Sermon Summary: Blessing and Reconciliation

Scripture References:

• Genesis 33

Key Themes:

1. God’s Sovereignty and Blessing:

   • God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants.
   • The importance of God’s blessing in one’s life.
   • God’s choice of Jacob over Esau, highlighting His sovereignty.

2. Jacob’s Character and Growth:

   • Jacob’s deceitful nature and pursuit of blessings.
   • His encounter with God and subsequent transformation.
   • The gradual nature of spiritual growth and change.

3. Reconciliation and Forgiveness:

   • The powerful impact of reconciliation between Jacob and Esau.
   • The role of forgiveness in healing relationships.
   • The importance of letting go of past hurts and grievances.

Sermon Overview:

Karen began the sermon by discussing the significance of understanding God’s character and our identity in light of Him. She emphasized that knowing God is essential for a fulfilling life.

To illustrate the theme of blessing, she used the biblical story of Jacob and Esau. She highlighted how Jacob, despite his flaws, persistently sought God’s blessing. Karen encouraged the congregation to likewise pursue God’s blessing for their lives, recognizing that it may involve wrestling with God and enduring challenges.

The sermon delved into the concept of reconciliation, focusing on the powerful moment when Jacob and Esau reconciled after years of conflict. Karen emphasized the transformative power of forgiveness and the importance of letting go of past hurts. She also highlighted the gradual nature of spiritual growth, emphasizing that even flawed individuals can experience God’s grace and blessing.

In conclusion, Karen reminded the congregation of God’s sovereignty and His ability to bless beyond human understanding. She encouraged listeners to trust in God’s promises and to seek His blessing for their lives.

Transcription

Morning everybody, Jules said will you be moving around a bit and I said what do you
think Jules?
So we’re going to look at Genesis 33 in a minute but I’m going to do a little shout
out for the book club.
So I stopped working quite as much in theory in July and I thought oh I’ll do other things
so I joined the book club and this is the latest book that we should have finished reading.
I haven’t quite finished it but it is certainly the first part relates very much to what we’re
doing in church at the moment in that it talks about the beginning.
But I’d like to read various bits of it to start with because initially the author talks
about why he’s written this book and he says A. W. Tozer once claimed what comes into your
mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.
We agree identity, behavior, purpose, meaning, everything flows from what we believe about
God.
It’s that important.
If we miss God we miss everything.
If we know God we gain everything.
The God story before it is anything else is God’s way of telling us who God is and who
we are in the light of God.
So I’m not saying you should join the book club a good book to read but feel free to
join the book club but sometimes just small sentences and phrases hit you don’t they?
Everything flows from God.
If we know God we gain everything.
And part of going through Genesis is learning about God and about the beginnings of Israel
but also about understanding ourselves and knowing ourselves more.
So my first illustration demands some strength.
For those of you that don’t know I’ve been a teacher for 40 years and I remember I think
it was Alice said to me not that long ago mom now you’ve stopped teaching can you stop
being a teacher please?
And I said I’ve been doing it for 40 years Alice give me another 40 and I might have
forgotten how to do it but that’s unlikely.
So in teaching one of the things that you do in your lessons is always you always recap
what’s gone before okay.
So I need one, two, three volunteers please if you’d like to come to the front.
No not you Evie you’re all right sweetie if that’s to be a gentleman.
So just okay so if we think about Genesis and we think about the story that is the beginning
of Israel we start with Abraham.
Abraham was blessed by God.
He was blessed in his life.
He was blessed with children but he was also blessed by God in that God said from you there
will be a nation a great nation.
When Abraham died he passed that blessing on to Isaac because tradition said that whatever
you had you gave to your first born son Isaac.
Well perhaps not his first born son but his favorite son.
And then Isaac then had two children Jacob and Esau okay.
Now if we think about that who was the first born?
Okay so is that what happened?
It isn’t isn’t it?
Well that’s a bit annoying isn’t it?
So sorry Esau would you like to?
So Jacob would you mind being Jacob?
Now Jacob’s a bit of a one isn’t he?
Even in his mother’s womb and as he’s being born he’s grabbing a hold of Esau as if to
say don’t you think you’re coming out without me mate because I want what you should have.
And he gets Esau’s blessing.
But this guy throughout a lot of his life fights for that blessing but he will not give
up.
He wants God’s blessing and he wants all that that brings okay.
So when I was thinking about this message and I know it’s entitled something very different
to what I’m actually going to be talking about sorry Nick is this idea of blessing because
Abraham was blessed by God.
He passed not only everything he owned but that blessing onto Isaac and then it was passed
rightly or wrongly onto Jacob not Esau but that blessing was passed and what a blessing
it was.
Thank you boys well done for holding a piece of string.
Okay so what’s going to happen is I’m going to go through this particular chapter we’re
going to pick things out and whenever I ask God what do you want me to say and I’ll tell
you something because Jonathan and I talked about this yesterday and last night and he’s
saying have you done it yet have you done it yet I’m working on it I’m working on it.
I usually like to think right this is what I know God wants me to say to you and it’s
like there are lots of little things this week so like we’ve already heard this morning
so it’s a bit different but the first one is blessing and I’ll come back to that a little
bit later okay.
So in this particular chapter it follows from what Jonathan said last week Jacob has a little
bit of a struggle with God he meets God and he holds on to God and he says you’re not
going to leave me until you’ve blessed me this isn’t the first time he’s met God and
it won’t be the last time that he’s had an experience of God so the next thing I want
to say is I don’t know about you I know about me and I know what other people have said
to me we have experiences of God and after that we think I’m going to be changed I’m
going to be transformed I’m going to be this perfect person now I’ve had this encounter
with God and it doesn’t quite happen like that does it because we are changed a step
at a time and Jacob is a very prime example of that happening and we see this as we go
that as we go through this chapter so if you wouldn’t mind just putting the words of this
particular chapter up there that’d be fabulous.
So we know what happened in the previous chapter but just to remind you what God promised Abraham
first he said I will make you into a great nation I will bless you I will make your name
great and you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you
I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Some blessings we don’t see the fruit of this blessing was then passed on to Isaac should
have been passed on to Esau but wasn’t was passed on to Jacob okay.
Now the next thing Esau I don’t really know about Esau you see earlier he’s come back
from hunting and he said to Jacob oh I’m starving and Jacob said well if you give me
your birthright I’ll give you some soup he agrees to it and I’m like why would you do
that just because Jonathan said well he’s hungry it’s not really good enough reason is it.
So and then it’s a bit cross well I think it’s okay to be cross when Jacob deceives
him and his dad to get the blessing and he’s really really cross so much so that Jacob
decides it’s time to leave okay so years later Jacob’s had this encounter this latest encounter
with God but we don’t know what’s happened with Esau do you know when you see films and the book
is better than the film because it gives you more information really upsets Jonathan he doesn’t like
watching films that aren’t don’t follow a book and I feel like this bit about Esau doesn’t give
us enough information and I’ll come back to that in a minute so we’re at a point where Jacob’s
been told Esau’s coming and he’s got 400 men with him Jacob’s had this experience with God
God said I’m telling you I am keeping my promise I am going to bless you and you will be called
Israel he’s got that in his head there and over here he’s got Esau coming towards him with 400
men and he’s also got all his servants and all his family to protect so what he does is he puts
the servants first he puts his can I say this lesser wife and then he puts his favorite wife
and son at the back not sure what I think about that but anyway the thing that strikes me here is
I think the old Jacob would have quite happily stood stood amongst them but this meeting with
God means that he goes to the front to meet Esau he’s put he’s put them in order of if they’re
gonna get killed I know which wants to get killed first and which ones go last kind of thing but
he’s still gone ahead of them and at this point this is what I don’t get see Esau although he’d
sort of not been that bothered about his birthright over a bowl of soup he was then very bothered
when it was cheated out of him and he was very angry and this is their first meeting since that
happened now what Jacob has tried to do is I don’t know you could say by his way back into Esau’s
favor by sending all these animals etc to Esau but he still doesn’t know what Esau’s response is
going to be so he does what is a custom and he bows down seven times you know I’m really sorry
no no I’m really really really sorry and all that kind of stuff but what does Esau do he holds him
and he cries and it says and they both wept I don’t know it frustrates me you can tell I don’t
know what happened between Esau being very angry when he’d been cheated out of his birthright until
that moment we know what had happened to Jacob but was it that Esau thought well I’ve got everything
that I thought I was going to get with that birthright so I don’t need to worry about the
fact I haven’t got it or was it do you know what family comes first what does it matter now I don’t
know but the bottom line is at that point there was reconciliation for both of them and they both
wept never underestimate the power of tears to let out those feelings of anger unforgiveness
frustration and I think part of this would have been joy that actually after all this time they’d
finally been able to come together and Esau then says who are all these people you got and Jacob
talks about how he’s been blessed and there is this thing that they talks about that these are
the things that God has graciously given so they’ve both been blessed now what is the difference
between these two blessings Esau says I don’t need what you’re going to give me I’ve already got it
all Jacob has got everything all these animals and wives but what is the thing that Jacob has got
that Esau hasn’t got God’s blessing I don’t know whether he thought even aware that that’s part of
the package that he got that Jacob got when he cheated Esau but there’s the difference with the
blessings okay so we’ve got a situation where there’s forgiveness there’s reconciliation and
Jacob is still insistent that Esau has all the animals everything that he wants to give him
Esau says I don’t want them I’ve got loads I don’t need them what I wanted was this what I
wanted was this but Jacob says no I want you to have them why do you think Jacob said no I need
you to have these animals guilt he knew what he’d done was wrong he lived his life knowing that I
haven’t stopped him doing it and didn’t stop him doing anything again but he knew that he’d done
the wrong thing so he said no please take these animals and Esau graciously did okay now this is
the I don’t know this is the crux really in that then Esau says okay come back with me let’s get
together we’ll all go back to my place together all of us and then what does Jacob do he deceives
him again and I’m gonna say something that might sound a little bit weird I find that really
encouraging you know why because however much God blesses us we still make a mess of it and our
characters do not change overnight we are changed from one degree of glory to another and Jacob
still hasn’t quite made it so he deceives Esau and he says to Esau well do you know what we’re all a
bit tired how about you go back to your place and and we’ll rest and sit here for a bit and then
I’ll come outright lie because he has no intentions of going that way now part of the reason he has no
intention of going that way it costs of the promise that God has made to him that blessing
that went straight down the line God has told Jacob to go back to the place where Abraham was
not where Esau is but where Abraham was I don’t know why you couldn’t tell Esau that information
why couldn’t say well this is what God has said but then I think well was it still guilt because
I’ve got what you should have had so he doesn’t actually tell him so they go on their way and
they eventually now I have to get the name right because it’s a weird word that I can’t say they
go to Shechem I think something like that and then he makes an altar and this altar I’m not
going to read what it says it’s a translation is God the God of Israel so it’s not just saying I’m
making this altar for God I’m saying this is my God because God is calling me Israel yeah he built
an altar and called it God the God of Israel so if we think about what does this tell us about God
this tells us that God blesses people what it tells us about the people in this story
especially Jacob is Jacob wanted that blessing he fought with God he held on to him I won’t let you
go until you bless me that’s the last end of the last chapter and that blessing begins when he gets
here because this is where a had put a tent down if you like but he didn’t own it when Jacob gets
here he buys that area so the step towards this nation becoming a reality is one step closer and
when you see it if you read this book it gives you a very nice if you like coherent picture of the
way it goes but Jacob was a man that wanted a blessing and it that challenged me I’m quite
happy to pray God bless somebody else but you almost feel guilty when you say God bless me
but sound quite right doesn’t it but yet Jacob fought hard to get that blessing from God so my
challenge to you is you might like to think you know what it’s not such a bad thing to ask for
God’s blessing why can’t I ask the blessing for my life and for my family and for who I am as much
as I asked for blessing for other people okay so there was the idea of blessing and then lastly
because I’m not I don’t think we need to talk for very long about this Jacob comes full circle it
comes back to the place where Abraham has sojourned if you like and it’s it is important for us to
understand that if we end up in a in a how can I put this sometimes you feel like things haven’t
changed I’ve gone back I’ve gone a full circle things in my life haven’t changed but we have
to keep hold of the promises and the blessing of God and what God promises he will make happen now
that piece of string wasn’t very long was it but how long that took was hundreds of years and then
a few thousand years before Israel became a nation and we are where we are now so the other thing that
I want you to hold on to is that when God promises you a blessing promises you something don’t lose
it because of time and that’s hard it’s hard and sometimes we have to wrestle with God over it
and we might have to argue with him a bit and say I’m finding this really tough but if he’s promised
you something that piece of string can be a very long piece of string so my challenge to you this
morning there have been lots of them Jacob was a man that wanted something he wanted Esau’s birth
right he wanted God’s blessing he didn’t change overnight every time he encountered God he changed
a little bit more but he was still a little bit rough around the edges a little bit of a deceiver
a little bit of a manipulator and you’ll read later on what happens next but the bottom line
is God was for him despite who he was God was for him and it’s interesting because these three people
are mentioned a lot in the New Testament so then I thought well I’m gonna look up a few of those
and this is the one that really struck me and this is my final point it’s in Romans 9 and the writer
is talking about the historicity of Israel if you like and he talks about I’ll go from verse 10
this son was our ancestor Isaac when he grew up he married Rebecca who gave birth to twins before
they were born before they had done anything good or bad she received a message from God this
message proves that God chooses according to his own plan not according to our good or bad works
she was told the descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of the younger son in
the words of this scriptures I love Jacob but I reject Esau and I say was God being fair it’s
not but God said to me will show mercy to anyone and I show compassion to anyone I choose and that
speaks to me about the sovereignty of God and sometimes we miss that we make God this this I’m
not wishing to be offensive when I say this we make God this fluffy father and we forget how
big he is and we forget that he’s God and if he’s God he can bless us in ways that are far beyond
what we even imagine so please in your relationship with God remember he’s God but remember he loves
you remember he wants to bless you and remember you’re not the finished article quite yet okay
thank you very much