Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.
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so
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i want to talk to you today about the
process
of brokenness to encounter god’s process
of him stripping you of self-sufficiency
so that you can experience
a new level of his reality in your life
and mind
brokenness is when god intervenes
in your life through a negative set of
circumstances
to attack a flaw in your personality
there is a flaw in your humanity
that desperately needs to be addressed
and he recognizes that at the core of it
is independence and self-sufficiency
and to strip you and me of it
he begins a process of breaking us
you have three parts to you
a body a soul and a spirit first
thessalonians 5
23 you are made up of spirit soul and
body
your body allows you to function in the
physical world through your five
senses through the five senses you are
able to relate to the world
around you your soul
enables you to relate to yourself
your soul is your personhood the reason
why you know you’re you
and that you’re here is because you
possess a soul which is the life
principle that allows the body to
operate
so your body allows you to function in
the world your soul allows you to
function with you
your spirit allows you to function with
god
so your spirit is god your soul is you
and your body is the world around you
everyone who is born into the world is
born into the world with a scarred
soul sin has scarred
our soul we’re born in sin shaped in
iniquity
we are born flawed
now that shows itself at different
levels for different strokes for
different folks
but there is a scarring of the soul some
of that was transferred from your mother
and your father
and that’s why we find ourselves doing a
lot of things our parents did
because we picked up some of the
scarring from them
you didn’t just pick up their looks you
picked up their scars
and then the scarring is increased by
things that happen to us
by circumstances that overwhelm us by
wrong done to us by wrong done by us
all of this adds to the scouring of the
soul
this scarring of the soul breeds
independence
from god when a person accepts jesus
christ
the holy spirit invades their human
spirit
giving them the ability to now
receive spiritual data
when the holy spirit enters the human
spirit
the human spirit which is now infused by
the holy spirit
invades the soul to transform it
and get rid of the scars
he wants to strip away the scars of the
soul
which causes us to do all the wrong
things we do with our bodies
so we do wrong with our bodies because
we got scars on our soul
that the spirit wants to heal so that we
function
in a way that brings god glory and
brings us good
and so he must break us
but he’s breaking us to remake us
in genesis chapter 22
we have a breaking occurring in the life
of the patriarch jacob
jacob has a name
and his name means trickster
his name means heel grabber
his name means supplanter
his name means deceiver
jacob’s name fits his character
in the bible names matter
we name people because we like the name
in the bible names were given to explain
the character
jacob was a born deceiver
from the time he left his mother’s womb
he grabbed his brother his twin brother
esau’s heel he’ll grab her
he tricked his brother out of his
birthright
he comes to a crisis in chapter 32.
the crisis is that it looks like his
brother
has gotten tired of him and he’s going
to kill him
in chapter 32 verse
6 it says the messengers returned to
jacob
saying we came to you from your brother
esau
and furthermore he is coming to meet you
and 400 men are with him
then jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed and he divided the people
it says in the two camps
to try to make sure they didn’t kill
everybody
it says in verse 9 the next thing he did
was say oh god
isn’t that what you do when you get
scared enough
oh god lord have mercy
o god of my father abraham and god of my
father isaac
oh lord
who said to me return to your company
and to your
relatives and i will prosper you i’m
unworthy of all the stuff you’ve done
for me verse 10.
and then he makes his request in verse
11 deliver me
i pray from the hand of my brother
from the hand of esau for i fear him
that he will come and attack me and the
mothers
with the children what happens
verse 34 then
jacob was left alone
and a man wrestled with him
until daybreak
jacob is alone
he’s alone cause nobody he knows and
nothing he knows can help him
he’s by himself
you ever been in a situation where
you were all alone oh you you may have
had folk around you but you might as
well been by yourself
because nothing around you could make a
difference
he’s alone he’s by himself
he’s been stripped
now watch this he’s got a problem his
brother’s after him
he prays to god after he prays to god
things get worse
after he’s talked to god
somebody shows up at night and wrestles
him
until daybreak verse 25
and when he the stranger
saw that he jacob
had not prevailed against him
hmm when this stranger saw
that jacob wasn’t quitting
that jacob wasn’t throwing in the towel
that jacob wasn’t giving up
the jacob wasn’t wasn’t just running
away when he saw
he didn’t prevail against him he
touched the socket of his thigh
and the socket of jacob’s thigh was
dislocated
when he wrestled with him
so the man had to disconnect something
and make it worse
see when god is trying to break you
he’ll make it bad
but if you’re not responding he’ll make
it worse
he’s trying to move your core
the thing that you are counting on to be
able to
deliver you verse 26
then he says the stranger says i didn’t
hurt you now
let me go okay
that means that jacob was holding on
even with a disjo-located hip
so he’s hurting and holding
you didn’t miss that did you he’s
hurting
and holding
it’s easy when god is trying to break
you
to let go of god it’s easy
when god is trying to strip you to say i
don’t want it anymore
but jacob said you hurt me but i’m still
gonna hold you
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anytime anywhere
he says i am not going to let
you go he says
i am not going to let you go verse 26
until somebody say until
you bless me
wait a minute now all we know the
stranger doesn’t have a name
this guy has come at night when i’m
already scared
this man is wrestling with me now this
man has dislocated me
and i’ve gone from trying to win a fight
to trying to get a blessing
how do i move from fighting for my life
to saying bless me
well the only way you ask somebody to
bless you is if you have the
no they have the ability to do that when
the stranger
dislocates his hip
because it doesn’t happen until then
when his
strength is gone it dawns on jacob
this is not a human match
it’s a man but it’s not human
there’s more to this battle than just
the fight i’m in
i’m in the fight of my life but there’s
more to this battle
than the fight that i’m in something
spiritual is occurring here
that’s why he asked for a blessing
that’s spiritual
so he recognizes and he doesn’t
recognize it
until the dislocation happens
that this is a so here’s what i don’t
want you to do
i don’t want you to mistake
the hand of god for the hand of man
see because he’s wrestling a man but
he’s really dealing with god
if all you see is what you see you do
not see all there is to be seen
god may use something physical to take
you to a place that’s spiritual
he may use something that you can see
touch taste
smell and hear when he’s only invaded
that
to take you to a place that gets
him to have your undivided attention
and if you try to push him off up here
he gonna touch something down there
and he will fight until you hurt bad
enough
i’m not gonna let you go
until you bless me verse 27 so he said
to him
the man says to jacob what
is your name
okay to follow this i’m not gonna let
you go
till you bless me oh you want a blessing
what’s your name
remember naming in the bible refers to
your nature
your character not just your
nomenclature
we do that with nicknames like we call
somebody slim that means they’re skinny
so the nickname is reflecting something
about them you call somebody red because
they got red hair
you know the nickname is described so we
do with nicknames what they did with
names
we make it descriptive what’s your name
translation describe yourself to me
are you willing to admit your name
are you willing to acknowledge
you are a deceiver
because that’s your name are you willing
to acknowledge
that you are a trickster are you willing
to acknowledge
you are a flawed person who has lived
their lives using evil
to get by because it’s all wrapped up in
your name
but what god wants to know is are you
willing to fess up
to who you really are when you’re alone
with him
when you’re wrestling with him
now your name may not be jacob maybe
your name is liar
maybe your name isn’t jacob but your
name is cheetah
maybe your name isn’t jacob but maybe
your name is luster
maybe your name isn’t jacob but your
name is steeler
maybe your name isn’t jacob but maybe
your name
is racist what is your name what is that
character in your life that is against
the will
and character of god that keeps him
from blessing you
and he will wrestle with you until you
say your name
even if he has to dislocate your hip to
get there
what is your name he says
my name is jacob
i’m the deceiver verse 20
8. he says your name
shall no longer be jacob i’m going to
change your name
meaning i’mma change your character
but your name will now be israel
for you have striven with god and with
men
and have prevailed ooh
god says i got a new reality for you
jacob and that new reality is you’re
going
to experience what it looks like when i
run the show in your life
god prevails you’re going to experience
what it looks like
when i show up to turn something around
because it’s god’s prevail
you won’t have to live your life with
trickery anymore
you won’t have to be a deceiver anymore
you won’t you won’t have to try to
fix it yourself anymore because i’ma
change your name
see some of us have a name called
education
because we think because we got a ba and
an mba and a phd
that my education has made me
self-sufficient
well i’m gonna tell you now god’s gonna
change your name
some of us have a name called money
because we define our sufficiency by our
bank account
and by our credit cards but i want to
tell you now
if you want to experience god he gonna
try to change your name
some of us have a name called uh
relationships because we got all the
hookups we need
to get to where we want to go do what we
want to do but be what we want to be
but if you want to experience god he’s
going to change your name
by letting the relationships fall
through and not being able to pull off
what you thought they would be able to
pull off in order to experience god
he will strip you of your name
in order for you to know that god
prevails
that the spiritual trumps the physical
and that you
and i are not sufficient
within ourselves verse
29.
then jacob asked him and said please
tell me
your name you asked me my name
tell me your name listen to the man’s
response
but he said why is it that you
ask me my name
see a lot of us get like marvin gaye
what’s going on god said
you ought to know by now everything you
didn’t tried i didn’t blocked
every contact you made i didn’t stop
every time you think you don’t have have
any more debts i let something else
break down
you ought to know my name by now
it ought to be clear who you’re dealing
with
and so it dawned on him
so jacob named the place verse 30 peniel
for he said i have seen god he knew his
name now
i have seen god face to face
yet my life has been preserved
because it could have killed me see if
you only knew what god
could do that he didn’t do
doesn’t do some of us should be dead
right now
but because of the goodness grace
and favor of god he brought you out
brought you through
when you were thinking you were gonna
lose
your mind
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he said i’ve seen god face to face and
i’m alive to talk about it
so if you’re still here he ain’t
finished
oh but here’s where it gets good here’s
where it gets good let’s bring it to a
close here’s where it gets good
now verse 20 31
the sun rose upon him just as he crossed
over
penuel and he was limping on his thigh
because hebrews 11 verse 21 says that
when he
blessed his grandchildren
in order to bring them blessing he had
to lean on his staff
so years later he’s still limping
years later he’s still limping so if
y’all if jacob came on the stage today
and you say why are you limping jacob
would have to say i’m limping because
i’ve been blessed
i’m limping because i’ve been blessed
cause a few years ago
i was independent i was self-sufficient
i made it happen all by myself
god broke me down he
separated my socket and every time i get
up and try to go
somewhere i’m reminded about my weakness
i’m deminded about my dependency i’m
reminded
that i can’t make it without him every
step i take every move
i make god is reminding me
you better not get the big head boy
because you do have another hip
i i can’t dislocate another one if i
have to
so you better remember you are totally
dependent on me
and he says and i’ve been blessed but
what was the blessing
when he said i want to be blessed he
wasn’t talking about something general
he was talking about verse 13 where he
says you promised
that you would make of me a great name
and you would give me a great land
you see your blessing is something god
has already planned to do in the past
that he’s not free to do yet because you
are not broke down
far enough for him to be free to do it
so the blessing
is not something new it’s something old
that becomes new to you
when you are made ready to receive it so
some of us in here need to start limping
and say god i’ma break my own socket
so you don’t have to break my socket so
that i can be
totally dependent on you
look in closing if you remember years
ago when you were growing up
they used to have them piggy banks they
used to have them piggy banks with a
little slit at the top
and you would put your coins in the
piggy bank to save your money
when it was time to get your money you
shook the piggy bank
you took the pig you turned it upside
down
and you shook it now the reason you
shook it
was because there was something valuable
on the inside
that you wanted to come to the outside
and so you
shook it the harder it was to come out
the harder you shook it
because you wanted the money but it was
stuck on the
inside and you needed it on the outside
so you shook it after a while you got
tired of shaking it because it wasn’t
coming out like you wanted to
so you went and got a hammer and you
took the hammer
and you broke the piggy bank cause you
got
tired that it wasn’t responding to the
shaking
god will start by shaking you because
there’s something valuable
in you but if you don’t respond to the
shaking
he goes to get a hammer because he got
to break you
in order to get all the good stuff in
you to come
out for your good and his glory
so somebody ought to praise him that
he’s a god who breaks us
in order to make us
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if you’ve ever watched a wrestling match
you know the goal is to pin
your opponent into submission and
surrender
well god believes in wrestling matches
that’s what he did in genesis 32 with
jacob
he pinned him to the mat until he
surrendered
he surrendered to god because he wanted
to be blessed by god
did you know your greatest blessing
is when god puts you in a wrestling
match
until you surrender so he can have his
way with you and bring to you
what he has planned for you
just like jacob didn’t give up don’t you
give up
because god will put you in a conflict
and in a battle
until you say yes lord i give you my
life i give you my will i give you my
way i give you my desires i give you my
plans
i give you my programs i surrender
because when you surrender that’s when
he can do his greatest work in your life
because he sees you’re ready to yield to
him oh and by the way
like jacob when you surrender he just
might
change your name
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so
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so
you