Failure Not Final Sermon Ii: Forgiveness Is The Key To Resolution Of Failure Series

FORGIVENESS THE KEY TO THE FINAL RESOLUTION OF FAILURE

Failure is not final with the Father. Forgiveness is the key to the resolution of a relationship failure such as a family feud that is longstanding and most likely rooted in a dysfunctional family of origin.

Did you and a sibling ever get into a fuss? And who at one time or another has not held a grudge - probably over something trivial.

Whenever mama served fried chicken for dinner, me and my sister would fuss over who would get the wishbone piece of chicken. Then we could hardly wait until, after eating, we each took hold of one of the two prongs of the V-shaped wishbone to see who would get the longest and who would get the shortest end of the wishbone - the idea being that the one who got the longest would have their wish come true.

Every time we did this, my sister always got the longest and I would get the shortest – until one day I realized what she was doing. As each of us took hold of our prong of the bone, she would deceptively place her index finger against the apex where the two parts fused and when we pulled, the pressure applied at the top by her finger guaranteed she got the longest end of the wishbone. Trivial indeed nonetheless hurtful at the time!

There are of course more serious matters that cause hard feelings and they are weightier because they affect relationships. Family feuds last a lifetime unless steps are taken to resolve them promptly in a Godly manner. And forgiveness is the key to the final solution of a failure in relationships.

Could it be that one of the many reasons God is not through with us yet is so that we can get our affairs of forgiveness in order? God Himself is our model:

God acted in love to redeem all sinners from broken relationships with Him and to restore repentant sinners to such a high level of friendship and fellowship with our Maker that we are called children of God. As such, we are bound for the glorious experience that awaits us in heaven.

How much sweeter heaven will be for those who, in humility, swallow their pride and allow God to do what only God can do – “in all things work for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

In His dealings with the most prominent yet dysfunctional biblical family - filled with conceit, marked by deceit, and disgraced by a cheat - God worked over a very long period of time to turn that family around and set them in the right direction – to preserve His plan of redeeming the lost and restoring the repentant to favor.

Today we focus on two estranged brothers, Esau and Jacob, and how they were restored to a right relationship with God and with each other. Our scripture lesson begins with bad blood in Genesis 27:41 . . . and our lesson ends with good will in Genesis 33:1-11 . . .

Some of the most dysfunctional families that ever lived are found among those whose stories are told in the Bible. Heading the list are the patriarchs, and their families – the people associated with the covenant God made with Abraham and later confirmed with his son Isaac - whose marriage to Rebekah was blessed by the birth of twin sons Esau and Jacob who would carry on the family name and the redemptive task assigned to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The brothers’ feud began in the womb, and was headed toward continuing all the way to the tomb, but God, over a long period of time, worked in hearts and minds of family members as they matured to change attitudes and actions. Folks:

A lot of bad things are changed by God for the better when God’s people trust what God tells them, grow into His likeness, thereby mature in their Faith.

That said, let me ask you a question: Who wouldn’t get upset if they were, first of all, suckered into selling their birthright privilege of getting a double portion of the inheritance from their father; and, then, to make matters worse, have the father’s blessing of position and power stolen by a scheming brother and mother!

However, with the passing of years – the father living longer than expected, Jacob being dispatched to live and work with kinfolks in a foreign land, yet gaining wealth while there, Esau receiving a secondary blessing from his father (the best Isaac could do under the circumstances), Esau then taking charge of his father’s affairs for as long as his father lived – everyone in the family had been given time to mature and “let bygones be bygones”. At this point in their lives, no one could complain about their lot in life. All were doing good!