In this sermon, the speaker shares a story about a young man who is highly educated and talented but struggles to succeed in his career. He seeks help from an older, wise man but initially rejects his counsel. Eventually, the young man realizes that the problem lies within himself and changes his thinking about who he is. He becomes successful by taking responsibility for his own actions and not blaming others or circumstances. The sermon emphasizes the importance of personal growth and self-reflection in achieving success.

Where are you in your life? Are you struggling to find peace? Are you struggling to get over some kind of deep insecurity, some tension, some bend in your nature that you repented, you argued, you fought, but there's no change. I beg of you on the behalf of Christ, stop it. Let it be. Give up. Grace always flows to the lower ground, not the higher ground. Hello, welcome to The Road to Reality with Brother K.P. Yohannan, Founder and Director of Gospel for Asia. Today we're going to bring you the second half of a message from Brother K.P. simply called, My Name is Jacob. Now you may recall the story of Jacob in the Old Testament. He stole his brother's birthright and deceived his father into giving him the family blessing. Jacob was a schemer, always looking out for number one. Funny thing was, God wanted to bless him all along. And Jacob would be blessed, but only after he was broken. Here's Brother K.P. Yohannan with the details. You know, it's funny. I began my life serving God at the age of 16. And at the age of 18, I became a leader, kind of few, over eight, nine men. And then later I was over a region. Somehow all my life I was in some kind of leadership. And my nature, it's a blessing and a curse, I guess. I do get emotionally involved with people and do care deeply about people's pain. I do. There are times I sit in front of the microphone and tape radio broadcast and I break down weeping. And I had stopped, you know, gather myself up again and re-tape, because I get so involved with this lady writing a letter about, you know, her husband beating her and plucking her eyes out and abusing her. And, you know, this guy take the baby and throw it in the, you know, canister and, you know, in the dustbin. And these are real events. And I try to read the letter and talk about those issues and I can't do it anymore. And there are a few times, few times, not a lot of times, few times, I had to stop my broadcast taping completely the whole day because I was destroyed by emotion. I do care. In my nature, I have tried and tried and tried to help so many young brothers and sisters in the work of God, counseling them. You know, when I was studying in college, in seminary, my favorite subject was psychology and counseling. And I prided myself as someone who knows how to help people. I tried and tried. And in the end, I hate myself for having failed. In the end, I come to a conclusion. There's nothing I can do to change anyone. Nothing I can do. God must open their eyes to themself. So, in my reading this morning, I came across a story. It's a fascinating story. A story of a young man who finishes higher education. Brilliant. By temperament, he's a winner. Exceptionally talented and skilled. Star in the university. The story goes on. He would be hired by some high-powered agency. And he's so enthusiastic, so he plugs in. But in a few months time, he loses his job. Then he gets into another job. There's another. Years go by. With all his brilliance and abilities, he's not able to succeed. Finally, he runs into this man who's an older man. Wise. And he said, I need help. I just don't know what to do. Every trick under the sun. I mean, I have so much going for, but I'm not able to succeed. This older man tried to counsel him, but it didn't work. He didn't accept it. Some years go by. This older man happened to be lecturing in his town, where this young man comes from. So, he runs into him after the lecture. He says, I found it! I found it! I got it! I found it! He said, calm down. He said, you remember the years I struggled and lost and lose and everything? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that. And I told you what? You wouldn't listen to me. He said, yeah, I didn't. But I found the answer. He said, I found the reason for all my problems and failures. It was me. What a discovery! I finally discovered the problem is me and nobody else. This older man said, son, I tried to tell you that, but you won't listen to me. I hope you will leave it out. The story continues, by the way. This young man recognized the problem was not his boss, his colleagues, his office, other people, circumstances, nothing. It was his own making. And he must change, not circumstances. And he succeeded. Incredibly successful he became. And the story goes on, as a conclusion says, he changed his thinking about himself and he changed his circumstances by his change in his own thinking about who he is. My brothers and sisters, some, it will take 20 years before you change. Some, it will take three years. Some may never change their thinking about themselves. And the funniest thing, the saddest thing, the most terrible, painful thing on planet Earth is God Almighty stands doing nothing with human beings who will not respond. He cannot take you one centimeter further than you personally agrees and submit. What is your name? Finally he said, Jacob. In Genesis chapter 28 verse 11, after saying he is Esau, we read, the sun had set. After he said Esau, the sun set. While it is a historical fact, yet it depicts the reality of a life of endless struggle and darkness. 20 long years of struggle. Some of us in the leadership, people who walked with God long enough and learned from all the people, we tell our younger brothers and sisters to join the ministry. Read and study and meditate the release of the spirit by watchman. We tell, read Calvary Road and live your life out from the reality. Are we so after some kind of power, some kind of thing to get something out of anyone? I hope you understand that's not the case. I have personally, I have no agenda about getting anything from anyone. Why we do it? It's simply because we have seen enough, know enough and watched enough the ways of God in our own life, in history, in others and what God's word says. This reason sometimes even to the point of being misunderstood, I say all the knowledge about spiritual warfare, Bible, theology, doctrines will never make you godly. You can be a carnal and self-centered and depressed and melancholic and dying on the inside like any lost human being. Because I know unless we come to honest terms with our own self, who we are, we will never make it. Throwing away self-reliance for trusting God, it is the path of brokenness but also the path of blessing. In a few moments we'll return to our teaching, a message entitled My Name is Jacob. This is The Road to Reality. Our speaker is Brother K.P. Yohannan, Founder and Director of Gospel for Asia. If you are not familiar with the mission work the Lord is doing through Gospel for Asia, please stop by our website. It's found at gospelforasia.org. You can see video, read exciting accounts of God's working through the native missionaries in Asia and you can also learn about Bridge of Hope which is rescuing thousands of children from poverty and hopelessness. Again the web address gospelforasia.org or get information by phone the toll-free number 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. Now let's return to Brother K.P. Yohannan who examines the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke chapter 15. In my reading of Christ's description about the younger son in Luke 15, one who was extremely deeply self-centered, he comes to the dad and says I want to go. And I read that thing a few times and I came to the conclusion it took the father a greater love, greater mercy for him to let go than to receive him when he came back. Because by the law of the Jewish this father could go to the elders and say this rascal he need to be put to death and they could stone him to death for what he's doing. But the father didn't do that. The dad must have cried his eyes out and finally said son I love you the same you can go and gave the riches his portion and let him go. But he waits on the veranda hoping that his son would somehow come back. But the son will never come back and understand the glory, the joy, the freedom, the liberty of the home until he come to himself. The bible says and he came to himself and recognized what has happened to me. Look at me. I am in the pig's pen. I'm eating this stupid dung. Look at me. He came to himself and then out of ashes he got up and went to the father's house. Well, chapter 32 verse 31 in Genesis we read after he said what is my name? I am the one in trouble. I am the one who failed. I am the egocentric fighting for my rights. I am the one who fight for my independence to make my way. I'm the shrewd one. I'm Jacob. And there you read in that verse and the sun rose. Again a historical event yet it again speaks of a new beginning, a new life. My brothers and sisters, none of us should come to the place where we think we learned it all. I will be foolish to come to a place and say now I learned, I know it all. No. I pray that our walk with God will not be one that starts and end with one repentance, one admission, one acknowledgement, but will be perpetual and continuous. I said to someone today at the airport, I said you know some of the saddest stories I know of God's people failing miserably are not young Christians but older Christians. And I can write a list that lasts for one whole stack of yellow pages that pad people I know. Not young Christians but people who've been in God's work for long years supposed to be mature Christians. But the success, the position, the power, the blessings and all what God gave to them becomes the reason for pride and arrogance and self-centeredness and God simply walks away and we lose all. David was such an incredible man of God but one year, Psalm 32, he will live with such incredible darkness and his bones literally marrow rotting away, sick in bed, can't get up. One long year and finally when Nathan came and said David, by the way it's you, he could cut his head off. What's wrong with you? Who are you to tell me I am the one? He said it's me, it's me. My name is Jacob. I'm the problem, no one else. Every promise in the word is yes, yes, yes in Jesus but it has no meaning until I receive it. The older shall serve the younger, the almighty promised but it has no meaning 20 years until he says I am Jacob. Giving up, stop fighting, giving up. Where are you in your life? Are you struggling to find peace? Are you struggling to get over some kind of deep insecurity, some tension, some bend in your nature that you repented, you argued, you fought but there's no change. I beg of you on the behalf of Christ, stop it, let it be, give up. Grace always flows to the lower ground, not the higher ground and the Lord's grace is sufficient for all godliness, for everything. He means the best for us but we must stop fighting in our own strength. This is the way of the cross, this way of forgiveness, this way of healing, this way of life. I will conclude by saying I had a very strange but interesting conversation this morning from the mission field. One of our senior leaders called me and said, I need your advice to make this decision. In one of the state in North India, they are removing one of the leader and replacing him with another leader overseeing a very large work. This brother had two choices, two names, I know both of them. I listened and listened. The one I call brother A is a postgraduate from a secular university and postgraduate from a theological seminary, brilliant. His track record is exceptionally great as a leader but he has many many strife and difficulties to get along with people. Then there is another brother who hardly finishes high school, who went to our Tenkasi Bible school and finished two years. And when the leader has told him to go to this unknown, unwanted, nobody want to go village, he obeyed and went and he planned four churches. He taught himself English. He speaks very fluently. It's amazing he learned that. And what shall we do? And this brother is not a great personality, like the other guy. I said, tell me what does your heart say? The strange answer came, my head says brother A, my heart says brother B. I said brother B. It all had to do with a broken humble life, not ability. Jacob became a broken man. 20 years he ran, now he was a cripple. He had to have one of those stick. He can walk alone. He had to have something to keep him because he was a cripple and God made him a cripple. But you read in Genesis 50, he leaned on his staff and worshipped God and blessed Pharaoh. What a conclusion, what an end. May the Lord help each one of us. Help me, I pray, that I will never come to the place where I will waste time and let that be all of our life's portion. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for the fellowship, the joy of worshipping you this evening, Lord. And how often, how many times we failed, not understanding the problem is not out there. It is not my brother, my sister, my circumstances. It is me. How many times, Lord, I failed so miserably. And your grace and mercy that somehow in the end you opened my eyes to see myself. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Lord, that as we walk with you, help us remember that you are always more interested in making us more like you, who did not seek anything for yourself but only for the glory of the Father. Lead us tonight, Lord, and make us more like you. We say this, Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You've been listening to The Road to Reality with Brother K.P. Yohannan, founder and director of Gospel for Asia. Today's message can be heard again through our website. The address is gospelforasia.org. Well, we all face obstacles in life, be it sickness or disappointment, and we indeed can feel like we're pulling against the wind. In his latest book, Brother K.P. Yohannan examines our race of faith, the race God has set before you and I, our own unique race. And like the Apostle Paul, you can learn what it takes to be able to say, I have fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Brother K.P.'s book is called Against the Wind, and you can order a copy for just $15 through our website. That's at gospelforasia.org. And once again, the web address is gospelforasia.org. Or place an order by phone, or just get information at our toll-free number, 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. The Road to Reality is sponsored by Gospel for Asia. Remember, don't let anything distract you in your walk with the Lord, and join us next week for more encouragement from the Word of God. Until then, may the Lord bless you and strengthen you.