Day 48 What If Mercy Tells the Truth?

Good morning. How's everybody? Good morning, good afternoon, good day, good evening. Whatever time you're listening, I'm glad to have you. Thank you for coming. Some of you are here at four o'clock in the morning. You're four o'clock in the morning. Some of you are here at nighttime. That's immense dedication. Oh, ho! Day 48. Did you ever think we'd make it here? What if mercy tells the truth? Genesis 45. Oh. Most people think mercy doesn't. First of all, let me. I wasn't gonna say this, but I'm gonna say it. This is a real episode. Be ready. Fair warning. So most people think mercy means pretending it didn't hurt. Just pretend it didn't hurt. Wash it on the rug. Good morning. Good morning. What if what if real mercy doesn't erase the truth? I'm talking about real mercy. Right? We've talked ad nauseum about mercy and grace. We say the words. What do they mean? What do they mean in real life? Supposed to forget, remember yesterday. No, no, no. I I don't want to be reminded of what I don't. It's you can't bring up what I did. You can't bring up what I did. You are supposed to forgive me. So that means you're never allowed to address the topic ever again.

No.

What if what if real mercy doesn't erase the truth? What if real mercy finally tells the truth without turning it into a weapon? I mean, can we have that conversation? Right? We can use words to turn words into weapons. We can use personal failures. And then we can turn them into weapons. It's one of the most emotional, it's one of the most emotional chapters in Genesis. And to be real with you, it's one of the most emotional in the old testament. Now there's some crazy stuff that happens, and we're fixing to get into it. But it it's undeniable. One of the most emotional chapters in Genesis. And Joseph, as you might imagine, can't hold back anymore. You know, he just can't. He can't hold back anymore. So the room clears. The secret breaks open. The brothers hear the words. They never expected. But maybe they never hoped to hear. Maybe they they never they didn't want to hear these words. I don't know what they thought was going to happen. I am Joseph. I am Joseph. And in that moment, everything, and this is a lot of everything. Everything comes into the light. The sin, the grief, the years, the fear, the mercy, and the providence of God. Put yourself in that place. You've been really, really done dirty and horrible by your family. You've been done horrible by these people. And you're done pretending. He has the power to destroy them. To have their lives taken from them. Have their wealth stripped from them. Oh I guess it's just I said hello, but I didn't say who it was. I I guess you know who I am. I'm Dr. Sean. This is True Word Faith for Life. Before we go further, I have a book. It's my second book. True Word Faith for Life is the title. It's available in the store at True WordFaithforLife.com in this store. Let's see if you can remember all of the different things. Oh, we got to remember True Word Faith for Life. This book was written for the person tired. Tired of religious pieces, tired of confusion, and ready for God's word to make sense in real life. So here's a question for you. And this is a question for you to answer in your quiet place. Not ironically. Where have you mistaken silence for peace? Where have you mistaken silence for peace? Genesis 45 follows Judah's stunning offer. Stunning offer. We talked about it. Remember? We just talked about it yesterday. If you didn't hear it, go back go to Trueword Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S H A W N, uh, YouTube channel or Rumble channel, whichever you prefer. By the way, if you're there, click on subscribe, click on like, click on the little bell. Go there, or you go to TruewordFaithforLife.com and listen to the audio or anywhere you listen to audio. Sincerely, I'm on every podcast thing. Yesterday there was a dear young lady uh who came to awesome, super fit, and wow. Um, she's a crossfitter, and she came to my house to put on some bars um in the restrooms and stuff, little safety stuff. And uh she was just delightful. And I I I remember uh saying, hey, are you in the podcast? I haven't do a podcast. Boy, she brought up, picked up a phone, brought up Spotify, there it was. It's easy, it's super, super easy. Clicked on follow right in front of me. So, if that's your thing. Anyway, go back and listen to that. It's free. So, this offer in Genesis 44, the stunning offer, Benjamin has been placed in danger. He is for sure in danger. The old wound has been recreated. The brothers face the same kind of door they walked through years earlier when they abandoned Joseph. But this time, this time, thank you, Miss Colleen. This time Judah steps forward. He offers himself in Benjamin's place. Take me. It's like a hostage situation. Tell you what, you you you take me as a hostage. Let them go free. That matters. But here's the thing. Joseph has seen enough. We all have our limits, right? Joseph has seen enough. The brothers aren't the same men who sold them, by the way. The old pattern has been interrupted. The hidden identity. Doesn't stay hidden forever, but the hidden identity is now revealed. But we need to handle this really, this whole chapter, very carefully. Genesis 45 isn't some simplistic command of reconcile with unsafe people, toxic people, dangerous people, deadly people. No. It's not that at all. It isn't a religious shortcut around truth. It isn't that. Come on, hurry up. Just get on in there and hug the person. They said they were sorry. Just get on in there and hug them up. Hug their neck. They said they were sorry. This chapter's far deeper than that. Joseph tells the truth. He names what happened. He recognizes God's providence. He preserves life. And reconciliation begins in a room where repentance has already shown fruit. Now that's going to matter. That order matters more than it would seem at first blush. Joseph, he, as you might imagine, he can no longer control himself. He sends everyone out except his brothers. If you were the brothers. Then he weeps loudly. This isn't neatly packaged churchification. This isn't polish. This is years of pain coming through a man who has carried in his gut. His brothers betrayed him. He has horrific grief, responsibility, authority. And shockingly, mercy. Then he says, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? Number one, here's who I am. Number two, is my father still alive? That's number two. Number two, isn't you guys suck? You are horrible people, and I'm gonna have you put to death. What you did to me was horrible. You're terrible people. I can't believe I came from your lineage. I never did anything wrong to any of you. No. I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? His brothers can't even answer him. Because they're stunned. Of course they are. The one they sold now has power over their lives. The sin has a face now. The buried past is standing in front of them. But Joseph says, Come near to me, please. Come near to me, please. That line is stunning. He doesn't begin by pretending. He doesn't say, Oh, it's fine. Nope. He says, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. There's truth. There's truth. Then he says, God sent him before them to preserve their life. That's providence. Don't miss both. Don't miss. Look, don't miss both. It's important to get both of these here because the truth includes both. Joseph says, You sold me. You sold me. But he also says, God sent me. Human evil was real. Human evil was absolutely full-on real. But God's purpose was greater. And you know what? Joseph doesn't need to lie about the wound in order to honor God. And he doesn't need to deny God's providence in order to be honest about the wound. That's mature faith. That's not denial. That's not revenge. That's not religious theater. That is mature faith. This is where many of us need to grow. Many of us need to grow here. Some people avoid truth and call it mercy. Some people weaponize truth and call it honesty. Some people are terrified of truth. I'm just keeping the peace. Have you ever heard that? Have you ever heard that? Have you ever said that? Swallowing all this because I'm just trying to keep the peace. I'm showing mercy. See, but the thing is, biblical reconciliation needs both truth and mercy. Trust without mercy becomes a rusty knife. Mercy without truth becomes denial. So Joseph, this is what doesn't say. It's what we won't say. What we probably would say, what I definitely would say. No, they'd been gone by now. Off you go. Into the dungeons. Joseph doesn't say, well, you didn't do anything wrong. Well, they did. He doesn't say, well, I never really suffered. Oh, he did. He doesn't say, tell you what, let's just pretend this little this little ordeal. Let's just pretend it never happened. Let's pretend it never happened. Oh, you better believe it happened. But he also doesn't say your sin is bigger than God. He got it. He understood. What if our sin was bigger than God? What if that's the kind of God we served? Is that our sin is bigger than his capacity to forgive? It's not, and he's not, and that's the holy tension here. Some of us were taught to keep the peace by staying quiet. I lived my entire childhood this way. Keep the peace. Just keep the peace. Just keep the peace. That was the move. Just keep the peace. Don't bring it up. Don't make it awkward. Don't upset the family. Don't say what happened. Just move on. Silence, it isn't always shalom. Sometimes silence is fear wearing some religious shirt. Shalom isn't pretending nothing is broken. Shalom is God's order coming into what is broken. So, what does faithfulness look like in Genesis 45? Well, there are three things that define faithfulness in Genesis 45, and if I may be so bold, and in your life. First, tell the truth without restraint or limitation. That's not cruelty. Don't do it vaguely. Don't beat around the bush cleanly. Joseph says, You sold me. That's plain. You sold me, because that's what they did. Some of us need that kind of clarity. We dance around stuff. We don't need an explosion. We don't need revenge. We don't need some big public performance. Just truth spoken under God's rule. Is that something you all can do? Second. Don't rush reconciliation where repentance hasn't shown fruit. Genesis forty-five comes after Genesis forty-four, of course, but chronologically, that's how it happened. Joseph has seen Judah choose differently. Same brother threw him in the pit. Same brother that wanted to kill him. Joseph has seen Judah choose differently. He's made a different choice. That matters. Forgiveness can be offered before trust is rebuilt. But reconciliation requires truth, repentance, wisdom, and safety. Truth, repentance, wisdom, and safety. Did you all get that? Truth, repentance, wisdom, and safety. Reconciliation requires truth, repentance, wisdom, and safety. Listen, forgiveness is the easy part. You say, oh, I can't forgive. I can't forgive. That's not the hardest part. Forgiveness can be offered before trust is rebuilt. But reconciliation requires truth, repentance, wisdom, and safety. Don't confuse forgiveness with immediate access. Don't confuse mercy with the removal of all boundaries. And don't confuse a tearful moment, an emotional moment, with a transformed pattern. Now, number three. Look for God's providence without excusing human sin. Look for God's providence without excusing human sin. Don't call evil good. Don't do it. Don't sanitize what happened. But also don't let evil become your God. Say both. What happened was wrong, and God is still greater. Well, that second part, well, we leave it off. We leave it off. What happened was wrong. And then we forget that God is greater. Welcome. Not so private praylist. Playlist 1771. Welcome. I haven't seen you here before. Fourth, when mercy is appropriate, let it preserve life. When mercy is appropriate, let it preserve life. Joseph has immense power. He has immense power. Here's the thing. He doesn't use that power to crush his brothers, and he absolutely could. He absolutely could. He has immense power at this point. Immense power. But he doesn't use it to kill his brothers, to imprison his brothers, to punish his brothers, to embarrass his brothers. He uses his family. How? How does he use his family? Why? How he could? No. He uses power. To save his family. He uses his power that he has available to him, the very ones that harmed him, that imprisoned him, that sold him. He doesn't use that power to crush them like he could. And it's utterly and completely stunning to me. He uses his power instead to save the family. They're starving. There's a famine. He sends for Jacob. He sends for Jacob. He provides food. He protects the covenant family from famine. Throughout the whole family, he protects them. Mercy isn't weakness, my friends. Mercy is strength surrendered to God. Genesis forty-five points us toward Yeshua in a very powerful way. Joseph reveals himself to the brothers who rejected him. He tells the truth. He extends mercy. He provides life in a time of famine. But Yeshua is greater. Yeshua reveals the Father. He tells the truth about our sin. He doesn't minimize guilt. He doesn't pretend rebellion is harmless. But he opens the way of mercy through his own blood. At the cross. Truth and mercy. They meet. Sin is judged. Grace is given. The guilty are invited near. The rejected son becomes the saving king. Joseph says, Come near to me. Come near to me. Yeshua says, Come to me. That's not cheap comfort. That's not cheap comfort, that's covenant mercy. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. The challenge today is simple, but it isn't easy. Stop calling avoidance peace. Stop calling avoidance what it is not. It is not peace. If truth needs to be spoken, ask God for courage to speak it cleanly. No agenda. Speaking the truth. No extracting your pound of flesh. The truth. Spoken cleanly. If mercy needs to be extended, ask God for the strength to extend it wisely. If mercy needs to be extended, then you need to ask God, Father, give me the strength to be wise in this. If boundaries are still needed, keep them without hatred. Hatred will eat you alive. If reconciliation is possible, let it be built on truth and not pretending. How many of you grew up in families where it was pretend time all the time? Things aren't as I'm living them to be. No, they're they're different. That's bad as all that. They're not secrets. We're just very private people. Notice I use the word possible if reconciliation is possible. It isn't always. Will you hide behind silence? Or will you let God form clean truth in you? Will you use truth as a weapon? Be easy to do. You feel like you've earned it? Or will you speak it as a servant of Shalom? What's your motivation? What's your intent here? And will you let what was done to you define the whole story of your life? Or will you trust that God's providence is greater than the chapter that broke you? What was done to you was horrible. Maybe it was. I don't know your life. But God's providence. You have to trust in God's providence. That God's providence is greater than that injury that was done to you. I know it's a hard ask. Today, ask two honest questions. And ask them of you. You. Ask them of yourself. If you have to look in the mirror, look in the mirror. What would clean truth look like here? And what would wise mercy look like here? Don't confuse them. Don't separate them. What would clean truth look like here? And what would wise mercy look like here? Wise and clean. Don't separate them. They belong together. Both belong under the lordship of Yeshua. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Pray with me, Father. Teach us the difference between avoidance and peace. Teach us to speak truth without cruelty. Teach us to extend mercy without denial. Heal what silence has kept infected. Give us wisdom where trust has been broken. Give us courage where truth needs to be named. Help us see your providence without excusing sin. Make us people of Shalom. In Yeshua's name. Amen. Maybe today, maybe today you realize you need the mercy of God. This is where you come home. Yeshua knows. Jesus knows the truth about you. The whole truth, nothing but the truth. So help him, God. He knows it all. Kings it all about you. Knows it all about me. And he still calls you near. He died for sinners, like me, like you. He was buried and he rose again. He is not asking you to pretend, he's inviting you to repent. Trust him and receive new life. If you're ready to turn from sin and actually trust him, pray this from your heart. Father, I know I have sinned, and I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me, was buried, and 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 Yeshua's name. Amen. You prayed that prayer today. Welcome to the family of God. You don't have to figure this out all out on your own. You don't have to do it all alone. If you gave your life to Yeshua, or if you still have honest questions, reach out to me at TrueWordFaithforLife.com slash contact or hit the little button at the top or use the little voicemail thing. It doesn't cost you anything. I pay it so you don't have to. I will personally connect with you. And I'll help you take your next step. You aren't alone. Just reach out. Remember the words from today. I am Joseph. The room froze. The truth stood up. The wound had a name. But mercy had a voice too. Come near. Not because nothing happened. Because God was still working. Not because sin is small. Not because that sin was small or our sin was small, but because mercy was greater and life was still possible. Tomorrow we'll be back here. 7 a.m. It'll be Friday. And it's a whopper. If this helped you, send it to someone who needs clean truth and wise mercy. May Adunai bless you and keep you. May Adunai make his face to shine upon you and show you his grace. May Adunai lift up his face toward you and give you shalom. Shalom Bashem Yeshua. For more teachings, TrueWordfaithforLife.com. See you tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.