know you don't say all nothing ever good happens to me.

I mean, I just know I'm going to get not get this job. I just know this isn't going to happen good for me or that isn't going to happen good for me. Why? Because I always get the short end of the stick. Quit thinking like that. Whatever is true, whatever's honorable, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's of good repute, if there's any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things and start thinking the favor of God and claiming the favor of God on your life. God wants to do good things for his children.

He wants to bless his kids. Have a Jewish friend of mine. Every time I talk to him on the phone, hey, how you doing? Blessed and highly favored. First time he did that to me, I thought, man, you're just kind of arrogant. You're blessed and highly favored. And then I caught myself and I thought, that's the way we're supposed to live. Believing God saying, hey, how am I? I'm blessed and highly favored. Man, God loves me. God is protecting me. His face is shining upon me. Man, I'm claiming the favor of God on my life.

Why? Because he wants me to. And he wants me to experience that and be gracious to you. God wants to pour out his grace. Insight number five. God wants to give his peace to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Peace. You know what the word is in the Hebrew there? Peace. It's the Hebrew word shalom. Shalom means well-being, at ease. It's literally tranquility of heart and life. Do you have that? Do you have peace? Hey, were you able to sleep well last night? Or was your mind just racing with pressures and worries and fears and all these different things and you wake up in the middle of the night and you think, oh, and you you just have such trouble.

Why? Because your heart is just stirred up like a tumultuous sea. And the Lord says, you know what I want to give you? I want to give you peace. And Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 27, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful. You just trust me. I love the song that talks about the person in the stormy sea. I believe it's a song that's a takeoff on the disciples when in Mark chapter four when they were in that sea and Jesus was asleep in the boat and it says, sometimes he calms the storm and sometimes he calms his child.

But however he does it, he wants you to be at peace. He may calm the things outside of your life or he may just calm your heart. I had a dream not too long ago and Debbie and I were on a ship in Alaska and uh it was like, wow, we're back on our Alaskan cruise. It was so fun and it seems so real in my dream. And I remember in this dream we were going through a very narrow passage, this massive ship in a very narrow passage. There are houses on either side and the waves were huge.

Just big waves on the sea that you could you could look at. And I thought, wow, this boat must really be rocking. And in my dream the boat was so steady. There's probably 10-ft, 12-ft waves in my dream and the boat was just so steady. And when I woke up, I began to say, Lord, what does that mean? And what I got from that was Jeff, no matter what you go through in life, I want to give you peace, tranquility of heart and of life. God wants you to have that shalom inside. God is a good God who wants you to give his peace to you.

And lastly, God is a good God who wants to set his name on you. Look at verse 27. So they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel and I then will bless them. The word for invoke in the New American Standard, it's the same word in verse 26 that's translated give and give you peace. It means to put, to place, to set, to assign. This is what's so cool. God is such a good God. Will the real God please stand up? He's such a good God. He says, you know what I want to do?

I want to set my name on you. I want you to be mine, my child, the one I take care of, the one who's known by my name. The people would know that you belong to me. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 16 says this, God is not ashamed to be your God. He's not ashamed of you. He 's proud of you. Jeff, have you ever thought of that? God is proud of me? Oh, no, Jeff, God's not proud of me. He might be proud of you. He might be proud of other people. Maybe he's proud of Matt Reynolds.

Maybe he's proud of Larry Sims. Well, maybe not. But maybe he's proud of some other people. Hey, God is proud of you. He's not ashamed to be called your God. The desire of God's heart is that his name would be set on you so that you would be his. I love the story that's told by Mary Ann Bird. Mary Ann Bird was born with physical deformities. She was deaf in one ear. She had a cleft palate, a crooked nose, facial deformities. She was made fun of as a child, made fun of by the other students.

They'd say, hey, what happened to your lip, Mary? And she said, well, I cut it on a piece of glass. She'd lie just trying somehow to not seem weird and strange to them. Mary Ann Bird said in her school the worst day was when they would do the hearing test because she was deaf in one ear and she didn't want to seem weird to other kids. And And so when they the teacher would call you to the desk and the teacher would whisper and the teacher would make you hold your hand over one ear to see how well you heard out of this ear and then hold your hand over this ear to see how well you heard.

And she would whisper and she would whisper things like the grass is green. The sun is shining today. And you would have to tell her, now what did I say? And she would test your hearing that way. Mary hated that because it just highlighted the fact that she was deaf in one ear. So she used to try and cheat and she used to try and cup uh this good ear so she could really hear uh when they were trying to test the bad ear. And she said one day a new teacher came, called Mary to her desk, Mary Ann Bird.

Mary Ann Bird's thinking, oh, no. And the teacher did the whisper test. And she said, now cover your ear. And when Mary Ann covered her ear, she said these seven words that changed her whole life. She said, I wish you were my little girl. That's what God says. Thus you shall assign my name on the sons of Israel. And I then will bless them. God wants you to be his. He loves you that much. Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. Do you know him today? Are you experiencing the blessings of God today?

Uh do you really believe in the real God who is standing up, who is good? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Or have you believed in an imposter God who doesn't like you, who is disgusted with you, who has a disapproving look at you, who's turned his back on you? That's not God. God is a good God. God longs to bless his children. He said, Jeff, if God wants to do that in my life, how come I'm not getting blessed? How come I'm not getting in on any of these things?

You know why it is for so many of us? We don't show up to receive the blessing. We're like Charlie Bucket with the golden ticket and we just stick it in a drawer somewhere. And we don't come to Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory and say, hey, I got a golden ticket. And God says, you have something so much more than a golden ticket. You have an invitation from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to receive from me the blessing, all the goodness of God.

Larry Nobles: We have been and will continue to air messages this month about being blessed with God's grace. It's beyond amazing. And when we fully digest that truth, we'll be blessed with peace from guilt and fear and anger knowing that we're loved for eternity by God who created us to love him. And then we'll be truly blessed. Well, time is gone for today and the message called Will the real God please stand up? I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be right back here tomorrow when Pastor Jeff will have the next powerful insightful message from the series Do you want to be blessed?

How to experience the goodness of God. Join us on Friday as we learn the power that comes upon us when blessings abound. That's when we'll again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart.