DAY 36: CAN GOD HEAL WHAT YOU BROKE?

What if the conversation you feared for years doesn't go the way? Fear swore to you it would. What if the person you're afraid to face doesn't respond the way guilt has been preaching in your mind that they would? What if Shame? What if Shame has been telling you the future, but Shame is no prophet? Jacob has been away from Esau for years. We think probably 20 years. Years of distance, years of memory, years of consequence, years of dread, years of wondering what would happen when the brother he deceived finally stood in front of him again. And now the moment has come. Esau is coming with 400 men. Jacob can't run back to Laban. He can't undo the deception. He cannot erase the pain. He cannot control Esau's heart. All he can do is walk forward. And now he walked with a limp, and that matters. Because the Jacob who meets Esau isn't the same. Oh no, he is not the same Jacob who ran away. He wrestled with God. He has wrestled with God. He's been humbled. He has been renamed. He's still afraid. Oh don't don't get it twisted. He's still afraid. But he's not. He's not only. He's not only the heel grabber anymore. He is. Is Drew. And some of you know this road. You've changed. You've played. You've grown. But there's still a person, there's still a memory, there's still a failure. You cannot get out of your head. There's still a conversation that keeps replaying in the back of your mind. There's a wound that makes your chest tighten when you think about facing it. So here's a question for your heart. Welcome back. Welcome back to Through the Bible in the gear. Walking the story of God. I'm Dr. Sean, and today we're walking through Genesis 33.1 to Genesis 32 33.20. Before we go further, book is the book is the sponsor of the show. Sponsor. It's my book. True Word Faith for Life. It's in TrueWordfaithforLife.com store up the top. We use whatever we make off of that to a far no profit, but whatever we make off of that will help keep the show going. Look, this book was written to help you stop surviving on religious fragments and start walking the truth of God's word with courage, clarity, and faith for real life. Today's passage isn't some cheap reconciliation story. It's not a Hallmark Green Guard. This is by no means. This isn't this isn't a well, I mean just let's hug it out. Let's just hug it out and move on. Water on the debridge. No. Genesis is far too honest for that. Genesis 33 is about fear, humility, mercy, wisdom, boundaries, and what happens when people meet again after real damage has been done. Come on, take a deep breath. I'm ready. Are you ready? Good morning. Good morning to all of y'all. Yes. This is gonna be a right-on time message. God is good. Good morning, brothers and sisters in Christ. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Happy Tuesday. Good lands. We're recording this live on a Tuesday. We record every Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. I know it's early. Let's get the day started right. Yep, every Monday through Friday. And then we do 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sundays. Looking forward to it. This week is we have had some conflict. We had to we had to uh get another computer. It had to happen. We had no choice on the matter. So dealt with that all last night. Somehow or another, we've got it going, thank the Lord. And uh we're gonna we're gonna get this thing going. We're gonna rock and roll this thing. Genesis 33 begins. By the way, how's this sound? I have no idea. Genesis 33 begins with Jacob lifting his eyes and seeing Esau coming. Esau's not alone. Oh no, Esau is not alone. He has four hundred men with him. And detail matters because Jacob's fear, it wasn't imaginary, it wasn't unfounded. No. It was real fear. He should have that fear. 400 men. That looks dangerous. Oh, 400 men that looks dangerous. The past is still walking toward him. The past is hunting him down. The difference is not that the situation suddenly looks safe. The difference is that Jacob has met God in the night. That's real life. Your life, my life. Sometimes God changes you before he changes the situation. Sometimes God changes you and me before he changes our situation. The meaning, oh, most assuredly, is still coming. The apology still needs to be made. The consequence still has to be faced. The consequences still have to be faced. Can't run from them. Not anymore. It's right in front of you. The conversation you've avoided still stands in front of you. But you are no longer walking into it as the same person who was panicking last night. God met you. God humbled you. And God blessed you. And now you walk forward with a limp and a promise. Jacob arranges his household. He's a leader now. The servants and their children go first. Leah and her children follow. Then Rachel and Joseph come last. There's some honesty we need to have here about that. Even here, Jacob's household still carries old wounds. Preference is still visible. The pain Leah has carried with her in her heart is still visible. The family system is still complicated. Oh, the family is still complicated. I'll wait while the ones out there with a complicated family. Raise your hand. That's one reason why the Bible is so trustworthy. Doesn't airbrush the family portrait before it hands it to us. No, no, no. Jacob's been changed. Every pattern. Every pattern in his life, though. He's he absolutely has been changed, but not every pattern, not every habit, not every hurt, not every hang-up in his life has been instantly healed. We'd love to think that it was, but it wasn't. We have major breakthroughs in our lives, we experience them, and they make an impact on our lives, but there's that little voice back here. Right back here. Right over here. We've been changed, but not every pattern in our lives is instantly healed, and that's real. You can have a true, authentic encounter with God and still need formation. You can be blessed and still need growth. You can be renamed and still have habits that God is sanctifying. God's work in you may not. Look, I'm sorry to tell you. I'm sorry to be the one, but I'm kind of glad to be the one. God's work in you may be real even when it's not finished. Then Jacob, oh, he does something important. He goes ahead of them. I know what you were thinking early on. Come on, admit it. Jacob, why are you sending the women and children and the servants and everything up ahead? You steal a chunk. Not anymore. He goes ahead of them. He doesn't hide behind the women and children. He doesn't send everyone else forward while he stays protected in the back. He steps in front. The old Jacob. He often used people to secure himself. The humble Jacob moves toward danger first. That is what repentance begins to look like, not just feeling bad. Look, we can feel bad. We can feel bad. I did what I did, and I hate that I did it, and I wish I could undo it. Feel that every day. Every day. How about some of you? You feel that? You feel bad. You feel horrible. It look you've you've received the mercy of the cross. You love the mercy of the cross. But you're still carrying the guilt. This is what repentance begins to look like. Look, folks, it's not just feeling bad. I have to move through that. It's not just saying, look, I've changed. It's not making some grand declaration or some private promise. It's not just having some private spiritual moment. Repentance eventually takes responsibility.

Oh, that's not a word we love.

We don't love that word, y'all. It steps forward and it says, I can't undo what I did. I can't. I wish I could. I want to. I want to so badly. I want to undo what I've done. I want to undo what I've done. I can't believe I did it. And I wish I didn't. All I know to do now is apologize. And just tell you, I I can't undo it no matter how much I try. I can't undo what I did. I regret it. I hate that it hurt you. But I won't keep hiding behind excuses. It's a very difficult place to come to in our lives, is it not? How many of you are there? How many of you are there right now? Seven times as he approaches his own. Seven times. Seven times as he approaches his brother. In the ancient Near Eastern world, bowing wasn't some polite body language. It was humility enacted within the body. Jacob is approaching the brother he's so wronged. He's so wronged. And now he is approaching. Not as a superior, but as a servant. Somebody see that in your mind. See it in your mind. I am no longer approaching. As a superior, I am approaching as a servant, and that is stunning. Because the stolen blessing in Genesis 27 said Jacob's brothers would bow to him. But now Jacob bows before Esau. He's not weaponizing the promise. He's not saying, I'm chosen, I'm chosen, so you need to get over it. No. He bows. He lowers himself before his brother, that the same brother that he deceived. That is not weakness. That is maturity. A proud person uses God's promise as a weapon. But a humbled person lets God defend the promise while they walk in humility. Take a breath, you're gonna need it. Good morning. Good morning, Jodan. Good morning to all who are new here. We're kind to each other in the live chat. If you come into the live chat, that's our thing. No profanity, no unkindness, no argument, no trying to derail people's attention. I said take a deep breath because you're gonna need it. And here it comes. Then comes the shock. Something many of you, many of us have prayed for from the person who we so wronged. And then we come face to face. He kisses him and they weep. This isn't what fear predicted. No, fear predicted something totally different. Fear predicted revenge. Fear predicted slaughter. Fear predicted destruction. But instead, Esau embraces Jacob. Now, we have to be careful here. The text doesn't tell us every motive in Esau's heart. Sometimes those things are hidden. It doesn't say every wound is suddenly and completely fully healed. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that the past no longer mattered. It doesn't teach that reconciliation is always quick, safe, or simple. But it does show us something beautiful. God can soften what guilt told you and destroy you. God can go ahead of you in ways that you cannot see. God can prepare mercy where fear expected judgment. Jacob saw God's face in the night. Jacob saw God's face in the night. And now he sees mercy in his brother's face in the morning. There are moments when grace feels almost unbearable. You expected anger. You received kindness. You expected accusation. You received tears. You expected the door to slam in your face. Because you know you deserve it. And instead, you receive an embrace. And you don't know what to do with it because shame trained you to expect punishment forever. I deserve this. I'm getting what can you do. Some people will crush because nobody forgives them. Some people are crushing because they can't receive forgiveness when it comes. I don't know what I'm talking about.

But I know what I'm talking about.

Some people are crushed because they cannot receive forgiveness. When it comes. They keep rehearsing the old failure. It keeps playing in their head. They keep walking back into the old courtroom. And they keep sentencing themselves long after God has begun writing a different chapter, long after God has said, You are free. You are forgiven. Receiving mercy, you need to hear this clearly. Receiving mercy isn't the same as minimizing sin. Jacob's deception was real. It was real. The family fracture, it was real. And you don't honor God by refusing mercy that He has provided. Somebody out there. Tears are streaming down your face. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Let it go. Just let it go. Give it to God. Stop hanging on to that. It will destroy you. It will destroy everything around you. All the people you love if you don't let it go. Well, then sees the woman, the women and children. Esau. He sees Esau sees the women and children in the ass. Who are these with you? It pivots. It pivots. Esau sees the women and children. He looks up from his tear-stained face, his foggy, misty eyes, and he says, Who are all these women and children? Who are these with you? Jacob answers, the children whom God has graciously. Oh. The children whom God has graciously given your servant. That word graciously matters. Jacob knows this grace. He knows it. He knows this is grace right here. He sure knows it. His family is in a trophy of self-made success. I don't know. His children aren't proof that he earned everything. I don't know about you, I don't know if you have children, but I know I do, and I I'm blessed beyond measure. I don't deserve them. I don't deserve what God has given me. Jacob recognized his family as gifts. After years of striving, after years of manipulation, fear, dysfunction, Jacob can still say God has graciously given. That's how a humble life. That's how it happens. That's how a humble person sees life. No longer as entitlement, no longer as the perpetually aggrieved. Not as achievement. Not as entitlement, not as achievement, not as I own this is this was coming to me. This is what I deserve. Not as something to use against other people. No. Grace. The people in this household are grace. The breath in his lungs, grace. The fact that he survived Laban, grace. The fact that Esau is embracing him instead of murdering him is grace. The fact that he can stand there at all, even limping, is grace. Jacob says, they were sent to find favor in Esau's sight, and Esau answers, I have enough, my brother. Not my servant. Not my servant. Not my scumbag, brother, but my brother. I have enough. Keep what you have for yourself. Oh, come on. That sentence. Esau says he has enough. Jacob will say God has dealt graciously with him and that he has everything. Do you hear the difference? Esau has enough. Jacob sees grace. Both brothers have visible wealth. I mean, you bring 400 men with you. Come on. That's visible wealth. That's undeniable wealth. Accumulated. Worked hard for. Many blessings. Esau has enough. Jacob sees grace. Both brothers. Oh, they've been blessed. Here's the thing: Jacob is learning to interpret life through God's kindness. And Jacob says something utterly extraordinary, and it stopped me in my tracks, and it does every time I read it. So Jacob says, For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. That connects, Jacob, and this is why I teach the way I do, and hope it's helpful to you. That connects directly with Genesis 32. Jacob named the place Peniel because he had seen God face to face and his life had been delivered. And now, after seeing God's face in the night, and he sees Esau's face in the morning and he receives mercy. Look, this doesn't mean that Esau is God. It means Jacob. This is what it means. It means Jacob experiences unexpected mercy through the face he feared, unmerited favor. Sometimes God meets you vertically. He sends you back into horizontal relationships with a changed heart. He meets us vertically, but he sends us back into the horizontal relationships, and our heart has been changed. Not every relationship will be restored now. Not in your life. Not every relationship will be restored. We try to restore as best we can, to the extent it doesn't cause more harm. But not every relationship will be restored. Not everyone will receive you, not every Esau will embrace, not every wound is safe to re-enter. Sometimes you just can't because it's too dangerous. It's too toxic. But when mercy does come, I don't know who I'm talking to. But I talked to me for decades. As Miss Colleen can attest. When mercy does come, receive it as a gift. Don't let shame spit out what grace is placed in your hands. Then Esau offers to travel with Jacob. Jacob declines. This is where the wisdom of the passage becomes very important. Jacob receives Esau's embrace, but he doesn't merge households. He accepts mercy, but he moves carefully. He explains that the children are frail and the nursing animals require a slower pace. Seems so practical, right? It's practical wisdom. The strong cannot set the pace for the vulnerable. Hear that again. The strong cannot set the pace for the vulnerable. The fast cannot demand that the weak keep up. Jacob knows, and I want you to know this. Jacob knows that his household can't move at Esau's speed. There's a sermon there for every family. In that alone, there's a sermon there for every family, every church. There's a teaching for every ministry, every leader, every parent, and every person trying to heal. Come on, somebody, testify. You can't drive wounded people at the pace of your ambition. You can't rush fragile hearts because slow progress makes you uncomfortable. You cannot force reconciliation to become instant closeness. You can't. I'm terrible about that. I'll admit, I'm terrible about that. I want it to be all better. I'm in such joy. I say, oh, I'm so excited about this. I'm so happy. I can't believe this has happened. I didn't expect this. But I have to take a little breath. Listen, you can't force reconciliation to become instant. Doesn't work that way. Healing often moves at the pace of the most vulnerable. But then I want you to hear this. Esau then offers to leave some of his people with Jacob. And you know what? Jacob refuses that too. And again, this is careful. The embrace was real. But Jacob maintains separation. Esau returns to Satan. Jacob goes to Skookov. And then the Shakum. And then the candle. This isn't the falling care of the feature. This isn't the fall. Let's get together. Let's stay together. And then feature it's a little bit more than a little bit. Sometimes I'm going to have that. And it is indeed beautiful. It's indeed beautiful. It's a peaceful meaning. But sometimes that peaceful meaning is followed by a wise separation. And this matters because many people, many people confuse forgiveness with full access. Sometimes we get frustrated. We say, hey, wait a second. I thought you forgave me. How come we don't hang out? How come we don't why don't we hang out anymore? I thought you forgave me. I did. We can't be hanging out anymore. I don't understand. Many people confuse forgiveness with full access. They confuse mercy with immediate intimacy. They confuse reconciliation with the removal of all boundaries. But Genesis 33 is wiser than that. Jacob and Esau, they don't kill each other. That's a plus. They weep together. That's a plus. They speak. They exchange kindness, but they go in different directions. Sometimes peace looks like an embrace and a boundary. Sometimes healing means the war ends. Not that the relationship becomes what it never safely was, it never was. Jacob was grasping at Esau's heel in the womb. It's never been quite all that. Jacob arrived safely at Shechem in the land of Canaan. Safely. Don't rush past that word. We rush past words. Laban behind him. Esau before him. Fear inside of him. Night all around him. A limp under him. And still, the word used is safely. God brought him through. Then Jacob buys a piece of land and he pitches his tent there. This isn't just real estate, folks. This is the covenant family beginning again in the land of promise. Then he builds an altar and he calls it Elohim Israel. This is a praise in Hebrew. God, the God of Israel. Not just the God of Abraham, not just the God of Isaac, the God of Israel. Jacob is now using the name God gave him. That altar declares that the same God who met him in the night, guarded him on the road, softened the dreaded meeting, and brought him safely into the land is now his God. That's worship. That's worship. It's worship as allegiance.

Worship as memory. Worship as identity.

Worship as a line in the ground that says, The God who carried me is the God I belong to. Some of us are keeping God at a distance. Some of us are keeping God at a distance for many reasons. And I'm just gonna go throw a throw a chance here that I'm just might be right. That maybe, maybe I know a little bit about what you're feeling. But some of us always say it. We say you're my God. But that part that we say, I belong to you. The God who carried me is the God I belong to. Some of us, we hold that a little bit distant. Deserve. Shame. So what does Genesis 33 say to us? It says fear can be loud and still be wrong. It says humility matters when facing people we have hurt. It says God can prepare mercy where we expected judgment and we deserved it. The judgment, not the mercy. But we receive mercy. It says receiving grace doesn't erase the need for wisdom. It says forgiveness doesn't always mean immediate closeness, no matter how much we want it. It says the vulnerable must be protected. It says peace. It may require both an embrace and a boundary. It says worship should rise wherever God has carried us safely through what we feared. Some of you need that today. But God may be doing something that you cannot see. That doesn't mean you become careless. That doesn't mean you ignore safety. It means you stop letting fear pretend to be a prophet. And this points to Yeshua, Jesus. Because the deepest reconciliation we need isn't first with a brother, it's not with our parent, it's not with a spouse, it's not with a child, it's not with a friend, it's not even with an enemy. The deepest reconciliation we so desperately need is with God. Sin has made us enemies in need of mercy. And in Yeshua, God didn't wait for us to climb our way back. Don't miss that.

To climb the mountain.

He didn't deserve it. He was sinless. He carried our shame. He made peace through the blood of the cross. Jacob bowed before Esau, hoping for mercy. Yet in Messiah, mercy comes towards sinners who could never repair the breach on their own. That doesn't make sin small. Resurrection. Glory to God. The resurrection proves grace is stronger. Oh my lands, I have a challenge and a choice for you today. Here are the questions. What are you afraid to face? Where has shame told you that mercy is impossible? Mercy, come on. Shame is whispering in your ear every day, every night, relentlessly. Where, where is shame telling you that mercy is impossible? Where do you need to humble? Well, we don't like it. No, we don't like it. Of course we don't like it. Where do you need to humble yourself without trying to control the outcome? Where do you need to receive forgiveness without pretending the damage never happened? Look, we cannot. We cannot pretend the damage never happened. Oh, this next one. Good lands. Where do we need? Where do you need to set wise boundaries instead of forcing closeness? God has not required. And now, here's the choice. You can let shame write the ending. You can. You can let shame write your whole story. You can write the ending of your story. You can. It's up to you. You want the pen? You can have the pen. You can keep hiding from your Esau. Or you can walk forward with humility. You can demand instant restoration, or you can receive peace with wisdom. You can keep, you look, if you want, you can keep rehearsing the old name. Oh, this is who you are. This is what you are. Shame's telling you this. I'm right there, that's you. Or you can build an altar to the God who brought you through. Don't confuse look, if you've heard nothing, don't confuse fear with discernment. Don't confuse shame with repentance. Shame is not repentance. Don't confuse forgiveness with foolishness. Walk humbly. Speak truthfully. Receive mercy gratefully. Move wisely. And worship the God who brought you safely through what you thought would destroy you. And look. Maybe this is where salvation becomes personal today. Because every one of us has a deeper Esau moment. We have to face the truth about sin. We've wronged God. We have wronged God. We've run from Him. We've tried to manage guilt with excuses, with religion, with achievement, accomplishment, denial, comparison, or control. But we cannot. We cannot reconcile ourselves to God by effort. We need mercy. We need atonement. We need forgiveness. We need Yeshua. Jesus came to make peace between sinners and the Father. That's you, that's me. Hurts, habits, and hangups, I don't know about you, but I know I am. He died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again. And today, today, right now, he calls you home, not to shame you, but to save you. But there's nothing about this that's easy. I am not the guy that's going to tell you this path is easy because it isn't. Prayer is not asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. I want you to pray this prayer with me right now, Father. I know I've sinned and I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me and he rose again. Today I turn from my sin and I place my trust in him as my Lord and my King. Forgive me. Make me new and fill me with your Spirit. From this day forward, I want to follow you in Jesus' name. Amen. Huh? What about that? What about that, devil? Take that. You've prayed that prayer today. I'm no well. Look, I'm so excited I can't stand it. I'm gonna welcome you into the family of God. Oh yeah, we're dysfunctional. Sure we are, but God's gonna make it all right. Someday He's coming back. Could be today, could be tomorrow, could be in a few minutes. I don't know the answer. I don't. But I'm gonna tell you this. You just made the most important decision you'll ever make in your entire you have an eternity now in heaven. But I'm gonna tell you, you don't have to walk the road alone. You're gonna feel like you're alone. And if you prayed that prayer or you still have questions, which is totally normal to have more questions, reach out to me through true wordfaithforlife.com slash contact. I promise you, I will personally connect with you. I'll help guide you in all the next steps. You aren't alone. All you need to do is ask. Look, fear doesn't get the final word.

Shane doesn't get the final word.

No, no, no, no, no. But it doesn't. It doesn't.

Shane does not get the final word with you. God still knows how to bring mercy into the meeting.

God still knows how to soften what you couldn't control. God still knows how to carry limping people safely into promise. So walk forward. Bow low when humility is needed. Stand firm where wisdom is needed. And receive grace when God gives it. And build your altar to the God who brought you through. If this message helped you, share it. Share it. Share the link. Whatever. Social media, blah blah blah. Tomorrow we're gonna be right back here. And tomorrow's lesson. Yikes. This has been TrueWord Faithful Life with Dr. Sean. For more teachings, go to TruewordfaithfulLife.com. Until tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time or on playback whenever you listen. Shalom Basham Ashula. Shalom Malakam. Shalom Shalom.