Wrestling with God: Reconciliation, Forgiveness, and Peace

Here's a question for you. How many of you have strained relationships with a brother or sister? Anyone? I don't. I'm just showing you what you should do if you do. How many of you have strained relationships with other family members? Parents, children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews. Yeah. Today's sermon is for you, and hopefully it blesses the rest of you as well. [00:49:59] (33 seconds)  #RepairFamilyTies

It was commonly thought that if anyone were to see the face of God, surely they would die, that they would just be so overwhelmed by the glory, the holiness of God that they would cease to exist. That was not Jacob's experience in this case. He had encountered the Lord. He had lived. He had experienced grace. He had experienced a blessing. He received a new name. [01:00:53] (40 seconds)  #EncounterLeadsToGrace

Jacob, he himself went ahead. So so day has come. He's named the place Benel because he he saw God face to face, and now he is encountering his brother. They're coming together. Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times. You can see the the contrition. You can see the the humility. You can see the, desire to to receive grace from his brother rather than his brother's wrath. His brother has 400 men with him. He doesn't know yet if his brother is simply gonna kill him or have him killed or arrested and tortured or whatever. And so as he approaches his brother and his brother's 400 men, Jacob is bowing down, putting his face to the ground seven times as they get closer. [01:01:42] (56 seconds)  #HumbleBeforeGrace

I would think that our lord Jesus may have had this in mind when he told that parable of the prodigal son. The son who, you know, asked for his father's inheritance and went away even though his father was still alive and he went away and he wasted it all and ended up in poverty and wanted to just come home and be a servant, a slave in his father's house so that he might have enough to eat. You know the story. And in Jesus' story, as the the son approaches home and he's all ready to, you know, confess and and, you know, say, I'm sorry and and just accept me as a servant within your house, his father rushes out to him, and he hugs him and kisses him and calls for the fatted calf to be slain and for shoes to be brought and a ring to be put on his son's finger, and he just is delighted to welcome him home. [01:03:07] (52 seconds)  #ProdigalWelcome

Esau wept tears of joy that he saw his brother, that they were together again, that they were reunited. And Jacob wept tears of relief that his brother no longer wanted to kill him, that his brother was willing to forgive him, that he was receiving grace and mercy, which he did not deserve. And so they both embraced and kissed and and wept these tears of joy. [01:04:18] (39 seconds)  #ReconciledJoy

And we talked with the youth about how the kingdom of God is not simply somewhere we go when we die. It's about what we can experience here in this life, in this place. When we experience love, when we experience forgiveness and mercy, when we experience joy, when we experience a peace, not just, you know, because nothing bad is happening to us, but a peace in the midst of the storm. [01:07:34] (31 seconds)  #KingdomHereNow

Because the presence of the Lord is with us and because we we have this presence of of the lord at work amongst other people in our lives. There are people who show up here on Sunday mornings, and they're they're hungry for some peace. They're hungry for some acceptance. They're hungry for some love, And, hopefully, they find it here in you that when they look upon you, your smiles, your love, your welcome, They're experiencing the face of God, and they're experiencing the kingdom of God right here in this place. [01:08:05] (42 seconds)  #BeTheFaceOfGod

``What we see in Jesus, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his sacrificial death on the cross is the face of his heavenly father. It is the face of God. There's no other god hiding behind Jesus. When we see what we see in Jesus, we know to be exactly the same for his heavenly father, for our heavenly father. [01:09:51] (33 seconds)  #JesusIsGodsFace