Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the profound unselfishness of God, who desires our hearts to be fully devoted to Him. He illustrates God's heartache over humanity's wickedness, comparing it to a parent's sorrow when their children stray from their teachings. The sermon highlights the journey of faith, where God calls individuals out of their past and into a deeper relationship with Him, as exemplified by Jacob's transformation. Ultimately, the message is about seeking God for who He is, rather than for what He can provide, and understanding the depth of His love and desire for intimacy with us.

I just want to spend a few minutes, I've got to make sure that I just release this, what the Lord has given me, but we want to spend time in prayer, we want the Lord to have His way in our hearts, but I just don't want to miss the opportunity, and it's here, this whole theme is the Lord's heart. Our God is so faithful, He's so faithful, He loves us so much, and all He wants, all He wants is that our hearts, our hearts would be after Him, that's all He's after, that's all He ever wanted, and you know that we've been looking at the unselfishness of God, and this is again the unselfishness of God in action, it's the unselfishness of God, and it is so unselfish of God to create us with the desire that we would be preoccupied and infatuated with Him. That is so unselfish of God, it is so unselfish of God to be who He is, and yet condescend to the place where He decides to create man, so that man can experience the highest level and measure of satisfaction and joy from knowing the Creator. How unselfish is that of God? To share Himself with the world, to share Himself with the world, and so the journey that we're on today, our history, whatever it is, our history can be defined this morning in the presence of God, through the Word of God and through the Spirit of God. Listen, some may have asked the question, what, why God, what are you doing, here's the answer from the Spirit and the Word of God, here's the answer, God's answer to our history is, I'm leading you along a journey that is going to ultimately bring you to the place where, like Jacob, you are alone before me, before God, and you have a face-to-face encounter with God, and your response to the face-to-face encounter with God is not, as Norman pointed out, how can God help me? What can God do for me? But the history that we've all been on, different but the same end, is this is where God is wanting to bring us, Lord, I've just had an encounter of you, and my response to you is this, what is your name? I want you, I want to know you, I want to know you, I want to know your unselfishness, I want to be lost in you, I want to know who you are, that's where we're heading, and God said, Genesis 1.26, let us make man in our image and our likeness, that was God's thought, and that is still God's thought, now turn your Bible to Genesis chapter 6, Genesis chapter 6, and it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and the daughters were born unto them, Genesis chapter 6, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives, all of them which they chose, and the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years, and there were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of men came unto the daughters of men, they bared children, and they became mighty men, men of renown in the earth, verse 5, now, Father please help us to see your heart, revealed in your precious holy word, help us to feel what's going on, not just to read a story, help us to see what's going on Lord, try to understand this brothers and sisters, as you being like God, imagine yourself having a whole host of children, and you have them, and you nurture them, and you love them, you have a home for them, you pour your life out into them, what is your desire for the children, they grow up and they love you, and they do what's right in your eyes, and that you and them would enjoy intimacy one with another, and your children disperse and go their own way, and they leave your home, and sometime down the road, you go and evaluate your children, and you see that they have had children, and they have had children, and you see your seed, your third, and your fourth, and your fifth generation, and you walk in their midst, and they don't recognize you, they despise you, and they're doing everything that you taught them not to do, everything that you taught them not to do, right in front of you, and you search in their homes, and there's no altar, there's no prayer, there's no remembrance of what you told them, there's no remembrance of what you told them, how would that make you feel as a parent? Would that break your heart? I know that there's a lot here that aren't parents, I understand, but we who are parents, what would that do to your heart? If you walked among your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren, and they despised you, and they mocked you, and they were doing everything you taught them not to do, and then if you tried to tell them who you were, they stoned you, they didn't want anything to do with you, see what's happening here, it's not just a story, it's not just a story we're reading, it's the unveiling of the history of God's heart, God's broken heart with you and I, see it's real, it's living, it's a book, it's a book but it's got life to it, now just think about these words, and God saw, what was God wanting to see? Let us make man how? In our image, in our likeness, let us make man so that he can inhabit the earth, and he can represent on the earth what we are like, and then from that to Genesis chapter 6, what do we see? And God saw the wickedness, that word means utter moral corruption, the exact opposite of what God is like, now is this breaking the heart of God? Yes, it's breaking his heart, but did he see it from the beginning? Did he catch him by surprise? What was his plan from the beginning? The unselfishness of God, it's breaking my heart to see the wickedness, of man is great in the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, what was God wanting every imagination, and every thought of the heart of man to be focused on? Himself, not himself but on God, did God see this though from the beginning before he created man? Yes he did, yes he did, he saw it, listen brothers and sisters, this is what God is bringing us this morning, his heart, this is what he is bringing us this morning, his heart, continually wicked, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, what a profound statement, why would God record such a thing about himself? Who has another translation? Read it in another translation, verse 6, other than the King James, sorry that he ever made man, we displease the Lord so much, brothers and sisters don't put this out there somewhere, we displease the Lord so much that he became sorry that he ever made, how can that be that a loving God could be sorry? How can this be? Do you believe the word of God? I do, how can it be that God became sorry and it broke his heart, that he ever made man? Could it be, could it be that God made this statement because of the pain that he felt, the horrible pain, verse 7, and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, the fowls of the air, for it made the Lord sorry that he had made them, but Noah, verse 8, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, from that verse on through to chapter 10, chapter, chapter, from that verse all the way through to the end of chapter 10, a whole new race of people through Noah's sons replenished the earth. Okay? Now what moved God the first time to want to destroy the earth? The horrible wickedness of man. The flood came, God in his mercy used Noah to save his family, and after the flood, then what do we have? We have Noah coming out of the ark with his children, and their wives, and their children, and from that posterity, from that posterity, the entire earth is replenished. And that brings us to chapter 11. And the whole earth was of one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime they had for mortar, and they said, let us, now watch what's happening now. What is God seeing? The same thing is happening. The same thing is happening. And God said, and they said, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach the heaven, and let us, make us a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth. And here, almost the same verse, several chapters later, watch, and the Lord came down to see, the city, the tower, which the children of men built, and the Lord said, behold, the people are one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Verse number one of chapter eleven, it literally says, and the whole earth was one language and one speech, what that means literally is this, they all understood one another, and they all shared the same purpose and intention. That's what it's saying. They all understood one another, and they all shared the same purpose and intention. And when God came down, to look at the city and the tower, that's what he saw. They all understood one another, and they all had one intention and one purpose, and it was not the Lord's name. Whose name was it? Let us build us a name. The broken heart of God. But amazingly, right when this sorrow of God's heart is happening, we go to chapter twelve, and what does God do? God moves toward his purpose. Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out. Get thee out. Get out of where? Get out of where? Get out of Babylon. Get out from among that speech, and that hard intention. Get out from the midst of that, which is after making a name for themselves. Building a tower for themselves. Whose imaginations will lead them into the depths of depravity and wickedness. God says, I have a purpose. I have a plan. I have an intention. This intention has been with me from the very, very beginning, even before time began. And of course we know that the ultimate intention was preserving the nation of Israel so that God could come in his son and reveal the highest expression of his unselfishness by dying and being crucified and paying the price in suffering for the sins that he was now seeing and feeling. That was his ultimate intention. But as we read through the scriptures, we see wonderful spiritual lessons that we can learn as to how God secures a people on the earth who represent his heart's desires. And so, as God is revealing to us his heart this morning and showing us how he longs for a people, how he longs for a people who will be after him, we see God taking Abraham and calling Abraham. And Abraham is called the father of the faithful, the father of the faith. In Abraham, God has captured a huge spiritual lesson, an example packed with spiritual truth that teaches us how God secures a people in the earth for himself, in Christ. And the first, the very beginning stage, the very beginning, the very beginning of God securing a people for himself is God calls them out. Come out from thy country, from thy kindred, from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee. Come out. First, God must work the separation in our hearts. And then once God calls us out, like he did with the children of Israel, he called them out of Egypt and then in the wilderness he was trying to what? Take Egypt out of them. He takes us out of the world and then through his dealings in our life, this is what he did with Jacob. He called Jacob. He revealed himself to Jacob. And then for 14 years, God was in the process of taking Jacob. First he took Jacob out from and then he took out of Jacob, Jacob. He took out of Jacob, Jacob. But in order to get Jacob out of Jacob, he had to bring Jacob to the place. And this is very important because this is the process of God. This is what God is doing in our lives. In order to get Jacob out of Jacob, he had to bring Jacob to the place where upon getting a revelation of God, he acknowledged his name to God, totally transparent, totally honest, totally, totally free to acknowledge who he was and then his response was, God, what's your name? Bringing Jacob to the place where when he sees God, he's not looking for something for himself, but he wants God alone. He wants God alone. That's found in Genesis, Genesis chapter 32, Genesis 32, beginning in verse number 22. And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two women and his eleven sons and passed over the four Jabbok and he took them and sent them over the brook and Jacob was left alone. God leaves us alone sometimes. We feel all alone. But that's God's greatest moment when we feel alone. Now connect this, brothers and sisters, not to punishment, not to wrath, not to anger. Connect this to God is preparing us for the greatest joy of his heart and the greatest joy that we could ever have. This is the unselfishness of God in action. That's what this is. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, verse 25, who was not prevailing against who in verse 25? Was it Jacob not prevailing against the angel or was it the angel not prevailing against Jacob? And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, the angel was not prevailing against Jacob. What a profound statement. What a profound statement. Now brothers and sisters, again, why was this angel wrestling with Jacob? Why was he wrestling with him? Because he was angry at him? No way. Because he despised him? No way. Because he was punishing him? No way. Why was this angel wrestling with Jacob? Because this angel was representing to Jacob God's deepest passion. God waited patiently for 14 years while Jacob worked for his uncle Laban for this moment. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint and he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go. Now who was saying let me go here? Verse 26. Huh? Was Jacob saying to the angel, let me go? No. The angel was telling Jacob, let me go. What did Jacob say? I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. Jacob had already been blessed for 14 years. Laban acknowledged it. Laban said to Jacob, Jacob, you have blessed me. God is with you. Everything that you have has multiplied beyond me. What is Jacob after now? He's after a different kind of blessing, isn't he? Oh my Lord, this is what God is longing for. He's after a different type of blessing. He didn't want more sheep and cattle. He didn't want more wealth. He didn't want something physical. Now watch what God says was the condition. See the angel was testing him. Let me go. And Jacob said, no. I'm not going to let you go. Do you remember another time when the Lord tested his people? See God tests us sometimes to see what we're going to do. How about Elijah and Elisha? Remember what Elijah and Elisha did when they walked together right before Elijah was translated? Elijah brought his servant Elisha to a certain city and said, you stay here, I'm moving on. What did Elisha do? No way. I'm going with you. Brought him to another city. You stay here, I'm going on. No way. I'm going with you. Brought him to another city. You stay here. No way. I'm going on. Same thing is happening here. God's testing him. Let me go. Let me go. Jacob's there. No, I can't let you go. I'm desperate. I'm desperate. I've been brought to the place of desperation. Verse 26. I will not let you go except you bless me. And he said to him, what is your name? Now, listen. Please. Did Jacob reveal his name 14 years ago? Did he have to confess his name to God in this way in order to get the blessing he got working for Laban? He came out a wealthy man. He came out with all kinds of wealth. Even Laban said, you're blessed. But God says, this blessing that you're looking for, you've got to tell me your name. You've got to tell me your name. What was Jacob's response? No reluctance. No hesitation. Remember, back when he left, when God was talking to him and God was revealing himself, Jacob was making a deal with God. Where was the deal here? No deal. No deal with God. No deal with God. Now, bless me. What's your name? My name is Jacob. This is what he was saying. I am a deceiver. I am a supplanter. I am a manipulator. I am crooked. I am not what I'm supposed to be. Have you been brought to the place where you're seeing your name? Have you been further brought to the place where you're wrestling with God for a blessing and it has nothing to do with what you can touch and what you can see and what you can get? Nothing to do with it. Nothing. Now, if you're not there and you're still in the blessing of getting and seeing, well, look what God did for Jacob. He blessed him. But it wasn't God's end. It wasn't God's highest intention. God was preparing Jacob for a city whose builder and maker was God. Jacob was being prepared by God to come to his old age to where he was looking for that which is invisible, not that he could touch with his hands. What's your name? Jacob. Watch this. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince, you have power with God and with men, and has prevailed. What was Jacob's response the moment God pronounced on him a change? You have power now with God. Your name is one who prevails. One who prevails. Listen. One who prevails over people. That's what the shades of meaning is. You now can prevail over people. You prevail with me. You're like a prince with God. Oh, how many of us, if God would say that, would begin to look this way now. Wow, I prevail with people. Now my plan will work. Because God told me that I'm blessed now. My plan will work now. What was Jacob's response? I'm going to go back to Laban now. I'm going to make things right. He wasn't even looking on this plane anymore. God says, now you have power with man, and now you have power with God. And Jacob's response was this. What is your name? The response of the heart. That is changed. When God brings it through the season of wrestling with God at the Brook Jabbok, it's changed, and it is ascribed by God as a prevailing heart, a heart of power, responds to God in one way alone. Always remember this, brothers and sisters. In one way alone. What is your name? I want to know you. Not? Wow. How can this be to my advantage? Now that God has anointed me. Now that God has given me power. Now that I have prevailed with God and I've got the blessing. That's not for Jacob. That's for Israel. The blessing is for Israel. And of course we see in the Lord Jesus Christ the highest expression of this kind of heart that prevails with man and prevails with God. And we see it in Him because in Him there is no self-interest. And so that's what Jacob said. What is your name? And he said, Why do you ask me what my name is? You know, how we can just go on here. Why? What do you want? What are you after? What do you really want? Why are you asking me what your name is? What my name is? You see, brothers and sisters, little glimpses. What did Moses say to God in his moment of intimate fellowship with Him? Show me what? Show me your glory. Same thing. Same thing. You can trace it all the way through. When God brings men to the place, men and women to the place, where through dealing, through trial training, through stripping, they're brought to this spiritual crisis where it's no longer about them. They begin to cry out, What is your name? Show me your glory. Who are you? I want to know you. And that is the ministry that Paul represented all his life. All his earthly life. And that's God's heart being revealed in the scriptures. Going along the same lines as what the Holy Spirit is saying to us as a group today and to us individually as Christians. John chapter 17. This is the true meaning of what God was revealing to Jacob. It's all captured in the person of Jesus Christ. The Son that pleases the Father all the time. And now we as His children must come to the feet of Jesus and from Him and by Him alone obtain that which we need to please the Father. Watch this. Father, 17 John, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. As Thou has given Him power. That's just what God said to Jacob. You have power. You have authority. But this is what He really meant. Over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him. And this is the life eternal that they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me. And now, Father, glorify me with Your own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world began. Watch this. Verse 6. I have manifested what? Thy name. What was Jacob saying? What is Your name? Show me Your name. Right here. Jacob was asking God, Show me Your name. And God now shows us His name in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so the highest expression of wanting to know God's name is realized when we are brought to the place in our Christian life, like Paul, where we are after Jesus Christ and Him alone. To be like Him, to love Him, to manifest what He is like in all of our actions and in all of our behavior, and then to share His heart, the unselfishness of God, to share that, and to bear it with Him. That is why we're here on earth. That's why. That's why God put the church here. Are we crying out? Show me Your name. What's Your name? Jesus. More of You, Jesus. That's what God is after. That's what He's after, okay? And He's here now to confirm it to our hearts by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. So let's bow our hearts together and let's ask the Lord to give us that time of calling on His name in prayer that we wanted to 45 minutes ago, but wanted to bring this word from God's Word. But now, let us ask Him to give us that grace.