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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I want just to read you one verse from Hebrews 1121.
[00:00:10] Hebrews chapter eleven and verse 21. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff.
[00:00:31] The writer of the letter to the Hebrews sums up Jacob's life with two things.
[00:00:39] He was at the end of his life, not at the beginning, but at the end of his life. He was able to do two things.
[00:00:48] He was able to bless others, or he was made a blessing to others and he was able to worship the Lord.
[00:01:00] To us perhaps it doesnt seem so much why out of such an interesting and long life, the Holy Spirit should sum up all gods dealings. The objective, if you like, the sum of all his dealings was to make Jacob into a man who was a blessing to others.
[00:01:29] For it was not only the two sons of Joseph that Jacob blessed, but if you remember, at the very end of his life, when he was dying, he blessed also pharaoh.
[00:01:40] And it is said in scripture that he, the one who blesses is greater than the one who is blessed. In other words, the scripture sees in Jacob someone intrinsically greater than Pharaoh himself, one who is able to bless, and not just a few words like God bless you, but able to give something to pharaoh, able to bring, as it were, the very blessing of heaven down upon that one.
[00:02:14] Because blessing in scripture, especially in the Old Testament, has an awful lot behind it. It's not just simply a few nice words, a few well chosen words, a nice phrase or two that are spiritually put together. No, the blessing of the Old Testament was one which often meant that a man walked in the favor of God because someone had blessed him, in the same way that a curse in the Old Testament was looked upon as something that gave over a person almost to the evil one. You get it? Of course, even in the New Testament, again and again strain comes in of blessing and cursing, of being delivered over to Satan for the destruction of our flesh, or being blessed with all spiritual blessings in those heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You see, they're not words.
[00:03:19] We might sometimes think their words because of our own sinfulness, which can cut us off from the blessing of the Lord or our own unbelief or faithless.
[00:03:30] So that it seems that we're living a contradiction. It seems that somehow or other we're not blessed with every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Our lives seemed to be without it.
[00:03:48] Nevertheless, the provision made for us is to become tooting as Jacob, to become a blessing to others, to God's own, as it's mentioned here the sons of Joseph. And even to the world as symbolized in pharaoh. And to become a worshiper of God. Now, isn't it interesting that when the Lord Jesus met that poor woman at the well of Samaria whose life was so wrecked, who's living such a. Such a lie, the one thing he said to her that got to the root of it after he had uncovered her need was this. The father seeketh such as shall worship him in spirit and truth. We might well have said what bulk here on one side is a woman who obviously, from her past history, a woman filled with earthly desires.
[00:04:52] She is a woman who perhaps may be the victim of circumstances. But whatever we might feel, she is someone who, through her own past, has become.
[00:05:05] Has had a life that's been spoiled and made sordid.
[00:05:11] And what does the Lord have to say to us? He speaks to her about worship.
[00:05:19] It seems, somehow or other in our hearts and minds to be entirely unconnected with her problems, entirely unrelated to her need. Entirely, almost out of gear with her past, her history.
[00:05:35] But you see, in fact, the Lord was getting right to the very root of her being.
[00:05:42] The thing that she was craving for and seeking to find in others was, in fact, only to be found in God himself.
[00:05:53] And it was as she found what it was to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. That's in reality. Not just these words that we sometimes use, but in reality, in fact, she would herself discover a new vista, a new experience of the Lord. Now, it is interesting that the other one whose life is summed up God's dealings with him and all that he's done with him is summed up by these two words. Is also a mandehead. Rather like the woman of Samaria. Only, I think, in many ways, far worse.
[00:06:37] Because of all the men on record. Jacob was undoubtedly one of the most twisted and the most dangerous of men.
[00:06:52] I think sometimes when we speak about Jacob, his name, as you know, means supplanter or twister. Literally or deceiver.
[00:07:03] His whole character was so crooked. It's so mixed, it's so compromised.
[00:07:09] It's so somehow or other out to do you out for its own advantage. I think sometimes we get an idea in our minds that he was fagin like to look at that he sort of had a long, gnarled nose. And a sort of evil ear upon his face. But, you know, it's not so.
[00:07:31] If Jacob was sitting here this morning, most of us would think what a nice man he was, what a nice brother he was. Because he undoubtedly was an affectionate type of person by nature. Affectionate and popular. He was the salesman, everything that goes with that type of nature.
[00:07:54] But underneath, you had to watch him, because all the time he was out for his own advantage. All the time he couldn't help it. There was something in him that was scheming and plotting and, as it were, maneuvering people and circumstances and everything into a place where it was at his fingertips, where he gained from it. Because there's one thing about Jacob, whatever he touched turned to gold. Whatever he did prosper, he was a success.
[00:08:25] But his excess, his success was at the expense of his character.
[00:08:33] His character took second place because he was able to turn everything to such good account for himself.
[00:08:42] If there is one person, therefore, in the whole of the word of God, who could less be a blessing to others spiritually or could less be a worshipper of God, it is Jacob.
[00:08:57] He is the exact opposite to worship.
[00:09:03] He is not the one who gives himself to others or gives himself to God. He is the one who all the time is catching. All the time is, as it were, out on the lookout advantage for others. Not a blessing to others, but all the time waiting to see if he can rob others of their blessing. And that's exactly what he did with his brother. It's exactly what he did with Laban, his uncle. All the way through his life, he was robbing others of their increase, robbing others of their blessing. He was getting, getting all the time he was getting. He wanted. He wanted the birthright. He wanted the blessing. He wanted the wealth of his uncle. He wanted his uncle's daughters. Everything he wanted. And he got it. He got the blessing. He got the birthplace, he got the wealth of his uncle. He got the daughters of his uncle. All the way to. It's a success story, an absolute success story.
[00:10:06] On the earthly level, God never got anything out of Jacob to begin with. Because, you see, when we're a blessing to others, it's because we're giving ourselves to others that service.
[00:10:21] You can only be a blessing to someone when you give yourself to someone.
[00:10:26] And the measure in which you hold yourself back and try to serve them is the measure in which you are no blessing to them. And they know it. We all know when a person's giving themselves to us or withholding themselves from us or going to, even if they go through the motions.
[00:10:42] Blessing is when you give yourself to someone blessed. To bless this world is to give yourself to him, as Jacob gave himself to pharaoh, made him himself, as it were, almost the servant of pharaoh. But he was able to bless him because he was bigger, he was greater than pharaoh. He had something to give pharaoh which pharaoh hadn't got. And he was able to give it to pharaoh as he gave himself, in the same way that he was able on his deathbed to give himself to the sons of Joseph unreservedly. He gave all that he had gathered, all that he had inherited, he passed on to the sons of Joseph. He gave. But you see, we can't be a blessing to God in that way. But when we give ourselves to God, we worship him, because worship is not just words, it's what we do.
[00:11:39] We can again go through the motions of worship and not be worshipping. We can speak words of worship and not be worshipping, because essentially, worship is when a person puts themselves unconditionally and unreservedly at the disposal of the law. That's worship. Now that was the thing that dear old Jacob just couldn't do. Because you remember from the very beginning, he was out to get what he could out of God.
[00:12:10] Like so many of us christians, his christian life, if you can call it a christian life, you know what I mean? His spiritual life was one of getting.
[00:12:20] Everything was judged by what he got. When the Lord visited him, he immediately said, now, lord, if you bring me back to this place, then I'll build you a house. But you bring me back to this place, I'll build your house then.
[00:12:35] In other words, it was a bartering. You promised me, you prosper me, you safeguard me, you be my security, and I'll do something for you.
[00:12:46] Or it was essentially what he could get out of God.
[00:12:50] That's why he wanted the birthright, that's why he wanted the blessing.
[00:12:55] That's why he wanted the security that God alone could give, because he was getting something out of him. And, you know, that's just like many of us. We're unaware of it, but our lives are not worship.
[00:13:08] It's true that when the Lord appeared to Jacob at Bethel, he put up a pillar and poured out oil on it, and it said that he saw the law.
[00:13:23] I bet he said, what a fearful place this was. He didnt worship.
[00:13:29] He didnt really worship then. It was a question of what he could get out of the Lord. That was the point. And thats why many of our christian lives are missing the point and the mark all together. Not only are we not a blessing to others, because we want them to give themselves to us, and we are not prepared to give ourselves to them in the same way, our lives are not lives of worship because we want all the time, the Lord to do things for us. We want to get everything we can out of the Lord. But we are not prepared to put ourselves unconditionally at the disposal of the Lord.
[00:14:12] But take courage.
[00:14:14] Jacob, in the end, became both a blessing and a worshipper.
[00:14:19] And I think it's placed on record for us, because the more you and I get to know ourselves, the less likely and possible it seems, that we shall ever become a blessing to others and ever become worshipers of God. Truly, the more deeply we see into our heart, the more our hearts are unveiled for us, the more it seems to us it's an impossibility that such a thing could happen. This self principle so deeply and walked into our very being is something that's going to take an awful lot of dealing with by the Holy Spirit through the cross before we can come to the place where we're a blessing, a pure, undiluted blessing to others and worship which is pure and undiluted real.
[00:15:12] But it's on record that through faith, Jacob became a blessing and became a worshiper.
[00:15:21] And so I'd like just simply to mention on God's side, three things. And on Jacob's side, a few things that I believe are the key to the way the Lord can change us. Because, you see, whatever else we might feel about our christian life, there are two things that have got to characterize it. If not at its beginning, certainly its end. And that is that we should become a blessing to the world and to the Lord's children, and that we should know what it is to be a worshiper. The Lord is spirit and neutral.
[00:16:01] I suggest there are three things upon God's side. The first is the sovereignty of God. And this may not seem much to some of you, but to me it comes to mean more and more. You see, Jacob. Oh, when God began to put Jacob into the mill, when Jacob was put into the furnace and began to discover what he was, who he was, his character.
[00:16:28] Unless he fell back again and again and again upon this fact. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated, he would have been done for.
[00:16:42] The point was, you see, that he could fall back on the sovereignty of God. And it's the same with you and I. Oh, forget Calvinism, forget Arminianism, and forget all the controversy and all the doctrines that seem to be in conflict. The point is this. When you and I explore the beginnings of our coming to the Lord, we come up against this one great rock, the sovereignty of God.
[00:17:08] You did not choose me, but I chose you all the time. You and I. If we're going on with the Lord, we come back to this bedrock of our salvation. He, in some marvelous and mysterious way, set his hand upon us.
[00:17:25] We cannot explain it. We cannot say what exactly happened. But we know this. That no one can come unto the father, unto the son, except the father. Dwarf. You're up against the sovereignty of God. We're foreknown. We're foreordained. We're people that God knew before time. Washington. Our very names have been written in the book of life. Before ever Adam and Eve were created, before the very foundation of the world. We were written in large letters into God's book.
[00:18:01] Now, can you get beyond that? Is there anything that antedates that? You can't. You see, your salvation. And my salvation is not a thing of the moment. Is not something that depends merely upon some decision that you and I make. No. It goes right back before this very universe came into being. It goes back into the mysterious counsels of God himself.
[00:18:25] How can you explain? Oh, some of you will go out of here, and your minds will start to work. Well, what about free will? And what about this? And what about the other? But you see, God is inscrutable.
[00:18:39] Well, what can you say about this? Jacob, I have loved, Esau. I have hated. You can say nothing.
[00:18:50] Is there anything more arbitrary, anything more categoric, anything more unconditioned than this? Jacob, I have loved. Esau. I have hated.
[00:19:09] And that before either were born.
[00:19:13] Before either were born.
[00:19:16] The sovereignty of God.
[00:19:19] Jacob's a worm.
[00:19:22] Jacob. It's characterless.
[00:19:24] Jacob will bargain his way through everything.
[00:19:31] He'll strike a deal with God if it suits him.
[00:19:36] And he can, as it were, corner God, if I may use such an irreverent phrase.
[00:19:44] But God loves Jacob.
[00:19:48] What more can you say? And you and I, how is it that we have come to Christ?
[00:19:55] How is it that we are found in him? How is it that he, in his faithfulness, has brought him to. Brought us to himself? How is it we can only say it's the sovereignty of God? Oh, before we were born, we were known. From our birth, we were known. God has followed us all the way.
[00:20:16] And so when you and I make discoveries about ourselves, it's no surprise to God. When we make a discovery about ourselves or about one another, we think, oh, how shattered the Lord must be, how unhappy the Lord must be. But it's no surprise to the Lord, because he knew the worst about Jacob. He knew more about Jacob than Jacob knew about himself. He knew the depths of wickedness that lay in Jacob. But just wait, there's something else we must add to that and swiftly. And that is the grace of God. The grace and the love of God. How can you explain that?
[00:20:55] Jacob's life was surrounded by the grace of God when he stole the birthright and the blessing. God was still with him. How can you explain that? He did something which was wrong and yet the Lord was with him when he was double crossing his uncle. And his uncle, by the way, was double crossing him.
[00:21:15] Still, two wrongs don't make a right. The Lord was with Jacob, not with his uncle Laban.
[00:21:21] How can you explain that all the way through Jacob's life the God of grace was with him? Because you see, God had found a foundation upon which he could be with Jacob. Not the foundation of what Jacob was, but upon the foundation of what the Lord is.
[00:21:44] The Lord is grace. And so he was able wonderfully to go on with Jacob. Now there are two things that are wedded and their marriage is one of the most wonderful things in the whole of God's word. It is the sovereignty of God and the grace of God.
[00:22:04] If we were left with the sovereignty of God, we would have just and islamic God, fatalistic, fatalistic, almighty, all powerful, all knowing. But we have a God who is God of grace, not only sovereign but a God of love.
[00:22:26] And this is the explanation of the way the Lord goes on with you and I, the things we do, the things, things we think, the way we behave. The Lord doesn't sake us, does he? He goes on. But I want to add to that God of grace. Something else is a God of faithfulness and this is exemplified in Jacob's experience.
[00:22:49] He's not only a God who is sovereign and a God who is a God of grace, but he's a God of faithfulness. He never leads Jesus.
[00:22:58] You know, I've often thought this, I think I've said it before because I've spoken a number of times upon Jacob.
[00:23:05] But you know, if Jacob was in this company, he would have been here the first week or two, everyone would have been all over him. Oh, he was a wonderful brother. He was so, oh dear, he was just everything. After a few months, one or two would have begun to see through Jacob and the whisperers would have started about, do you know this? Do you know that? But after a year, I'm quite sure at least two years, Jacob would have been friendless. Everyone in the company would have looked upon him askance. Oh, you've got to be careful of Jacob. Oh, dear. Just you watch yourself with him, you know, you can't trust him an inch. You just cut it out for himself all the way through.
[00:23:44] But you see, God, who knew him more deeply than anyone else, never left him. But once in his experience of the law, forsaken in faithfulness, God went on with him.
[00:23:58] That was because God was sovereign and God was a God of grace. His faithfulness is wedded to his sovereignty and his grace. He would not leave him. He just went on. So you see what a wonderful God of wonders is exemplified in the life of Jacob.
[00:24:15] He was changed into, into a blessing to others, from a man who robbed others of blessing and into a worshipper of God, from one who was always cadging from God by the sovereignty of God and the grace of God and the faithfulness of God. But just me. There's something also in Jacob that we should just look at before we close. And I want to do things about Jacob which also are a clue, and they may help us.
[00:24:51] Firstly, about Jacob, there is this one remarkable factor that he recognized spiritual values. Now then, there are some of us sitting in this room who have far more noble characters than Jacob, but we do not recognize spiritual values, and that's why we are nowhere spiritual.
[00:25:15] It's better to be base by nature and recognize spiritual values than to be noble by nature and not recognize spiritual values.
[00:25:27] The point was simply this, that Jacob was able to put first things first. Now, some of you say, but, oh, just wait, the birthright. But what did he get out of the birthright, do you know? Even though he stole the birthright, it was the most remarkable evidence of the, of the value that Jacob put on spiritual things.
[00:25:50] Because Esau, who was a much more down to earth and practical man in many ways than out of doors type of man, he didn't put much on them. Right. Well, what's a birthright? I can just hear some, I can almost hear some of the brothers saying it. What's a birthright? What's a birth. Bit of paper.
[00:26:09] Surely it's what you are that matters. No, you see, Jacob knew there was something in the birth life. It was spiritual value, the blessing. Oh, well, I can hear some of them saying, what's in a blessing? The old man muttering a few words over a. I mean, after all, surely I'm the son. I'm the first son. I ought to come into it anyway.
[00:26:30] But you see, Jacob put value on spiritual things.
[00:26:36] And all the way through Jacob's life, he put value on spiritual. When the Lord appeared to him. You see, he immediately knew the Lord's appeared. Now then, I must get hold of the Lord. I must get him to give me his word. It was spiritual value all the time. That's why, you see, again, the Lord appeared to Jacob in his life, because although this man was base by nature, crooked to a degree, he still put value on spiritual things upon the Lord himself.
[00:27:11] And that, I believe, is one of the most important things in our whole life.
[00:27:18] If you want to grow, you can only grow as you put value on spiritual things and as you put spiritual things first. And sometimes it will seem to the natural mind that spiritual things are just bits of paper and a few words muttered, that's all, to the natural mind. There just doesn't seem to be much. Why bother to go to that meeting? Why bother to be responsible over that? Why do this? Why stand up, as it were, in the office and be clear cut? Why put the Lord absolutely first in the home? Why pray together? Why should husbands and wives pray together and all that kind? Well, it doesn't matter. We're christian.
[00:28:04] The Lord knows that. He knows we're dependent. No need. But, you see, it's spiritual values.
[00:28:11] And when we're careless about spiritual values, in the end, we always lose.
[00:28:16] We should always be injured, we should always be harmed, because we've got that natural kind of mind that despises the birthright, as the writer to the Hebrews says. It's not that. It actually says naughty things about it. It's just an attitude. Oh, don't bother about that.
[00:28:36] You see, and that's like so many. We're careless. Careless about all kinds of things, big things and small things. Careless about the big things, really, about the Lord being Lord in our lives, being obedient to him, about things in our character that need the hand of God upon them, were careless about it, down to little tiny things like punctuality, reverence and so on.
[00:29:11] So you see, Jacob had this amazing thing. He was crooked. He was a twister. He was a deceiver. He was a real, a really deeply dyed sinner.
[00:29:24] But he knew what spiritual values were, and he never scorned them. He never despised them. In spite of what he was. He always went out for them. Oh, yes, it was his old natural man that went out for them. He was. He was after it.
[00:29:37] That's one thing. Another thing is this Jacob went away of self revelation a most uncomfortable way, I might say.
[00:29:48] A few christians are prepared to walk in. It's very much nicer to have a nice little to be saved and have your own nice little circumstances and situation. And not get to know yourselves too well, only get to know what you think you are.
[00:30:07] Most of us have settled down to a very rosy little picture of ourselves. Oh, of course. I mean, when we say the creed or anything like that, or when we pray, of course we're sinners. When we sing, we're worshiping. But in our own imagination we're not. How kind we are to everyone. How pure spirited we are, how we would never gossip, how we would never do this, never think that we are such nice people. In our own minds, Jacob began to discover what he was. I don't believe when he stole the birthright, he knew. He just thought that big, silly, clumsy brother of he deserves to have his birthright stolen.
[00:30:48] And the same with the blessing and his mother, my mind, who was supposed to be a godly woman, was behind him in that deception.
[00:30:55] But, you see, later on, he began to discover what he was. When he was friendless, when he was forsaken, when the lord visited him for the first time, he began to understand what he was. And when finally, you know the story, he went to Laban and met up with a man quite a. Quite able to match him in twisting and deception. He began to discover exactly what it was to be a Jacob.
[00:31:22] He saw Jacob in labor, and the two, as it were, wearied one another.
[00:31:31] And this is so with us. If you and I are ever going to become a blessing to anyone else, we've got to know what we are.
[00:31:39] We've got to know what we are. We've got to know, on one hand, what we are spiritually, as Paul said, that I am able to say of myself exactly what I ought to say.
[00:31:54] And on the other hand, we ought to know what we are.
[00:31:59] Naturally, Jacob, in the end, discovered it. Oh, believe me, he did.
[00:32:06] I believe that in the finish of his time with Laban, he realized he was one of the biggest twisters that had ever walked on the earth. He knew it. He couldn't do anything about it. He really couldn't. And it's rather pathetic in a way, when he goes off and his beloved wife has stolen the household idols of all things, and hidden them on the camel, is sitting on them with a demure and pained look upon her face as Uncle Laban and his men hunt them, pursue them. You will remember that Jacob says in such a pained way, search everything.
[00:32:43] I have taken your idols. Poor Jacob. For the first time, he was telling the truth. The first time, in fact, he hadn't. He hadn't stolen some property of someone else's. But in fact, there, sitting on it under his beloved, were the idols.
[00:33:01] He must have been very thankful that Uncle Abram never discovered it, that he believed the story that dear Rachel told her uncle. But you see, the point was this.
[00:33:13] Jacob began to discover what crookedness was because now he saw it in his wives. He saw it not only his uncle, but in his wife. And he began to discover it in his. His sons. And for the rest of his life, Jacob was surrounded with people who deceived him. You remember how they deceived him over Joseph? What a cruel, wicked thing they did to Jacob. He was a changed man then. In many ways. He was very pure spirited man. But now he was learning what he was.
[00:33:48] He had discovered it in himself. Later on, when it was dealt with in himself, he was to be reminded of it again and again in those who were closest and dearest to him. You see, it was self revelation. You and I can never get anywhere. I said a few Sunday mornings ago, some of the people that come to us and the things that they say about themselves, they are so humble, they are so generous, they are so good hearted, so good natured. And we all know that that's their weakest point.
[00:34:20] It is a strange psychological reflex action that most of us think our strongest point is. In fact, what is our weakest point.
[00:34:33] Jacob discovered what he was. But there's another thing about Jacob. He not only learned what he was, and we must, and God will put us with people through whom we discover exactly what we are into circumstances where what we are becomes apparent, I expect. When the first person told Jacob that he was a twister, he didn't believe it. He was probably outraged. And then a little later, his uncle Laban probably told him, and someone else told him. Someone else told him. Slowly but surely, the truth began to dawn on him, as it must upon us all.
[00:35:11] The third thing about Jacob is his brokenness.
[00:35:15] Now, listen, I want to just say something which is more important than anything else I've said this morning. It's just simply this. You forget everything else. Just remember this. You will never be driven to the place of brokenness till you've discovered what you are.
[00:35:30] Never.
[00:35:32] There's not one single person who has not got that instinct of self preservation so strongly within them that they will willingly be broken. Other than that, they have to.
[00:35:47] Jacob had to be broken. You remember what happened? He fled from his uncle Laban. He was on the very fringe, as it were, of his brother's country. And now fear gripped him as to never, never gripped him in his life before. Why was dear old Jacob fearful? Couldn't he twist his way through this one? No. For the first time, he was sick of his own twistedness. He was sick of his own crookedness. For the first time, he had fallen, as it were, into ruins. He just wanted to get away from what he was.
[00:36:21] And all that he knew was this. That that big, stupid, clumsy brother that he'd always despised was now on his way. And that brother was no mean man. He was a mighty man.
[00:36:35] Jacob knew there was a day of reckoning and he was frightened of it. So what did he do?
[00:36:42] You know what happened. He took hold of God. But the most amazing thing is God took hold of him. And Jacob wrestled with that man. He would not let him go. But what was it that he wanted? Oh, it's old Jacob again. He wants a blessing. Oh, but this time there's a change. There's desperation in Jacob now. It's not like the man before who. Who was ready to bargain and barter. No. Listen to Jacob wrestling. There's no conditions now. There's no bartering now. There's no. If you will be this, I will be that. No, this time to. I won't let you go.
[00:37:19] He's got to rock bottom. He's come to such a revelation of himself that either he's going to be broken or it's the end.
[00:37:27] He's broken.
[00:37:30] From that day forward, Jacob was a different man. He became a strength. From that day, Jacob began to be a worshiper of the Lord and a blessing to others.
[00:37:40] And when you start to read, and it's a portion of the story that we rarely read, and when you start to read the rest of the account, you must become very surprised at all that you learn of Jacob. It seems that the man, the wolf, has become a lamb.
[00:37:59] Something has happened.
[00:38:04] Well, the word says that it was true faith.
[00:38:11] Do you know, that has been a great comfort to me in this simple way.
[00:38:17] What does it mean? That through faith he blessed the sons of Joseph. I tell you, for the first time, Jacob was conscious that in himself he had nothing to give.
[00:38:31] Do you understand?
[00:38:33] You see, if he was sort of.
[00:38:36] Joseph came to him and said, bless my sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Then he said to himself, yes, of course, I've got a deep and full experience. I'm something. Yes, bring the lads to me. Yes, I'll lay my hands on them. Or when Pharaoh was before Jacob and Jacob was able to say, well, just I've really got something to give this man? I'll bless him. No, not at all. It was true faith. Well, what is faith? Faith means that he stepped into what was impossible through sheer confidence in the Lord. Now, that's what most of you and I cannot do.
[00:39:15] We, of all the time, feel. Well, if you're going to be a blessing, you must feel you're a blessing to others. No, you don't feel you're a blessing to us. You just feel you're a curse.
[00:39:24] And then by faith, you take the position, I'm going to be a blessing through the grace of God.
[00:39:30] And you become a blessing if you. If you're all the time waiting for a lovely, rosy feeling that's going to fill you. And then suddenly you'll burst out into worship. You'll wait forever. Believe me. You'll never worship the Lord. Jacob worshiped the Lord, leaning on the top of his staff. What does that mean? Well, it's his brokenness. He limps. From that day forward, it was a symbol of something much more wonderful. You see, he was dependent. Now it was in faith that he worshiped. And, you know, the enemy knows this. When the Holy Spirit starts to apply the cross to our lives, unless you and I know what faith is, we'll crumble and collapse.
[00:40:12] Because we shall become so interned, so conscious of what we are and what we are not so conscious of our unworthiness and sinfulness that we will not do anything. We shall just become negative people. We shall neither give ourselves to God, neither give ourselves to one another.
[00:40:30] Faith is the key. And so, alongside a putting of everything on spiritual values and a revelation of oneself and a brokenness which comes to the Holy Spirit in the cross, we must have faith.
[00:40:50] And this, I feel in some of our lives, is the note that's lacking in some of us. Or by no means all of us, I'm afraid to say, but in just a few, there are those who know something of a brokenness, something of a self knowledge. But do you know anything of faith?
[00:41:08] Are you waiting until you feel you've got somewhere? Waiting till you feel you've got something waiting.
[00:41:16] You'll wait forever. You've got to step out in faith and worship the Lord. You've got to step out in faith and become a blessing to others.
[00:41:26] If you don't, you will neither become a blessing nor a worshiper.
[00:41:34] The Lord will have got you to Jabba, but now further got you to the place where you've broken, but you've stayed there. You must go on. You must go on to Bethel and beyond Bethel becoming a blessing to this world and to God's children.
[00:41:54] Or may the Lord just help us with those few words.
