Man, it sounds good to me. Out of my left ear there, Robert. I'm over here, but it sounded good. Well, that's a good prayer, isn't it? Before preaching, isn't it? Speak, O Lord, as we come to you to receive the food of your Holy Word. Now listen to this. Take your truth. Let's make this our prayer tonight. Plant it deep in us. shape and fashion us in your likeness, why? So that the light of Christ might be seen today in our acts of love and our deeds of faith. Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory, amen? Let's ask God to do that, all right? Father, we bow before you and we desire that the words of this hymn would be our petition for our gathering here tonight, that you plant your word deep within us, that Father, by your Spirit, you would convict us of sin, point us to righteousness, and help us to become all that you intend for us to be, to the end that others could see Christ, not us. but him. And so father, we know we're wholly unable to do that ourselves and by human effort. So by your spirit doing us and for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And we'll give you all the praise in Jesus name. Amen. Well, amen. Thank you, Robert. That kind of hit right on my premise tonight. Now, you didn't know that, but someone else did. And I always call that a blessing, to see how, like you said this morning, Josh, how God orchestrates so many things for us. Let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis 33. And when you find Genesis 33, we're gonna read verse 10. And then I want you to find 2 Corinthians. In just a moment, we'll be turning to it, 2 Corinthians. And then we'll come back to Genesis and we'll look at quite a few different things there. Genesis 33, look at verse 10. Now we're gonna come back and get the context, but just for right now, and you remember this much, this is when Jacob, after being estranged and gone and away from his home, principally because of Esau and his fear of Esau, fully deserved by Jacob and afraid of the retaliation when his father Jacob would die, or Israel would die, or I'm sorry, Isaac would die. knowing, and we'll see that towards the end, that Esau was bound to murder his brother. And we know the story, but we don't always think about it as a participant in that fear and in all that was going on. And when he does meet up with him, it's a glorious reconciliation that you wouldn't anticipate. And listen to what he says here in verse 11. Or rather, verse 10, this is Genesis 33, verse 10. Jacob said, no, please, if now I've found favor in your sight, talking Esau, if I've found favor in your sight, Esau, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. How amazing is this? See, Jacob sees in Esau not the hostility and hatred and murderous spirit that he anticipated, but he sees what? He says, I see your face as one sees the face of God. And you have received me favorably. See, I want to think tonight about this matter of showing to other people who God is. Through, in this case, it was His face, His countenance. He saw something and He saw, He says, is as seeing the face of God. You've accepted Me. Isn't that a beautiful picture of what God does in reconciliation? So I want us to think this through. In showing God to others, How should we do that? Well, we all know, Sermon on the Mount, that it ought to be what? Through our actions. Remember what Jesus said? He says at the end of, this is Matthew 5, 16, the end of the verse, he says that they will see your good works and give glory, not to you, but to the Father. See, if they see certain good works from the followers of Christ, they'll give glory to God the Father. It'll produce something in them that they won't applaud you, but they'll say, I need to give God the glory for that. See, understanding who the Father is. The first part of the verse says, let your light shine before men in such a way. See, now here's our connection for tonight. Let your light, it's a reflective light of course, shine before men in such a way that they will see your good works, that's the emanating light, and give glory to the Father who is in heaven. So, see, we have a role in this. to magnify who God is. And in this case, he says, it's through your deeds. Now, Scott was preaching this to the kids this morning about this picture of light. And it's such an important one here. What is the good works he's talking about here in the Sermon on the Mount? He says it's your light shining before men. Not just shining, but shining before men so that in such a way that they can draw a conclusion about God. Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, this is talking about light personally in chapter six when he says the eye is, listen, is the lamp of the body. What's a lamp do? It focuses light on something so that you can read. Your eye is the lamp of the body. And Jesus said, if the eye is clear, the whole body is full of light. I can remember my grandparents, I was about 10, and it was in a time when you didn't have cataract surgery like they have now. But their eyes would become dull, you've seen it perhaps probably only in animals anymore, but when your cataract becomes dull or not clear, you can't see through it. And the only thing they could do there is cut out the whole lens and put on these, do you ever, any of you old enough to remember these big thick, look like actually Coke bottle glasses, and that external lens was the new lens to help them see. And so I can remember both my grandparents having these big old round, huge, thick lenses because they both had their cataracts removed. And so I suspect, I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect you take those big glasses off and what happens, there's no vision. Because you have no lens, you just have some light, but you can't tell anything. And I think this is what behind, in the first century, they fully understand. And Jesus was saying, if the eye is clear, the whole body is full of light. It benefits the body. But he says, but if your eye is bad, what does he say? Your whole body will be full of darkness. And so I want us to see this connection here. And he says, what about that? He says, and if you have that kind of darkness in your whole body, he says, this is the Lord Jesus. He says, how great is that darkness? In other words, if your eye is bad, It can't see the light of Christ. What's it gonna do? It's gonna be just like that physically. It's gonna block out everything that God would intend for a healthy eye and a healthy person to have. Now this, that I mentioned earlier from the Sermon on the Mount, is light for the world. Let your light shine before yourself. No, shine before men. See, men need to see something so that they can make a proper conclusion about the Father. They'd give glory to the Father. It's like Proverbs 4, 18. It says the path, now listen to this, the path of the righteous, what's a path? It's a lifestyle. The path or the road, the way of the righteous is like the light of dawn. Now think about that when the sun comes up. And it says what? It shines brighter and brighter until full day. If you guys like to camp and go outside or see sunrises, I love to see the sun come up. and pierce the horizon and gives light until full day. Lights everything up. Well, the path of the righteous ought to be that for our neighbors. You understand? For those who are about us. We, by our good works, by our reflecting the light of Christ before men in such a way, would help them see what? See just like our eyes. Give our body light to see things. The world becomes real to us because our eyes are good and they're receiving the light that God is giving. And we can see the colors and the shapes and all of that. And so in such a way, our lives in righteousness, the path we take, the works that we do, is letting our light shine before men. Should be in such a way, what? that they can draw conclusions about God, and ultimately do what? Submit to God through the gospel and give glory to God. Now, does the world need to see our works then, if you've been following me? Is that a fair statement? It is. And the world needs to see Christian works, and they need to see in our deeds and in our path, the way we walk and what we do, things that would lead them to embrace the gospel. and the Savior. That's one of my big premises for tonight. Well, let's ask us that. If they need to see that, what do they need to see then? Think about your eye giving light to your whole body. What do you need to see when you get up tomorrow morning? Simple question. You need to see what? Everything. Gayle stumbled into my shoe the other night in the dark, and I think she broke her toe. It's purple. Looks terrible. It was in the dark. And so, figure it out. When we get up, we need to see in light, we need to see everything. What the light would normally shine upon. But let's ask this though. While we all need to see to get around in life, what's our greatest need? What's the greatest thing that you and I need to see about God? I submit to you, it's what Jacob saw in Esau. He says, I've seen your face and it is like the face of God to me. In what way? He says, you've accepted Me. And would you agree that our greatest need is to be accepted by God? To be reconciled to God? That's a fair statement, isn't it? And if that's the case, and I believe it is, I think this is why God has set this up that we would shine to everyone in this certain way that Esau did to Jacob, because that's our greatest need, to be reconciled. Now, let's go to 2 Corinthians, and I said we'd go to 2 Corinthians. We're still laying some groundwork. I apologize for the homiletical inconvenience of this, but trust the Lord will bring it together. If reconciliation is our greatest need, this is a great chapter on reconciliation. It tells us a lot about reconciliation. You remember the passage, 2 Corinthians 5. We're going to pick it up in verse 18. But remember this passage. And it talks about how they knew Christ. They don't see Christ in the flesh anymore. But if any man is in Christ, he's a what? See, we all know this passage. We're a new creation. Now pick it up in the next verse, verse 18. Now think about reconciliation now. Now all these things are from God. What things? The changed life. The old things passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We're new creations. Do you see that? 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. How many times has he said reconciliation? You see the importance of this? Now look at this next one. Therefore, therefore because of all of that, that God is the one who brings change and reconciliation, therefore because God has reconciled us to himself, it's all his work, it's not something we do, where therefore because he has given us the ministry of reconciliation, we, verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And we can't skip verse 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That's real reconciliation. And so 2 Corinthians is telling us that it's the work of God. He reconciles us to him, verse 18. He's reconciling the world to himself. God is doing that in verse 19. You see the parallel? But notice this, there's another parallel. He gives us the ministry of reconciliation. He gives us the word of reconciliation. And therefore, because he's committed the word to us of reconciliation, we have a role. We have become ambassadors. Now I define, this and all won't agree with me, but I think most do. Matthew 28, the Great Commission says, that the apostle's role is to do what? Disciple, sent out to do what? Disciple the nations. Preach the gospel to every creature, right? And disciple the nations to do what? To observe everything whatsoever I have what commanded you. So I'm of the school that says that what the apostles were commanded were to be taught to observe. Now, just like Josh clearly said, needs to be underscored and underlined, there are no apostles today, capital A, apostles. But the apostolic work of presenting the word of God as a herald, as a preacher, that goes on. And by the way, that goes on To me, and all believers, why? Because all believers are to be taught to obey that. And so if you have a different view that that's only the apostles, well then you can say, it's all on the apostles and by extension the preachers to be ambassadors for Christ, but I don't have to, I can just be a pew sitter. Well, we're good Baptists and we don't believe that. We believe that it extends down to us. That doesn't make us pastors, necessarily, or missionaries. But we're all to do what? To witness and to be able to know how to what? Share the gospel. And we're taught to observe those things. So we have this role, reconciliation, being an ambassador of reconciliation, And it involves this matter of begging people to do something. So let's define it. What is reconciliation? It's interesting. If you just look at the word and see its etymology and all that in the Bible languages, you know the money changers were reconcilers. At the most basic form. Why? Because they were taking Gentile coins and putting them into Jewish carnage that would be allowed in the temple. And so they were reconciling an unclean coin into a clean coin. Do you see that? And so it was one for one. That's what the word reconcile means in its most basic form. It means to change it mutually. There's a change going on from one coin to another. They both need to be changed, one to buy the one that'll work, and it's an equivalency. There's a value to it. And we use that term when people think about reconciling. Today, that's mostly what they're talking about, which we probably don't do anymore, reconciling our bank accounts. Does anybody do that with a pen and pencil and reconcile your bank accounts anymore? Or it's all electronic? But what is to reconcile your checkbook simply means to what? Make it say the same thing. for me to say that the actual money I have and the actual debts that I have are the same as what the bank says. Because if somehow I get in my mind that the bank says I have a whole lot more money like my dear sister-in-law used to think, if she'd see the bank balance and it was a whole lot of money, she'd disregard all the checks that had been written on, she'd just go on a spending spree, and my poor brother-in-law would have to go down to the bank, hat in hand, and say, Milda doesn't understand about what's there and what's not there, and she doesn't function like that. So that's what most people think. I want us to think through reconciliation with those roots, though, for what it means to us. What the ministry of reconciliation. It means those that are at odds are now brought together. So in other words, if two coins aren't compatible, they're brought in a way that they can be used. One to buy the one that's acceptable. And that's reconciliation. Reconciling individuals, those who are at variance. We know about that. The definition is to return to favor with one who I had been at odds with. So I have a tiff, I have a disagreement, I have my feelings hurt with someone. And for me to be reconciled, what's going to have to happen? I'll have to return to their favor. They'll have to return to my favor. I'll have to stop bearing a grudge against them. Does it make sense? Otherwise, there's no reconciliation. We can't come together. Reconciliation, third definition, is to receive one into favor. And the idea is to reach out It's kind of our picture of a hug. Give them a hug, receive them to yourself with favor, not with hostility, not with animosity. Now here is the work of God. It's all of God, verse 18, referring to verse 17. He has to make the new creation, we can't. And so verse 18 is saying we have this ministry simply because God is the one that can make us new creatures. We can't do that. So we're gonna share the word of reconciliation by pointing them back to Christ, not to ourselves. We're gonna point them to the, with the words of reconciliation that we use, to the what? To the ministry of reconciliation. looking upon those who are at odds with God with favor, bringing them together. That's his work, but we have a part in that. It says, look at verse 19, we want to emphasize this, because I don't want anybody to think that what we do by our good deeds and the light that's shown by that, even in the way of reconciliation, which is what I'm wanting to get at. could do anything. No, it's God. Verse 19 says what? It's God's work, but it says what? It wants us to get it namely. See, that's a big wake up. If you're not following or tracking along, you need to get this second time through. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Now, is there any way clearer to say that reconciliation is God's work? In Christ, to the world, and to us. Therefore, he says, since God is able and he's given us that ministry, we have this role as ambassadors. Now, what is that role? And I think this is what we're really weak on, both as pastors and as, for want of a better term, laymen. We are very weak on begging. Look at what it says, verse 20. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. Now begging makes us all uncomfortable. Oh me? Right? It makes us really uncomfortable if somehow we think we're putting God in the position of looking like a beggar. God forbid. Haven't we been taught that? He's the sovereign of the universe. We get uncomfortable when we read in Isaiah that he stretches out his hand all day long to a froward people. No, that's below God. God commands and we should respond. Do you understand what I'm saying here? But the reality of what God knows in our human heart is what? is that we don't always respond. And so it's as if God were making an appeal. Isn't that a great word? The word means to call near. It means to invite. It means to implore. It means to beseech someone. And Brandon, it's the same word for the Holy Spirit, parakaleo. Come alongside and call one to yourself. This is the word. It's as if God were in us, calling, appealing. So if he's doing that, he says, how does it come out in us? Comes out as begging. Comes out as what? Be one with God. Be reconciled to God. Why He made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for us? Why is it that we could become the righteousness of God in Him? See, we can be changed, amen? And we should beg others based on what God has done in Christ to be changed. They don't have to remain in their sins. And so there's a call to come near. It's a strenuous call, it's an imploring of God now, used of God. Beseeching, the word that is us, through us, we beg, be reconciled to God. Now that verse 21 that I quoted, see again, just puts the emphasis on that, is what is reconciliation? Is to be changed. Change from lost and dead and trespasses to become what? The righteousness of God. That's change, that's reconciliation. Can't get away from it. So let me berate, let me, probably shouldn't have to, but let me try to emphasize it to the point that real reconciliation, we seldom see it, do we? And we understand it is the work of God because just acknowledging intellectually who Jesus is, that's not reconciliation, okay? I don't care if you shed a thousand tears and come down into what some would call an altar and weep over your sins, which is commendable and good. We ought to weep over our sins. But unless we reconcile with God, we who are at odds with God are still enemies of God when we get up. Reconciliation hasn't happened. See, some of these things are attendant things. but they're not the same thing. Does that make sense? I think you understand where I'm coming from. So the change into the righteousness of God, God will do that, we can't do that. How do we appeal though? And this is so important, we appeal with words. That's why he says he's given us the ministry, he's committed to us the words of reconciliation. So what I'm saying for tonight's sermon that we need to show reconciliation in our deeds and in our countenance, that's not enough. It takes words. It takes words to say, what has God done in Christ? Well, He paid the wages of our sins, which we couldn't pay. And He extended to us the righteousness of Christ, which ours is inadequate. That's how God reconciled the world, through the message of the Gospel. And so with words, we want to tell what Jesus has done. He suffered, he died, he took upon himself the wrath of God, and he's resurrected and he lives today to change us. We need to use words to tell the good news of the gospel. That's how reconciliation comes. But tonight also, I think we need to do something that we're weak at. And I said to you one thing we were weak at, what is it? Begging? I think we're also weak at showing by our good deeds the change that reconciliation really makes. I think we're weak at that. Hence, our focus on Genesis 33. Let's go back to Genesis 33. This is such an amazing statement. And it's an amazing picture, and I trust, we're gonna go over it, but I trust you remember Jacob and Esau. And Jacob has come quite a ways to be able to say to Esau, his brother, who sought to kill him, I see you as one sees the face of God. You have received me favorably. He didn't expect that. That's why he was wrestling with the angel. That's why he was so distressed. The Christian Standard Bible, I love the translation here, and it's a translation and it's thoroughly good. It says, for indeed, Jacob says to Esau, for indeed I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God's face. So he just spells it out a little bit more, the N-A-S-E-S-V. Others say, as one sees the face, or as I see the face. This is saying, spelling that simile out, the way in which he's seen his face, and it is like seeing God's face since you have accepted me. See, he makes that connection. God has accepted me. Most haven't. His father-in-law certainly hadn't. And Esau certainly hadn't. His father, you could argue, had not. They had favorites between he and his mother. But he said to Esau, I've seen God's face in your face. I've seen God's acceptance of me in your favorable acceptance of me, which I didn't expect. Now understand that. If we're to show God to others, we need to show the change that God has wrought. See, if I was to say to you tonight, reconciliation is accepting everybody, that would be a wrong statement. But if I was to say to you that reconciliation is showing the change that God works in the human heart on the basis of God's acceptance of that sinner, that would be accurate definition of reconciliation. And that means that that kind of favorable acceptance ought to be a big part of our lives. When people look at our countenance, when they look at our face, when they see the way we receive each other, after disputes or anything, after problems or in good times, they ought to be able to sit back and say, you know the way they receive one another, is like God receiving us. Well, I knew those two girls or those two guys, and they were always at odds. In fact, they were always fighting. And yet God changed them. And now they're one in spirit. See, that's reconciliation. And scenes of reconciliation that are based on acceptance, based on change, see, are so powerful. In other words, I want to say to you, what I'm talking about is not forgive and forget. As good as that is, would we all agree that forgive and forget is good? Would we all agree that forgive and forget is not always humanly possible? Before we discount that too much, a lot of times it's hard to forgive, and a lot of times it's even harder to forget. And why is that? Because of the difference between small slights, small grievances, and serious transgressions. Now listen, if someone killed your sister, it's gonna be a little bit harder to be reconciled to that person than if a bad girl in school told a bad rumor about you. Do you understand what I'm saying here? Does that make sense? And reconciliation is so powerful because it works in those extreme cases. It worked in this case of Jacob and Esau. In chapter 25, you just follow along with me, along about verse 33, that's the story of the birthright that Esau despised, so we can blame him. But it was one that he was taken advantage of by the supplanter, Jacob. Jacob says, swear to me, I'm just gonna give you my pottage here without something in return that can be actually granted to me. So he supplanted the birthright. I don't know that that was the first time they were at real odds, but it's the first time the scripture gives us that the prophecy of their birth, they were gonna be at odds. Sibling rivalry. We go right on to chapter 26 about how his mother favored him, his dad favored Esau. In fact, to the point in verse 34 of 26, the wives that Esau takes, he did it intentionally to grieve his parents. Now, if we had a bigger congregation, we could ask without embarrassment, when your bride took you home to introduce you or vice versa, did your parents grieve? You know, a lot of times they do. We can understand that. In chapter 27, we find the blessing of his father was stolen. That's the way it's given to us. Look at verse 30. Go back to chapter 27. Let's just rehearse that a bit. It says, now it came about as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, And Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac's father. Then Esau's brother came in from his hunting. Now, you remember the story. His dad said, I'm about to die. I want to pronounce my blessing. Go make me one of those savory game meals that you're hunting, that you know I love. And he didn't ask, you know, Jacob for anything. Do you understand that? I want us to get into this. And Rebecca, of course, knew about it, heard about it, and she told Jacob what? She said, now go, we're gonna disguise you, and I'm gonna make you up his meal. It won't be game, but it'll be lamb, but it'll taste like he likes, and he's old now. He can't see, probably hardly taste. And you're gonna get his blessing. Guys, they were lying. I hope you'll take time and read this. Who are you, my son? Oh, I'm your son Esau. It doesn't sound like it. I'm your son Esau. They are lying. No equivocation. They're being deceitful. So here comes Esau in, made savory fruit, brought it to his father. He said to his father, let my father arise and eat my son's game that you may bless me, verse 32. Isaac, his father, said, who are you? And he said, I'm your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled violently. Can you read seizure there? as an old man, so upset, so violently upset that he'd been duped. And he said, who was he that hunted game and brought it to me so that I ate of all of it before you came and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out, follow NAS, with an exceedingly great and bitter cry. The kind of cry you can hear in the other room. Because he realized, not only is birthright gone, but now his blessing is gone. And see, we're so westerner, we're away from what that meant. That meant everything. And he said to his father, bless me, even me also, oh my father. Do you hear him weeping? That's how important it was. He despised his birthright. He wants this blessing. And he knows, and his father knows, it can't be undone. And he said, your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. Then he said, is he not rightly named Jacob, the supplanter? For he has supplanted me these two times. He's taken away my birthright and behold now he's taken away my blessing. Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Behold, he says, Isaac says to Esau, I have made him your master. And all his relatives I have given to him as servants. And with grain and new wine I have sustained. You're going to serve him. You're a slave. That's what I've done. Esau said to his father, do you only have one blessing? Bless me, even me also, oh my father. So Esau lifted his voice and wept. I wish we could get somebody that's like Steven Spielberg or something that can direct a scene like that. Because I don't think we can understand it. Now I've always said when we get to see the holographic DVD, when we get to heaven, we can relive that moving scene. But then Isaac tells him some other things. Now watch this in verse 41. Bad things, by the way, as a result of this. Verse 41, so Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are near, then I will kill my brother Jacob. And he wasn't speaking metaphorically. And they reported that to his mother and she took it seriously. She knew what kind of a man he was and the hostility that he had already. And that's when she sent her son Jacob off. And notice what she says in verse, what is it, 42? Now, when the word she sent and called her younger son, when she heard about it and said, behold, your brother Esau is consoling himself, concerning you by planning to kill you. Now, get out of here. And she said, what? And when he calms down, when his anger subsides, when his hostility subsides, I'll send for you in a day or two. You know the story, it was over 20 years before our scene with Jacob coming back to Esau. And the mother never sent for Jacob, by the way. So in 20 years, she was not convinced that Esau's anger had subsided, or his plan to kill his brother had subsided. And so when Esau's coming back, and you read the story about that after several chapters, Getting back to 33, he sends for Esau, and he says, yeah, he's coming. He's coming with 400 men. You think he was afraid? He was correctly afraid. Now, we say, I hope you'll be consoled when someone's loved one dies. And we have wonderful consolation in Christ, don't we? And I hope you have extended that to the Roberts family, that the Holy Spirit would console them. Esau was consoling himself by saying, I get to kill my brother, and that'll make me feel better. We need to understand the hostility and the hatred that was in his heart. So, I'm preaching too long, I know, I'm sorry. Jacob has changed, though, so we won't trace that through. But you remember the story. When he goes out, he makes a demanding, in chapter 28, verse 20, a demanding vow to the Lord. If you'll be my God, if you'll prosper me, if you'll be with me, if you'll bring me back, then guess what? Of all that you blessed me with, I'll give you a tenth. Magnanimous, wasn't he? And we find him in chapter 31, he's still arrogant when his father-in-law accuses him, rightly, of someone in his party, which we know is Rachel, took the household idols. He's arrogantly saying, what sin that you hotly pursued me? What is my sin? He's still arrogant. But then we see him changing. Look in 32.10. Chapter 32, verse 10. This is the first radical change we see. Jacob says, look at verse nine, oh God my father Abraham and God my father Isaac, oh God who said to me return to your country and to your relatives and I will prosper you. I am unworthy of all the loving kindness and of all the faithfulness which you have shown to your servant. For with my staff only I cross this Jordan making demands on you, we ought to note. And he says, and now you've brought me back in two companies. He separated his children in his herds because he knew that Esau was gonna just devastate them. And so he said, maybe his bloodlust will be cured in the devastation of the first group and leave my second group of wives and children alive. I mean, that's what he was expecting. He wrestled with the angel, wrestling with God, And this is so rich, I wish I had more time, wasn't wearing everyone out, but it's so important. The people of God are called what? Israel, wrestlers. Those who wrestle with men, wrestle with God, wrestle with angels and prevail. That's what our name is. Israel. Oh, that's another sermon. But he wrestles with them. In Hosea 12, just jot it down, verses 3 and 4, is the commentary on Jacob here. It says when he was in the womb, he was a supplanter. In maturity, he gained strength, meaning prevailed with God. It says three things. It says first, he wept and mourned. And the idea of mourning is lamenting. Second, he sought his favor, some debate the angel or God. And third, it says he found him at Bethel, in Moses meaning he found God at the house of God at Bethel. That's the change that we see in Jacob. And so he approaches his brother, chapter 33, three verses here. Then Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, 400 men with him. So he divided the children. We know all about that. But notice verse three, he himself passed on ahead of them. Some said, boy, that's pretty weak of Jacob to put his wives and flocks and all that. And then we forget this verse though. He passed on ahead of them, the last group, and bowed down to the ground seven times. until he came near to his brother." What's seven times tell us? Somebody made mention of that. Scott, I think, seven times. Or no, that was you, was it? Magdalene? Means complete. He bowed to the ground. Notice what he, then Esau ran to meet him, catch this, and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. He lifted his eyes and saw the women and children and said, who are these with you? And he says, the children who I worked 14 years for, right? No, these are the children whom God has graciously given your servant. And then they came near and bowed down. And that brought us to our verse. Jacob says, no, these are gifts that I want to give you to hopefully to appease you. And he says, so please take them. He says, for I see your faces, one sees the face of God and you have received me favorably. Please take the gift. That's important. He says, because God has dealt graciously with me because I have plenty. Thus he urged him and guess what? Esau took the gift. That's reconciliation. You could argue the first thing he did when he fell on his neck and wept and cried and received him favor, that's reconciliation. No, it went all down to these other requests. Not going with him, nor letting him go by himself. Receiving the gift. Oh, it's so important. I wish I could convey that to you. I know that I can't effectively. Let's close by thinking about this. Can you think of some scenes of reconciliation that mean a lot to you? I always, I guess to me, this is one of the most, the one I like, one of the best. I like Joseph and his brothers. And when Joseph receives another sermon, he falls on their neck too and weeps, weeps several times. And he says, I'm not, I'm not going to mistreat you and do wrong. They deserved it, could have expected it. Anybody, who has a Bible scene of reconciliation you love? Huh? That's what I had next. If that doesn't light your fire, your wood is completely wet. To just play that scene out of the father and this prodigal wasted everything. Again, if you haven't read Tim Keller's book, The Prodigal God, The Excessive God. He's excessive in mercy and grace to our minds. But that's what makes Him God. Are we paying attention to these great scenes in the Bible? Let me ask you, do you have some classical literature, scenes of redemption, reconciliation that you like? I can think of a couple. If you don't, get out the old classics. They're full of these themes of reconciliation based on change, and often only change that God can rot. In the movies all the time, in our Christian circles, if I say Corrie Ten Boom, what do you think about? Anybody remember that great scene of the prison guard who killed her sister? Shows up in a gospel meeting that Corrie Ten Boom is sharing her testimony at, doesn't recognize her. He's the one that killed her sister. She recognizes him. And he comes down and says, I'm so grateful to hear this message of forgiveness, extends a hand out to her. And she said, I couldn't reach out my hand. And she prayed within herself, oh God, how can I be a minister of reconciliation and yet withhold it? And she saw her hand reach out. Oh, that's something only God can do. I think when I traveled to Rwanda and Uganda and saw the after effects of that massacre, it is amazing to me that any of them can reconcile. How about Palestinian and Jewish Christians? I wish I had time to read Ephesians chapter two. You know about it. What does it say? I must read one verse. I'll just quote it. What does it say about reconcile? It's all Christ's work, isn't it? It says, for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, and out of two made one. Muslim background believers, Palestinians, Jewish, Christian background believers, in particular, They're killing each other every day. And yet Christians from both backgrounds worship and praise God together. Now that's reconciliation. And that's a picture the world needs to see. Let me ask you this in closing, in way of application. Would you develop a love for reconciliation, scenes of reconciliation? Go find some. Read them. Develop a love to see how people come back together when God changes them. And let it touch your heart. Fall in love with that. So that you can really beg people to be reconciled to God. You know why it's important to hear testimonies, people's salvation testimonies? To hear out of the depths of sin that God brought them. and forgave them and cleansed them as he reconciled them to himself. In my older days, I don't know about this Josh, I don't know if it's happened to you yet, but I find myself blubbering, crying when I hear people's testimony of faith because I can remember my own sin and brokenness and defilement and God loved me enough to save me. Oh, we ought to remember that. Let me ask you by way of application, who needs to see in your face God's face since you're accepting them, receiving them based on the work of God? Can you think of somebody? Who can you model real reconciliation to? I'm here to tell you, they need to see it, just like Jacob need to see it from Esau. And if we can be used in that way, will, could you, would you? Would you say, Lord, use me? Let's ask them to, okay? Scary. You might have to beg somebody. But we've got the best good news to tell them. for them to decide. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this congregation. Patiently receiving your word. God help us not just to receive, but God give us an action plan to be changed by it. Not that we would do anything, but that you would give us opportunities to be reconciled with those we're not necessarily, we may not, we may be out, we may not even know it. But Father, just like the sun dawns and grows stronger and stronger and stronger, would you help me to grow stronger in reconciliation? Would you help us, Father? to use the words of reconciliation with others, telling them what God has done in Jesus and in treating them to be received favorably by him. Grant it for your glory. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.