He Wants to Bless You

MAIN POINT- God wants to bless you.

2 Corinthians 9:8 (ESV) — 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) — 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 10:22 (NLT) — 22 The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

Philippians 4:7 (NLT) — 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

ILLUSTRATION- God told me to offer a young man a job at the church ONLY if he first quits his current job. And God told me not to tell him.

Genesis 32:22–32 (ESV) — 22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.

QUESTION- If God wants to bless me so bad, if God wanted to bless Jacob so bad, why in the world did God make Jacob fight him for it?

To answer this question we need to look at some back story of Jacob…

In Gen 25 Esau and Jacob are born. They are twins.

KEY- Issac’s first born gets the name Esau but then here comes the second one and they name him Jacob because he was grasping Esau’s heel and the name Jacob means heel grabber.

Later on in the same chapter you see Esau and Jacob when they are older and Jacob manipulates Esau into selling him his birthright.

In Gen 27 Jacob deceives his father who is on his death bed into believing he is Esau and Issac blesses Jacob instead of Esau

From that point onward Jacob hides from Esau and manipulates and deceives people along the way

MAIN POINT- God desires to bless us, we are his children and he delights in blessing us. However there are obstacles that stand in the way of our blessing and it is not until these obstacles are removed are we blessed by God.

1. The obstacle of sin.

KEY POINT- On going tolerated sin will rob you from blessings.

Notice I said ongoing tolerated…

KEY- We all struggle with sin, Paul breaks this down beautifully in Romans 7. But are you fighting to rid sin from your life?

Think about Jacob, from his start he is given a name marking him as 2nd place… His name means heel chaser, always behind, never first, always in someone else shadow

POINT- For Jacob his sin was just about trying to get by.

There are several different sources of sin the bible says, but tonight I want to deal with one of the sources - the sin that comes from our flesh…

KEY- Sin that comes from the flesh is the sin that makes you do whatever you want to do to be comfortable, to get by, to be accepted, to feel good, to feel loved.

POINT- It is not until Jacob stopped tolerating his sin and started wrestling with God did he receive God’s blessing.

Jacob had expereince his father’s blessing, he expereince his suaveness, but still he was empty…

POINT- It wasn’t until God broke Jacob’s hip that his power to sin was broken.

Jacob was a deceiver and by breaking Jacob’s hip Jacob lost his ability to go into town deceive some people and escape in the night before anyone realized what was up.

POINT- It wasn’t until God broke Jacob’s hip that his power to sin was broken. It was until Jesus was broken for us that sin itself became broken.

2. The obstacle of priorities.

If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

What are you chasing?

I like the name God gives him, he changed his name from Jacob “heel chaser” chasing the one whose in first, the one who has it all, to Isreal meaning to wrestle with God. In that moment God was declaring to Jacob you got to want me more than you want to be first.

ILLUSTRATION: Student who tried 11 different flavors of ice cream.

You were willing to fight for that sports team, why are you not willing to fight for more of God?

You were willing to fight for their approval, why are you not willing to fight for more of God?

POINT- Whenever you want something that approaches your level of how much you want God, you don’t need to want that thing less you need to want God more.