SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel, and we do have some extra copies.
SPEAKER_00: If you need one to follow along today, just raise your hand up real high.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody will give you one.
SPEAKER_00: There's also up on the screen the name of the network here in the building and the password if you would prefer to find a Bible online and follow along that way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they aren't here, but I just got to give a shout out to the Hughsmans to uh yesterday, I think it was, right?
SPEAKER_00: They usually sit like right here, second or third row.
SPEAKER_00: But uh we can tell them we erupted in applause to announce their 68th wedding anniversary.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you young people that are on the Facebook, I'm not on Facebook, so go on there and and uh find them, or Matt Husman, his uh their son that comes here as well, and make sure you let him know we uh give him a big big shout out.
SPEAKER_00: So today we are in uh Genesis, and uh this study is called In the Beginning.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the book begins, and it is a book of beginnings, and it begins to help us with some of those big questions that we've asked since the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Where did everything come from?
SPEAKER_00: Why is there something rather than nothing?
SPEAKER_00: Why is there this something rather than some other something?
SPEAKER_00: Um, what does it mean to be a human person?
SPEAKER_00: Big question in our day and time right now.
SPEAKER_00: What does it really mean to be human?
SPEAKER_00: And um, what has gone wrong with the world and is there a way for it to be set right?
SPEAKER_00: And Genesis really does such a great job helping us begin to answer some of these questions.
SPEAKER_00: We're in chapter 33, if you want to turn there in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: And this, if you if you're not familiar, this is uh all the way to the left in your Bibles, first of 66 books in the library of ancient literature.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, we're in the storyline of the man called Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: His name has been turned uh changed by God to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He'll be referred to by both names throughout, and even we find in the Psalms and a couple of other places that he sort of stands as a fountainhead of not only the line of the twelve tribes, because these his children are the namesake of the tribes of Israel, but uh also he sort of uh stands for the people of God in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is often referred to as our Israel's they're sort of interchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: So when we get here in chapter 33, what's happened is uh God has called uh uh Jacob who left his hometown because he and his brother got into all these kind of scraps, and and Jacob, uh kind of a thief and a uh uh sort of heel grabber.
SPEAKER_00: His name means heel grabber, he's a deceiver.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's he's manipulated things with his brother to where he got the birthright away from his brother, and he got the family blessing away from his brother.
SPEAKER_00: And his brother then uh in turn wanted to react to him and literally try, you know, thinking about murder, and we read about that.
SPEAKER_00: And mama comes to Jacob, and Jacob's kind of her favorite, and mama says, Get out of here, go to my homeland, and stay up there till the fury of your brother is is in some way abated, and then you can come back.
SPEAKER_00: So he's gone, and he's been gone though for 20 years up there in the homeland of his mother.
SPEAKER_00: He has found uh family and work, and God has been really taking the initiative and breaking into his life in a lot of ways, and we've seen the arc and curve of somebody that comes to a realization of the real God who's really there, and just a long, slow sort of process.
SPEAKER_00: There are other people we read about in the Bible that's like a really sharp turn, like you know, we talk about the Damascus Road experience for the uh Saul who became Paul in the New Testament, very much, you know, and and with this Jacob guy, though, it just seems to be one of, and I don't know how where where you're at, I don't know what you believe, I don't know what you think or believe about God, but I encourage you, as we read through and study through books of the Bible like this, to take note of at least four things.
SPEAKER_00: How God reveals himself, two, what God shows us through his word about human human persons and our our vulnerability, our tendencies, the things we need to know and learn about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And then three, what what what exactly is the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: How's it sort of foreshadowed in some way?
SPEAKER_00: And then fourthly, what is the faith response that God is calling for from this passage?
SPEAKER_00: And we'll we'll get we try to do that with every passage we teach.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always 100% real clear to us how to answer those questions, but in this particular one here, this is a classic story of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Um and these two brothers, last time they saw each other, one of them had murder on his mind, the other one had been stealing and thieving and manipulating, and it just was not good.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's been 20 years as we pull up on this story here, and uh what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, verse 1, chapter 33.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, Esau was coming.
SPEAKER_00: So here's Jacob traveling along with his wife and his 11 sons and his one daughter that we've read about, and flocks and herds, and all that big en masse, big, slow-moving entourage.
SPEAKER_00: And in the distance he sees Esau coming, and he has 400 men with him.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds kind of foreboding.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that sounds like, what do you mean, where's his cattle?
SPEAKER_00: Where's his women and children?
SPEAKER_00: Well, why has he got 400?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that pointed out?
SPEAKER_00: What's his response going to be to the approach of Jacob who wants to come back home?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he uh Jacob divides the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maids.
SPEAKER_00: He put the maids and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so it sounds kind of like he's doing, you know, women and children first as the approaching army that might be out to slaughter them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the reaction looks threatening, all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And and my mom and my mom and I talk about these passages all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I talk about my mom, she's 89, she watches every uh every Sunday from everybody wave to her up here on the camera.
SPEAKER_00: And she's watching, but anyway, she's real honest about all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, What's with Jacob putting the women and the children out front there?
SPEAKER_00: You know, she's like she's a little incensed at the whole thing, and she kind of wants Jacob to get his just desserts in this whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that was like like last chat last week we were talking about this.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Mom, just hold on.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 33 is coming, and and just hold on, chapter verse four is coming, and it kind of helps to explain what happens, what ends up happening.
SPEAKER_00: I know it looks like he's coward.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like he's throwing the women and children under the bus, and it's not really him being being chivalrous in some way.
SPEAKER_00: No, verse four.
SPEAKER_00: Then um, excuse me, verse three, he passed, uh, but he himself passed on ahead of them.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jacob, right?
SPEAKER_00: He passed on ahead of verse three, and he bowed down to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: So he organizes everybody and he sticks them out front, but then he passes through himself.
SPEAKER_00: And what do they see happening?
SPEAKER_00: What does each of them see happening to this one, Jacob, who probably they know to have been the scoundrel that he has been.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of them.
SPEAKER_00: Those that worked for him, that helped him with the herds and the flocks who've come along, some of his family members.
SPEAKER_00: Um he's like a, you know, he's like a shrewd deal-making, manipulative who always cared about me, myself, and I.
SPEAKER_00: And uh a lot of us know people like that, and some of us are people like that at different times in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But in this moment, in verse 3, he passes a head in front of them and he bows seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And as I did my studies, some of the some of the brightest scholars of Old Testament literature said this is often the kind of response that someone would make to an approaching king.
SPEAKER_00: Deference, respect, humility.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't sound like the kind of thing where somebody's you know got it figured in their head that they've been at odds with the other person and they want to keep the fight going.
SPEAKER_00: No, it sounds like somebody who's showing respect and honor.
SPEAKER_00: Esau ran to meet him, and I kind of half expected it to say he drew his sword and cut his head off.
SPEAKER_00: But he because that's what he had in mind last time.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what it says here.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Esau ran to meet him, and he's got 400 men with him.
SPEAKER_00: And they're probably armed to the teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Esau ran to meet him and he embraced him and he fell on his neck, and he kissed him.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And they wept.
SPEAKER_00: Really quite moving and uh pretty amazing when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: What did they say?
SPEAKER_00: How did it how did the weeping begin?
SPEAKER_00: Was it was it at first as he's running toward, as Esau's running toward Jacob?
SPEAKER_00: Was Jacob thinking, oh no, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die?
SPEAKER_00: And what happened when he fell on him and embraced him and kissed him?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm the guy that's reading the New Testament, and I read through the New Testament back into the Old Testament, and I think of the story Jesus told of the prodigal son and the prodigal father, who ran out to meet his prodigal son and fell on him and kissed him and embraced him and welcomed him home.
SPEAKER_00: And the older brother, sadly, wouldn't even come into the celebration.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted, like my mom, he wanted he wanted him to get his just desserts.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that went away.
SPEAKER_00: He shouldn't be welcomed back to the family, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to be thinking about the younger brother and respond to the younger brother without becoming the older brother, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But here, he, Esau, embraced him.
SPEAKER_00: He fell on his neck and he kissed him and he wept.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what they talked about first.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we get a little bit of this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but as they start to weep and feel the tears wet on each other's shoulder and and begin to their chests begin to heave a little bit and they begin to sob a little, and you know, fluids are flowing out of their mouths and their their nose and everything like that.
SPEAKER_00: As Jacob say to Esau, it's been 20 years, brother.
SPEAKER_00: How's Dad?
SPEAKER_00: How's Isaac?
SPEAKER_00: It's been 20 years, brother.
SPEAKER_00: How's mom?
SPEAKER_00: How is she?
SPEAKER_00: And did Esau say, I'm so sorry to tell you, mom's gone.
SPEAKER_00: She's not with us anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Dad's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But he's getting really old, and of course he was, we know that story, right?
SPEAKER_00: But what what kind of interchange did they have?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, that must have been such a beautiful moment.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Esau lifts up his eyes and saw the women and children and said, Who are these with you?
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob says to Esau, and I love this answer, the children whom God has graciously given your servant.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob's gonna mention the grace of God in his life, at work in his life a couple times here in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do that too?
SPEAKER_00: Would I do that too?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be more verbal about the grace of God at work in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Just like Jacob and Esau, just like Abraham and Isaac before them, each one of these people has had to be ingloriously extricated from some mischief that caused them consequences they didn't like.
SPEAKER_00: So too for me, so too for you.
SPEAKER_00: What about the grace of God at work in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Does that flow freely from your lips when you're talking to others and explaining some of what happens in your life or what happens with your family or what happens in your business?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
SPEAKER_00: How has God been gracious to you?
SPEAKER_00: Let's testify, people.
SPEAKER_00: Um here he does just that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, these are the children whom God has graciously given you service.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, then the maids came near with their children, they bowed down.
SPEAKER_00: Leah likewise came near with her children, they bowed down.
SPEAKER_00: Afterward, Joseph came near with Rachel and they bowed down.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 is telling us this thing about reconciliation, forgiveness, humility, all of that, is contagious.
SPEAKER_00: What happened in this world of incivility and rancor and acrimony that's turned up to on one to ten, it's turned up to 12 right now.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen?
SPEAKER_00: How could we spread the good infection of that kind of approach?
SPEAKER_00: Really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, What do you mean by all this company?
SPEAKER_00: This is Esau, which I have met.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, why are they all here?
SPEAKER_00: He said, To find favor in the sight of my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob says that, calls him my Lord, not my brother who I hate, not my brother who I've stolen everything from, not my enemy, but my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Respect again.
SPEAKER_00: And Esau's reply is, I have plenty.
SPEAKER_00: The word for plenty there is Rob R-A-B.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a Hebrew scholar.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just smart enough to know how to use the dictionary online.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's really interesting because there's going to be another word translated in English plenty down here in another verse or two, and it's not the same Hebrew word.
SPEAKER_00: But right here, it's Esau saying, I've got plenty.
SPEAKER_00: My brother, let what you have be your own.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't need to give me all this stuff because the servants had gone ahead and promised all these gifts and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And he's basically saying, You don't need to give me anything.
SPEAKER_00: I've got plenty.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob said, No, please, if now I've found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I want I want to see you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to see God in you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see the life of God in you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see you as God wants me to see you again.
SPEAKER_00: Man, can I learn to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And you have received me favorably.
SPEAKER_00: That's a shocker to Jacob, who last time, again, last time they knew each other, Esau wanted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Please take my gift, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: The word gift there could also be translated blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, because that's what Jacob stole from Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Please take my blessing, which has been brought to you.
SPEAKER_00: And you can underline this next phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has dealt graciously, there it is again, with me.
SPEAKER_00: And because I have, and here it is the second time, in English anyway, plenty.
SPEAKER_00: This time it's a different Hebrew word.
SPEAKER_00: It's K-O-L, call.
SPEAKER_00: And it means not just plenty, actually, it would be better translated, all.
SPEAKER_00: I have everything I need.
SPEAKER_00: God has been gracious to me, and I have everything I need.
SPEAKER_00: There's something to rest in.
SPEAKER_00: There's a soul actually at rest in God's provision.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what he's got.
SPEAKER_00: And right now, remember, he's literally, he ran away from his first home because of his own misdeeds.
SPEAKER_00: And then he has left Laban and all that sort of thing because God's told him to go return back home.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't know what the outcome is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: He's just walking in obedience at this point, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And he is a soul, he's got a soul at rest though.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has everything he needs, because God has been gracious to him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, every single one of us could probably figure out a way to articulate how, in some way, God has been gracious to us, but to actually rest in it, to actually say, God is sovereign, and he has, because he's been gracious to me, I have everything I need in him.
SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Esau said, let's take our journey and go, and I will go before you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: But he said to him, My Lord knows that the children are frail, the flocks and the herds which are nursing are a care or responsibility to me.
SPEAKER_00: And if they are driven hard, one day, all the flocks will die.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, this is a 450 to 500 mile journey.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, not on an airplane, not on a train, not on a bus, not in a car, not in cars, air conditioned with, you know, all kinds of great digital entertainment.
SPEAKER_00: It's none of that.
SPEAKER_00: This is like worn-out sandals, dusty roads, smelly animals, and and worn-out clothes, and no bathroom, no truck stops for bathrooms or anything.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so they're tired.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I we can't keep up with you and your 400 men.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And there may even be a little bit yet of a little hesitancy, a little, he's not sure.
SPEAKER_00: It's quite possible.
SPEAKER_00: Very human.
SPEAKER_00: Both of these people are.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to leave room for that.
SPEAKER_00: But he's he is saying, I can't really keep up anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Please let my Lord pass on before his servant, verse 14, and I'll proceed at my leisure according to the pace of the cattle that are before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my Lord at Seir.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Seir is uh, I don't have the map here today, but uh think about Israel.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's probably in the northern third of uh, but east of it, uh, of what would be Israel at this time, near the southern part of the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Seir would be down toward the Dead Sea, and the Jordan River runs between them, you know, north and south like this, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so Esau is going to end up, just because I've read the rest of the book, he's gonna end up staying in the area of Mount Seir, and it's gonna become where the Edomites flow from his descendants, basically.
SPEAKER_00: But for right now, what we're being told is that Esau wants Jacob to go with him to Seir, and yet Jacob has been told by God to go to Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the house of God, that's where God wants Jacob to go, but he's not even gonna go there.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that in this particular chapter.
SPEAKER_00: And so Esau says to him, please let me leave you with some of the people who are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let some of my soldiers hang out with you.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, What need is there, Jacob did?
SPEAKER_00: Let me find favor in the sight of my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob journeyed to Suckoth and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock, therefore the place is named Suckoth, which means sheds or booths, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram, and that's where he was at when he ran away from his homeland.
SPEAKER_00: He ran up to Padan Aram where uh he met Laban and Leah and Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: And he camped before the city.
SPEAKER_00: He bought the piece of land which he had pitched, uh, where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of money.
SPEAKER_00: Just note the live body detail in that last verse.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's one of those things.
SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes you'll dial out going, who's Hamor?
SPEAKER_00: What's Shechem?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Just notice that it's live body detail.
SPEAKER_00: The idea there is to remind us that we're reading history.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just reading fairy tales or you know, some kind of myth or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: This is live body detail.
SPEAKER_00: You can cross-check other resources and find these places and some of these names from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really awesome that our Bible would be that way.
SPEAKER_00: He erected there an altar and called it El Elohe Israel, which is uh God, the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: That's his name now, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And he has now built his first altar.
SPEAKER_00: We knew that Abraham was someone who built altars.
SPEAKER_00: We knew even that Isaac built an altar.
SPEAKER_00: But now here's Jacob building his first altar.
SPEAKER_00: Again, his curve is so long in his faith and the way he's coming to faith.
SPEAKER_00: But it's really interesting, and now I think his realization of who God is is uh is really becoming a little bit more clear as theology developing a little.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, we didn't we haven't even gotten to Moses and the Ten Commandments or any of that stuff now.
SPEAKER_00: So these people are, it's a long, slow curve, and God is being so faithful to reveal himself to these folks.
SPEAKER_00: What a great chapter, what a great story of reconciliation, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Um I think that the terms forgiveness and reconciliation sometimes get conflated.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they're two beautiful words, uh, but but I think that there's a slight difference in the meaning, and I think maybe sometimes uh it is it becomes more clear to us when we think about how it's used.
SPEAKER_00: I think that forgiveness is something that you can do unilaterally.
SPEAKER_00: It takes one person to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: I think reconciliation actually takes more than one person.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you may make an effort at reconciliation with someone, and it will involve forgiveness, but the other person may not be interested in reconciliation.
unknown: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Know.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes our pride gets in the way, sometimes we're stubborn, sometimes we're hurt, sometimes we're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't venture out into the turf or the area that we need to go to to actually have reconciled relationships.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is an interesting chapter because to me, if if I think of people, all the people's stories that I hear as a pastor, if I think of all the things, even in my own life, as I think of some of the broken, you know, along the way, some of the bumpy rides and relationships and stuff like that, if I if I try to think about all that, none of my none of my story and none of the stories I've heard have actually included a brother who is out to kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And none of the stories that I know, I know, I know some of them that have been uh liars and and and some of them have taken things and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um but but not like this.
SPEAKER_00: And so these stories are preserved for us in a way, and so are the stories in the New Testament, where we see relationships go south, uh, where we see some bickering between Christians like Paul and the Apostle Peter in Antioch, Syrian Antioch, or when we see when we see Paul and Barnabas separate and go different ways because they one of them wants to bring John Mark and the other one doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a disagreement there.
SPEAKER_00: What ends up happening is, glory to God, two missionary teams get sent out ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: God can transform even our stubborn resistance to reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a fascinating story to me, and I think there's some things that we can mine from it.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I think we see that sin separates us from God and from one another.
SPEAKER_00: I know that that's fairly obvious, but everybody doesn't quite acknowledge that sin exists in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And in our sort of postmodern world, there's a lot of, which we may be post-postmodern, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put 10 posts there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of world we live in.
SPEAKER_00: We're post-everything, all right?
SPEAKER_00: So post toasties, we're post-everything.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and and so what we're what we're what what the confusion that we've now gotten to is that we think we are in charge of reality itself, including the you know, defining of our own selves.
SPEAKER_00: And you can see the confusion, you can see it out there, it's not hard to see.
SPEAKER_00: Um you can even see it in your own self, in your own mind, in your own soul, as those kinds of that kind of confusion and those kinds of thoughts flood into our souls and minds and begin to influence us and shape us as we consider what does it mean to be a human person, or we consider what does it mean to be married, or we consider what does it mean to be any number of things in this world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's really important that we understand that sin actually separates us from God and from one another.
SPEAKER_00: And I probably should have put up there, I'm sorry, but let's call this extended point one, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Sin separates us from God and from one another, comma, and from our true selves.
SPEAKER_00: Because the person that God really wants me to be as his son is to be a person who rests in his love and flourishes uh in my relationships with others.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I rest in his love and forgiveness and grace in my life, just like Jacob here.
SPEAKER_00: God's been gracious to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I can turn and do the same for others.
SPEAKER_00: We say it in this prayer, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: You may or may not know it, but every time we say this prayer, you say a one, there's one conditional clause that you say.
SPEAKER_00: You say, God, forgive me in the same way I forgive others.
SPEAKER_00: And if you ever stop and think about that, you might go, Don't.
SPEAKER_00: I actually want God to forgive me way better than I forgive others.
SPEAKER_00: And you probably do too.
SPEAKER_00: And you probably take offense if people don't forgive you when you've offended them.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem with us is that pride, which is at the root of all my sin, pride keeps separating me from God, understanding that truth right there, and separates me from others, my pride does, and it separates me even from my own true self.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is at the root of all my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is at the root of all of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And it is a separator.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, the church has done a really good job of articulating what our sins, what do they look like?
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you have to answer that question.
SPEAKER_00: Who is it in this culture that in the post-everything world that defines what is sin?
SPEAKER_00: Because the minute you say something is sin, somebody else will go, Who are you to tell me what sin is?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And for years and centuries, the church has been articulating, here's what the Bible teaches us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Uh these are the kinds of things that are categorized as sin that will break our relationship with God, with others, and even with ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Things like pride and vainglory, greed and covetousness, lusts of all kinds.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just sexual lust, folks.
SPEAKER_00: There are lusts of all kinds.
SPEAKER_00: But yes, there is sexual lust.
SPEAKER_00: Envy, gluttony, drunkenness, wrath, anger, sloth.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself on the screen?
SPEAKER_00: Because you see me on the screen, whether you know it or not.
SPEAKER_00: I'm up there.
SPEAKER_00: And I would suggest, humbly, as your pastor, you are up there too.
SPEAKER_00: You dress up really nice on Sunday, you look good, I like your smiles.
SPEAKER_00: We're all usually pretty polite to each other, but we're all up there.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us are up there in that last category.
SPEAKER_00: That's a hard one.
SPEAKER_00: That last one is tough.
SPEAKER_00: In the world in which we live, it's the race to be first to know, and the first one to read it and tweet it.
SPEAKER_00: And we get so proud of the fact that we're right, or that's so proud of the fact that we posted first, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: And and then if it's got gossip in it, it's what a delectable delight it is to our pride.
SPEAKER_00: It's just so wonderful, savory in every way.
SPEAKER_00: And there we fall into that division, that dividing asunder of people, and we ful we jump into the river of rancor and the and and and we find ourselves being choked out by the kudzu of our culture, which is outrage.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let that happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: None of that we've got to set aside all of that stuff up there.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem, as Alan Jones says, is we live in an age where everything is permitted, but nothing is forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what a catch 22 we're in.
SPEAKER_00: We're trapped.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is right because nothing is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you're wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Because you disagree with me.
SPEAKER_00: The other day I posted a little, I am, I confess I am on Twitter a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I said something like, I said something like warning, you know, it's like a children's warning or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I often read and quote people I don't agree with, you know, because it's just so usually if you post something, people don't agree with you, it's like jump, quick, kill, destroy, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here we have with Jacob and Esau.
SPEAKER_00: This one that comes and bows seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And this one that comes humbly and really is intent on obeying God, working toward forgiveness and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: When he used to be, how do I manipulate this?
SPEAKER_00: How do I take best advantage of this other person?
SPEAKER_00: How do I possibly get everything I can out of this?
SPEAKER_00: And it's just an interesting contrast, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are more ready to reconcile than we realize, and that's really wonderful, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Um God loves reconciliation, but because of sin and pride, not everybody else does.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a relationship that could use some forgiveness or some reconciliation of some sort?
SPEAKER_00: I've actually been told stories by people that come to our church of over 20 years of somebody extending an olive branch, somebody making a move toward reconciliation, and the other person saying something a couple different things.
SPEAKER_00: Like one one would say something like, I didn't even know, I wasn't offended at all.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, what are you, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: We we need you, I don't, you don't, I yeah, and they just didn't even know.
SPEAKER_00: But the one person thought this was this huge, mountainous conflict that was going on, right?
SPEAKER_00: The other person didn't even know.
SPEAKER_00: And the other kinds of stories I've heard before are those kinds where somebody offers the first move and the other person just breaks down and cries and weeps profoundly.
SPEAKER_00: I've just been waiting for you to say so.
SPEAKER_00: I've just been, I just have felt so bad myself.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sorry too.
SPEAKER_00: And just like Jacob and Esau, they fall on each other and weep together.
SPEAKER_00: And the weeping turns from this kind of mourning that turns into this hopeful morning that turns into this beautiful glory and this reconciled relationship because of the way God has been at work in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Joyce Baldwin has a really good commentary on the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: All the bitter enmity that had separated these two men for 20 years was swept away by the forgiving love that flooded their beings.
SPEAKER_00: Barriers of resentment, hatred, and fear fell in a moment and permitted the joy of renewed friendships, introductions to the family, and exchange of the news.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, and finally, there is a gospel-shaped reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: And it looks like something.
SPEAKER_00: It's got characteristics.
SPEAKER_00: It's foreshadowed here in Genesis chapter 33, uh, found more completely in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who comes, who's the one that all of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's story points forward to.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is God's record of redemption history, this Bible that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout the Old Testament, we find it point pointing forward to and finding its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus, who also comes into a dark world that had been its enemy and offers the olive branch of peace with God.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: And he lays down his life for the sins of the world, mine included, yours included, and essentially pays the full price for us to be completely reconciled with God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that is amazing grace.
SPEAKER_00: That's more much more comprehensive.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is a gospel-shaped reconciliation, and we see it foreshadowed here in the humility of Jacob, bowing seven times, in the humility of Jesus, condescending to take the infinite God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: No, beyond the universe.
SPEAKER_00: He created the universe.
SPEAKER_00: The infinite God condescending to become one of us.
SPEAKER_00: A couple decades ago, there was that song that asked the question, what if God were one of us?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer of the New Testament is, He was.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a good thing to say what if, because watch it just blow you away as you read the story.
SPEAKER_00: What if?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what if, reconciliation with God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what if reconciliation between you and others as Jesus begins to work in your life and transform and change you and give you not only a model for how to forgive and how to reconcile, but to actually his life inside of you, the Holy Spirit, empowering us to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Because on my own, I gotta tell you, I'm not naturally inclined toward reconciliation out on I-65.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not natural, if you do me wrong, I'm not naturally inclined to just go, oh, it's really okay.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep on abusing me.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not inclined toward that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: I love justice.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love justice?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hate injustice?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hate to suffer injustice?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you do.
SPEAKER_00: And do you think that people that that offend you or or or abuse you in some way should be leave should leave the planet?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we all think that.
SPEAKER_00: But here comes Jesus to the planet, filled with abusers, filled with people who are at odds with God, who prefer darkness to light.
SPEAKER_00: Here comes Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does he live among us, become one of us, but he dies for us.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gets back up from the grave, defeating our last and greatest enemy.
SPEAKER_00: How humble Jesus is, how humble Jacob was.
SPEAKER_00: I thought he was, I thought he was humble here.
SPEAKER_00: And when grace is extended, hardened hearts are often broken up.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, if I'm reading it right, I realize I'm speculating because it's not in the text.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm reading this right, when Esau shows up with 400 men, that wasn't like, and each one of them had a basket, a picnic basket to share with everybody.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad you're home.
SPEAKER_00: No, I think that was just in case.
SPEAKER_00: Old Jacob is still old Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: But here he comes and he's different.
SPEAKER_00: And that humility leads is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: People can tell whether you mean that or not.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing up there, I think, is uh honest confession and genuine repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And that's because sometimes we give dishonest confessions, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Well, um I'm sorry if you know that offended you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry doesn't include the word if, it never does.
SPEAKER_00: Married couples.
SPEAKER_00: This is something for you to anybody really.
SPEAKER_00: The word if does not be belong in an apology.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't gotten to apologize yet.
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're using the word if.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So it's, I'm sorry, I was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to say.
SPEAKER_00: I was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Because that means the death of pride, see?
SPEAKER_00: And it's so hard to say that.
SPEAKER_00: You want to begin your apology with, hey, I was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you might have explanations and all that sort of thing, but you need to begin with humility.
SPEAKER_00: We all do, and we need to begin with an honest confession and genuine repentance.
SPEAKER_00: The courage of the first move.
SPEAKER_00: Um man, I had a guy come up to me afterwards at the the other past service and just say, Thank you for talking about the courage of the first move.
SPEAKER_00: I made that first move a couple years ago with this person that I'm thinking of, and it didn't go well.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, brother, uh that point up there is not about the outcome.
SPEAKER_00: We got to leave the outcomes to God.
SPEAKER_00: We just, we just like Jacob move toward Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Jacob, obey, make the offer, and it might be rejected or it might be accepted.
SPEAKER_00: But it, regardless of the response of the other person, make the move.
SPEAKER_00: Be courageous.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh offered restitution is there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes that comes into play and needs to be uh offered, and sometimes not.
SPEAKER_00: Uh glorious resolution is what we're we're reaching for.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're aiming for as believers, as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: See, and that we're not we're not aiming for glory to us, we're aiming for glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: And when you start, when we start living our lives for God's glory, now think about this.
SPEAKER_00: When we start living our lives for God's glory, okay, there isn't something that puts another person out of the reach of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: There's no repugnant other for believers.
SPEAKER_00: And we live in a world where everybody thinks of those people as the repugnant other.
SPEAKER_00: They voted that way, therefore they're the repugnant other.
SPEAKER_00: Or they're those kind of Christians, and so they're the repugnant other.
SPEAKER_00: There's no repugnant other for us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're all sinners.
SPEAKER_00: We've received grace, God's been gracious to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now reflect grace.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean pull it up yourself up by your bootstrap.
SPEAKER_00: No, it means just simply reflect his grace.
SPEAKER_00: He's shown it to you, now you've shown it to them.
SPEAKER_00: And how could I withhold?
SPEAKER_00: When I consider, most of the time when we're trapped in a sort of unforgiveness mode, it's because we don't really appreciate how much we've been forgiven by God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we keep coming to this table.
SPEAKER_00: See, because we want to keep reminding ourselves how that we need to be thankful for what Christ has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: So, courage of a first move, offer of restitution, glorious resolution, we're going for that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, couple quotes before I go here.
SPEAKER_00: From Baldwin, again, the quiet hidden work of God's spirit goes on through the centuries, ah, embracing succeeding generations, yeah, all of which belong in his worldwide outreach and are part of a greater whole called by Jesus, the Kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Statistics cannot estimate its size, nor reckon its worth.
SPEAKER_00: Get a look at that, man.
SPEAKER_00: What she's saying there, guys, is that there is this city on a hill.
SPEAKER_00: God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And it's supposed to be visible, audible, and it's supposed to be a light that's not hidden under a basket or a bushel or darkness around or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're the kingdom of God is people who have learned to love God and learned to love one another well.
SPEAKER_00: And forgiveness is what we call loving someone in spite of the fact that they may have hurt us or failed us in some way.
SPEAKER_00: That's what forgiveness is.
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation is when I actually come back into that restored relationship with that person in some way.
SPEAKER_00: And the miracles that God can do through willing hearts along those lines.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I recognize you may have somebody in your life that you might try to reconcile with, but they're not interested.
SPEAKER_00: And I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for this dear person that came up to me last hour.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for some of you that might be making a move toward reconciliation with somebody this week, and we'll hope, hopefully, hear some good stories of what God does and then through it all.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how many of us need God's reconciling power at work in our lives this week.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talked about the importance of love and unity among his followers in John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that would be important for us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote to the ancient church at Corinth, and I would like for you to read this passage aloud with me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.
SPEAKER_00: The old things have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, new things have come.
SPEAKER_00: Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's a point to all of this.
SPEAKER_00: That we might become the righteousness of God in Christ in a world that needs Jesus and needs to see Jesus in reconciled relationships.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you know, I can tell you, I mean, I there are people that marvel that, especially having gone through a contentious election cycle and all this already, that people from different sides of the uh, you know, the political owls can actually be in the same room together.
SPEAKER_00: I know one thing, they can't be on Facebook together.
SPEAKER_00: But come to the place where we seek his face.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we find people being able to, who would otherwise be enemies.
SPEAKER_00: We find them living reconciled relationships and loving one another.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Let's close up with this uh killer quote here.
SPEAKER_00: The main way Christians can be a resource to the broader culture is by restoring the church to being a well-known community of forgiveness and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Who's in?
SPEAKER_00: I'm in.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, let's do this kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be these kind of people in a world overrun with people that aren't interested in that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the great example, that's true, but I want you to know it's the life of Christ in you, the life of Christ in me that actually makes this possible.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot do this on my own.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not good at this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it is a supernatural thing that leads to a glorious thing whenever it is done in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get the opportunity then to be his righteousness, right?
SPEAKER_00: The one, the thing he's clothed us with, his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: We get to go out there and wear that robe and be those people.
SPEAKER_00: And and the glory doesn't go to us, it goes to him because he's the one that changes our hearts and our lives and our relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for a message from uh so long ago of what you can do with hearts that will yield themselves to you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for each and every one of us as we consider the way Jesus has reconciled us to God.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you then would move us to receive that and walk in that and rest in that in such a way that it just the beauty of the Lord so captures us that it's the most important thing in our lives that all of a sudden we find ourselves being able to forgive others because we've been so, so, so forgiven ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Empower us, Lord, to live as your sons and daughters to bear the family resemblance in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: We pray amen and amen.