1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,560 Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of 2 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:04,600 Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA. 3 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:08,039 I hope the following message challenges, encourages and 4 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:12,200 ultimately changes you thanks for joining us OK, let's get 5 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:16,000 into the word Romans Chapter 11, verse 28. 6 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:22,080 We have been we're looking at the whole subject of Israel. 7 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:26,280 What is Israel's role in God's present economy? 8 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,040 That's that's a mouthful. That's what we're looking at. 9 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:31,200 I was telling the first service, you know, there's there's 10 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,240 several things that Dr. Pastoral preaching. 11 00:00:35,160 --> 00:00:38,200 There's, you know, there's, there's the just the basic you 12 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:41,240 got to lay foundations and, and teach people stuff they need to 13 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:43,520 know. And so over time you lay 14 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:47,440 foundations and there's those, what I would say is prophetic 15 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:49,800 preaching. There's times where the now of 16 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,080 God breaks in and and there's a word for the moment and God's, 17 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:55,760 God's scratching a present itch. OK. 18 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:57,800 And there's something God's wanting to say right in the 19 00:00:57,800 --> 00:00:58,640 moment. Those are fun. 20 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,280 But then there's another thing that drives preaching and that 21 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,760 is when you got people asking you the same question a lot, you 22 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:07,560 think, you know what? I'm just going to talk about it 23 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:09,200 publicly. So we can, we don't have to have 24 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:12,240 52 phone calls or, you know, 52 emails. 25 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:14,920 Let's just teach on this. And this is this. 26 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,800 Be one of them. That's not good grammar, but 27 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:19,920 that's good teaching. This is one of those situations 28 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:24,240 where there's there's just been a lot of conversation around 29 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:27,320 Israel. Israel is always in the news. 30 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:30,240 It's always on the forefront of what's going on globally. 31 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:36,400 It just is, but it's especially been so as of late. 32 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,160 And so there are all kinds of swirling theologies and 33 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,680 ideologies and and then that results in people coming and 34 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:46,360 asking their pastor, pastor what, you know, all these 35 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:48,080 questions. So I just figured we're going to 36 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:49,720 talk about it. So that's what we're going to do 37 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,760 this morning. So we're going to look at Romans 38 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,080 Chapter 11 verse 28. Now before we do that, it's 39 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,080 interesting when you read the apostle Paul, I know I said this 40 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:04,120 a couple of weeks ago, but the apostle Paul is very complex in 41 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:05,520 his arguments. He really is. 42 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,840 He's he's dense, not as in as in dense being you're not very 43 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:12,720 smart, but dense in his arguments. 44 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,920 I mean, it's like you read Paul. It's like someone made grape 45 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:18,800 juice but forgot to add the water. 46 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:19,880 You know, it's like that constant. 47 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:21,840 You could use a spoon. I mean, that's Paul. 48 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,760 He's just thick what he's saying, he's complex and he can 49 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,520 be confusing. Even Peter said that in in one 50 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,920 of his epistles, he said Paul is somewhat hard to understand. 51 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:35,120 And I think, thank you, Jesus, I'm not the only one. 52 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,880 So there's all of that we're dealing with. 53 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,760 And and this passage really is one of those because this 54 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:42,960 passage is a controversial passage. 55 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:50,640 It's it's a watershed issue upon which whole theological streams 56 00:02:50,640 --> 00:02:52,720 flow from which whole theological stream flow. 57 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,960 I'll explain that in a minute. OK, so there's that. 58 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,440 And then Paul tells us that this subject that we're dealing with, 59 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,240 that's, I mean, Paul in general is hard to understand. 60 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:05,960 And then you get to this and Paul says this is a mystery. 61 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:09,800 Paul's trying to unpack a mystery because he's been 62 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,880 talking about the gospel in all these chapters, chapters one 63 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:16,560 through 8, glorious book. You get to Chapter 9 and Paul 64 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:19,920 say what about Israel? Because it begs the question. 65 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:25,000 The apostle to the Gentiles who was willing to give his life for 66 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:31,840 the Gentiles says in Chapter 9, I have this continual grief. 67 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:37,160 Paul has this, this pain that he bear carries with them continue. 68 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:40,840 There's not a moment's relief from this ache in his heart 69 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:42,760 because he's looking at his own countrymen. 70 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,280 They were the avenue through which the gospel came, and they 71 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:50,120 by and large have rejected it. And Paul is now being sent to 72 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:53,240 the Gentiles, not to his own people, to carry the message. 73 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:57,280 So Paul says, I would be willing to give my life for the gospel. 74 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:00,560 And he almost did. Many times he was, he was stoned 75 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:04,240 and left for dead, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, all these 76 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:07,600 kind of things. You know, many scholars believe 77 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,320 that one of those times when Paul was left for dead is 78 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,600 probably when he had his angelic encounter, that he or not 79 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:16,040 angelic heavenly encounter that he talks about in Second 80 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,440 Corinthians chapter 12 where Paul says I knew this guy, 81 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:21,160 whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. 82 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,480 But he went into heaven and he saw things he can't utter. 83 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:27,280 And this guy, whether in he says it twice, whether in the body or 84 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:30,000 out of the body, I don't know. And scholars across the board 85 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:31,840 agree. Paul is talking about himself. 86 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,200 And maybe he says, I don't. He didn't say it was him because 87 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:37,600 he didn't want the people in the room saying, hey, what did you 88 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:39,160 hear? You can tell me, can't you? 89 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,200 I don't know. But it was, it may have been one 90 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:45,000 of those times where he was left for dead and he literally went 91 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,320 to heaven. I mean, this is a man of wisdom 92 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,640 and revelation. And he was the one that carried 93 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:56,880 this mystery of Israel. And and that's no small thing. 94 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:01,120 We we can't afford to Passover these phrases in Scripture when 95 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:04,440 Paul says this is a mystery, that Paul was a man again and 96 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:06,040 again that talked about mysteries. 97 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,720 There's several different mysteries that Paul unpacked in 98 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,440 the book of Ephesians. Now we have another one in the 99 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,240 book of Romans. And the reason Paul had a grid 100 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,200 work for being a man that unpacks mysteries, saying that 101 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:22,120 we need, you know, we, we, he, he prayed for us in Ephesians 102 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:25,880 chapter one that God would give us a spirit of wisdom and 103 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:28,720 revelation. And the reason Paul had a grid 104 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,680 work for that is he was a man who functioned in that. 105 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:36,000 He was the one that God would unravel these mysteries to and 106 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:37,760 he would write them down for you and I. 107 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:41,960 And we've got to be careful because we can get just so used 108 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:43,800 to the word of God. We kind of brush over those 109 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:45,760 things. Oh, he's being poetic. 110 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:49,520 Oh, it's a mystery. And no, these are deep mysteries 111 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:51,200 of God. We've talked about this before. 112 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:54,600 The Greek word is mysterion, the root word of which is war room. 113 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:57,840 And the idea is that it's military strategy, it's hidden 114 00:05:57,840 --> 00:06:01,480 strategy, it's secret strategy. They've gathered Intel, hammered 115 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,800 out a strategy, and that strategy itself that God is 116 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,040 operating by in the earth is a mystery. 117 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,760 It's the mysterion. It's war room strategy. 118 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,360 And God longs to bring us into that. 119 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:14,960 And that's what Paul is doing here. 120 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,360 He's leaving us the understanding of Israel. 121 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:23,360 And so this is no small thing. Paul has gotten to Chapter 9 and 122 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:24,880 now there's this burning question. 123 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:29,080 What about Israel? What is the deal? 124 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:34,920 The he's, he's already said through them came the promises. 125 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:39,480 Theirs was the Messiah, the patriarchs, the scriptures, the 126 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:42,600 holy scrolls, all, all these promises, they belong to the 127 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,040 Jews. They came through them to us. 128 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,840 We're partying down here in worship and they're left outside 129 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:52,040 because they've rejected the very thing that they delivered 130 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:54,320 to us. So what, what's to what's, 131 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:56,800 what's to give? So what do we do with these 132 00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:59,040 Israelites? And so that's what Paul is going 133 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:01,400 to answer. And so the burning question is 134 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,320 if they're the chosen people of God, God, if they are the elect, 135 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:09,400 the chosen, then what gives? Because they're not walking with 136 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:11,840 God, by and large as a nation, they've rejected him. 137 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,600 That's not to say there there's no Christian Jewish people, Of 138 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,320 course there are. But by and large that the Jewish 139 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:23,600 nation that was God's chosen nation by has as a nation pretty 140 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,800 much rejected their Messiah. So what do we do with this? 141 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:30,800 And that's what Paul is going to unpack in chapters 9 through 11. 142 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:35,240 So a lot of this, some of the problem that Paul is doing 143 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,680 because there's 2 views on Israel, OK, there's and there, 144 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:40,080 there's a lot of tributaries out of it. 145 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:43,560 But there's two primary views. And I'm going to just talk in 146 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:48,400 overarching terms. This one is what's known as and 147 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,000 some of the adherents of this philosophy don't like this, this 148 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:53,760 terminology. They don't like to use this 149 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:57,200 title, I understand, but it's just a succinct way to say it. 150 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,200 And that is replacement theology. 151 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:03,320 And that what that means is that the church is now the Israel of 152 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:05,960 God. So therefore the conclusion they 153 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:10,760 come from that is that Israel is now irrelevant to God's plan. 154 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:15,800 Now here here's the thing. The Bible says that the church 155 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:18,680 is the Israel of God. There's reason to believe that 156 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:21,880 there's scripture to the problem is the second conclusion they 157 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:24,880 cut, they extrapolate out of that that therefore Israel is 158 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:27,320 irrelevant. OK, so that's one view. 159 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,920 There's a second view that God is dealing with Israel and 160 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:35,600 dealing with the church in two different ways that God is, 161 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:39,000 there's, there's actually some people who believe that God has 162 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,159 one covenant with Israel and another covenant with us and 163 00:08:42,159 --> 00:08:45,160 they actually go to heaven by another covenant. 164 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,600 That is not true, but God is dealing with them. 165 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,600 So how do we, how do we sift through all this complexity? 166 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:56,600 And it is complex. Matter of fact, I, I venture 167 00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,360 into this with fear and trembling this morning because I 168 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,080 can already look, I'm confusing some of you. 169 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:03,600 I have that gift, by the way, some people have a gift of 170 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,960 teaching. I have a gift of confusion, you 171 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:10,760 know, complexity. But so how do we sift through 172 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:16,120 all this? And a lot of this is caused by a 173 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:22,080 wrong definition, a wrong understanding of the idea of 174 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:27,040 election. OK, Romans 9 is infamous 175 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,280 throughout theological history for this idea of election. 176 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:35,080 What is meant by election? And so there's 2 views on that. 177 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:37,800 There's the right one and the wrong one. 178 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:41,800 I'm just kidding. That's what I believe, but I'll 179 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:43,840 try to hide my prejudice and bias or whatever. 180 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:48,320 OK, so there's the one view of election is that God has it. 181 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:53,000 It means that God and electing some has to reject others and 182 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:57,920 it's election for salvation. It's it's the basis of Calvinism 183 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:02,680 a whole a whole theological school of thought over against 184 00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:05,280 Arminianism, which has a different definition of 185 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:08,760 Calvinism, which then Calvinism has a different action 186 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:11,560 definition of election. And I'll just put it out there 187 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:12,920 right now. I belong to this camp. 188 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:18,040 OK, that most of you know that Calvin himself just he said that 189 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,800 God for his good pleasure. He took that phrase out of 190 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:26,920 Ephesians for his good pleasure and for His glory, created some 191 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:32,120 for eternal damnation to vent his wrath to bring himself 192 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:37,800 glory, and others he created out of for his good pleasure. 193 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:40,600 It pleases him. The Greek word is udochia. 194 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:45,400 It means that he's intent on a process because it makes him 195 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,680 happy to do so, and therefore nobody's going to deter him from 196 00:10:48,680 --> 00:10:51,120 the plan he's got. That's what it means. 197 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,800 In Ephesians chapter 1, Calvin said that what that means is 198 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:58,400 that God actually created some for the sole purpose that he 199 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:01,880 could exert his wrath on them. And that brings him pleasure 200 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:05,360 because it brings him glory. And there's others he created 201 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:08,960 for his to He could save them and they could be in heaven, and 202 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:10,920 that brings him pleasure and it brings him glory. 203 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,720 And that's election. So that definition of election 204 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,320 is if you elect some, you have to reject the rest. 205 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:21,120 That's the idea there. OK, I'm I'm painting with big 206 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:25,720 wide and Calvin did he actually stated that very phrase. 207 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:28,800 OK, I, I adjusted it a little bit, but I didn't adjust the 208 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:31,640 meaning. He he he really believed that 209 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:34,680 Charles Spurgeon. Many of you are familiar with 210 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:36,120 Charles Spurgeon. I love Charles Spurgeon. 211 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:39,000 He was a Calvinist. He was a reformed preacher and 212 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,920 Calvin, he, he said, and he was accurate. 213 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,880 He was correct in this. He said Calvin got his Calvinism 214 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:48,640 from Augustine or Augustine, however you want to say it. 215 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:50,960 People say it both ways, so you'll probably hear both this 216 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:52,400 morning. Augustine, Augustine, I'm 217 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:54,000 talking about the same guy because I don't know which way 218 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,360 to say it. Men smarter than me disagree. 219 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:04,640 So there's, so Augustine created this novel and I call it novel 220 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:09,720 idea and I believe it's errant definition of election. 221 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:12,840 The reason I say it's novel is there was absolutely no church 222 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:17,960 father prior to him that viewed this passage in Romans 9:00 and 223 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:19,760 11:00. And they didn't, they didn't 224 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,840 define election this way. They defined it the other way. 225 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:27,440 OK, But Augustine introduces he was, he was dealing with the 226 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:28,680 heresy. We don't, we don't have time to 227 00:12:28,680 --> 00:12:30,080 get into that. We're getting into the weeds 228 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:31,360 already. I can see some of your kind of 229 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:33,760 falling over, eyes getting heavy. 230 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:38,600 He was dealing with the heresy and in trying to combat a 231 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,400 heresy, he overcorrected. And So what he did is he 232 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,680 redefined this. He was the first guy in the 233 00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:49,200 first church father in history. He was the the Bishop of Hippo. 234 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:52,440 He was a church father and and around the three hundreds over 235 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:57,000 in Africa, very influential and really influenced Western 236 00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:59,120 theology, not so much Eastern theology. 237 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:02,520 Western theology somewhat sided with Augusta. 238 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:05,800 But if you go back prior to him, nobody he he rejected the 239 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:09,120 consensus view of all the church fathers, even the ones that were 240 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:13,120 discipled by the apostles. He rejected their view and about 241 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:17,520 300 years into church history, essentially said, hey, I've got 242 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:19,480 I've got insight that no one's had up till now. 243 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:23,640 And this is what this means. And so he said what it means is 244 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:29,720 and he took a passage that was always viewed as attributed to 245 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:33,760 Israel being the chosen people of God and then applied it to 246 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:39,160 individual salvation as opposed to national usefulness. 247 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:43,920 So that's Calvinism and Calvinism, Calvinism is really 248 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:48,160 built on that definition of election. 249 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:50,600 So and we're going to deal with election here this morning. 250 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:53,480 We'll show you in the Scripture. OK, so that's that's a little 251 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:55,120 history lesson. That's one view. 252 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:57,640 That's Calvinistic view. The other view, which would be 253 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:03,440 normally called Arminianism or even traditionalism, that view 254 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:12,080 views election not as individual salvation, but as enlistment for 255 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:16,840 usefulness. And it doesn't assume that in 256 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,200 choosing the one I have to reject the others, that when I 257 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:23,320 elect some, I automatically reject others. 258 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:27,480 The idea goes in it and and when Paul deals with this, he's 259 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,000 dealing with Israel. And all of this idea goes way 260 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,960 back into the Old Testament, into Genesis chapter 12, where 261 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:40,320 God originally picked the 1st Israelite, so to speak, Abraham. 262 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:46,800 So the idea over here is that it's an enlistment or a call to 263 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:49,960 usefulness. And so this idea, rather than 264 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:57,080 being I elect 1 and reject the rest, it's I elect 1 and bless 265 00:14:57,080 --> 00:15:00,200 them so that through them I can bless the rest. 266 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:06,960 I'm going to call one nation Israel to be my elect, my chosen 267 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,120 people. And through them I will bless 268 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:13,400 the nations of the earth, which is exactly what God said to 269 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:17,200 Abraham, Abram at the time in Genesis chapter 12. 270 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:18,720 And the whole background on this. 271 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:22,840 There's, there's, there's a whole lot of, we need about 8 272 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:24,960 hour class on this to unpack this. 273 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:29,040 But in Genesis Chapter 11 was the tower of Babel, the nations 274 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:30,520 of the earth. They built a tower. 275 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:33,960 It was a ziggurat. It was a occult tower. 276 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,560 And they, their idea was that we're going to reach into the 277 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:38,840 heavens because the mountains were where the heavens and the 278 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:40,800 earth met. And you, we're going to get 279 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:42,960 above the clouds by building a man made mountain. 280 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,200 And we're going to conjure these powers. 281 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,320 And it was an old cult attempt at power. 282 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:52,200 And God said enough, he came down confused the the languages 283 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:54,880 and they were, they were dispersed throughout the world 284 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,960 according to language. And this created these distinct 285 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,920 nations because people hung out with people that talk like them 286 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:05,760 and they intermarried and they, you know, the strong genes won 287 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,000 out and you have these distinct expressions. 288 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,080 OK. And so that was Chapter 11. 289 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:12,600 I'm going to confuse the nations. 290 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,400 In chapter 12, it said he we were introduced to this guy 291 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:22,000 Abram. And he says to him, you go to a 292 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,920 place you do not yet know. Leave your Pagan ideology and 293 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:31,720 ERB the Chaldeans and follow me and I will bless you and through 294 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:34,960 you I will bless all the nations of the earth. 295 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,720 And that is what election is. Election is a calling and 296 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:43,000 enlistment. It's it's God saying, I'm going 297 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:48,080 to set you aside and I'm going to use you and it's a sovereign 298 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:49,720 thing. They didn't sign up for it. 299 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,880 They didn't just like you. You know, if you, there's that 300 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,080 we, we talked today about a call to preach or a call to be a 301 00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:59,720 pastor or call to be, you know, an evangelist or whatever, fill 302 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,040 in the blank. When you have a call on your 303 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:03,640 life, you don't sign up for that. 304 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:07,839 You don't say pick me, pick me. God sovereignly picks people and 305 00:17:07,839 --> 00:17:10,960 he enlists them and you'll meet a lot of people that fight the 306 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:12,800 call. I wanted to do this, but God 307 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:14,359 made me do that. I don't understand that. 308 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:18,359 I'm like, when Jesus found me, I was a loser, homeless. 309 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,839 I'm like, Lord, if you could, if you'd do that. 310 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,880 I remember praying, it's a young convert. 311 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:26,160 I thought Lord, I was going to this little Bible school. 312 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,280 I thought, Lord, there was this closet. 313 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,320 I did some janitorial work and I thought I could fit a cot in 314 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,600 here if I move some of these mops around. 315 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,200 And I, I remember praying. I said, Lord, if you'd let me 316 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:39,560 live here, I'll serve you all the days of my life. 317 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,640 If you could use me in the House of the Lord and I'll just clean 318 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:44,520 your house and hang around the things of God. 319 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:53,280 And the the fact that he lets me do this is I'd mic drop, but I 320 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:54,520 have to take it off my ear to do it. 321 00:17:54,520 --> 00:18:00,800 I mean, it just blows my mind. It's the call, it's the chosen, 322 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:05,040 it's the election. And there's a a certain sense in 323 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,800 which we're all elected to certain things and we fulfill 324 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:11,080 that call. And what God will do is he will 325 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:14,560 uniquely bless you in a given area and then through you his 326 00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:16,280 intention is it doesn't stop there. 327 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,440 It's not that he's saying I have given you a gift of giving and a 328 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,280 gift of giving means you have to have a gift of making. 329 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:26,560 You can't give what you can't create. 330 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,800 So a gift of giving gives wealth, but you got to be able 331 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:31,480 to create wealth. And so people that have that, 332 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:33,120 they have the ability to make money. 333 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:38,400 And the danger is, is we think, oh, I'm uniquely blessed and God 334 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,400 must have rejected everyone else in the financial category and 335 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,040 I'm meant to be rich. And then just, you know, put it 336 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:47,880 on myself and let everybody squander in their poverty. 337 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:50,600 And you know, no, that's not it. It's we're blessed to be a 338 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,240 blessing. Whatever God has given you, it's 339 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:54,680 to come through you to bless rest. 340 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:57,120 It's not that he said, oh, I called you to teach and 341 00:18:57,120 --> 00:19:00,000 everybody else gets to be dumb and I've rejected them. 342 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,600 No, I've called you to teach so that you can disseminate it to 343 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:05,520 others. The blessing on you comes 344 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,760 through you to others. That's the idea of election. 345 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:15,320 So Augustine or Augustine redefined that in the 3rd 346 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:20,840 century and that really took hold within Western theology and 347 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:26,360 especially Reformed theology. And I would propose to you one 348 00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:30,120 and, and the reason this is relevant to Israel is because we 349 00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:34,840 have to realize that Paul unpacks this mystery that God is 350 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:37,600 dealing on a couple of planes simultaneously. 351 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,800 And this little verse, these two verses, 28 and 29 begin to 352 00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:44,560 unpack that. Man, I'm out of breath and we 353 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:49,800 haven't got to the text yet. All right, go to Romans 11/28. 354 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,280 Look at what it says. ESV. 355 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:57,560 As regards the gospel, they, this is talking of Israel, OK, 356 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:00,760 the context is clearly Israel. I don't have time to prove that 357 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:02,480 to you, just you can read it yourself. 358 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:08,640 As regards the gospel, they Israel are enemies for your 359 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:12,720 sake. But as regards election, they 360 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:14,920 are beloved for the sake of the forefathers. 361 00:20:15,120 --> 00:20:18,920 So here's what Paul is doing. Again, Paul is a little complex. 362 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:22,040 You got to kind of slow down and unpack what Paul is saying. 363 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,200 And Paul is saying, listen, there's a mystery and the 364 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:29,200 burning mystery is this. If they are the chosen people of 365 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:35,600 God, how can they be outside of the messianic gift all that he 366 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:37,480 brought? How can they be on the outside 367 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:40,720 and unbelief if they're God's chosen? 368 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,480 How does that even work if that's what being chosen is, Who 369 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:47,120 wants to be chosen? You know, that's that's what 370 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:48,880 he's saying. And so he's going to help us 371 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,200 understand here. So what he does is he shows us 372 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:58,240 that God is dealing in two arenas simultaneously with one 373 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:01,440 group of people. And in each arena, they are 374 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:05,320 assigned a status, a way in which he interacts them within 375 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:07,080 that unique context or that arena. 376 00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:10,840 And he does it for the benefit of two separate groups of people 377 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:14,800 simultaneously. And the danger is as we reduce 378 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:16,880 it to 1 and we've come to some wrong conclusions. 379 00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:21,760 That's So what does he say? He said in regards to the 380 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:25,720 gospel, How does he deal with Israel in regards to the gospel 381 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,960 for So the first context to arena is the gospel. 382 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,280 And how is he dealing with Israel as a nation, as a 383 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:35,280 corporate people in regards to the gospel? 384 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:40,360 They're enemies because by and large they have rejected the 385 00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:42,760 gospel, especially during Paul's day. 386 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:44,920 They're trying to chase them down and kill them the the 387 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:49,040 religious leaders and they're enemies of the gospel. 388 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:50,520 So God deals with them as enemies. 389 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:52,680 Now, lest you start thinking, whoa, that's pretty heavy. 390 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:57,040 The fact is we were all that that terminology is used by Paul 391 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:01,880 for everyone outside of Christ that we were born with. 392 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,080 The King James Version says this enmity. 393 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:08,120 Good. There's a word you don't use 394 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:09,920 often. Try to find a way to reuse that 395 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:12,640 word this week. Yeah, enmity. 396 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:16,760 We're at enmity with God. We were born contrary to the 397 00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:18,960 gospel. We were born antagonistic 398 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,160 towards God, his laws. We we didn't have to be taught 399 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:26,000 that we were born that way and we needed to be reconciled to 400 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:27,920 God. So what he's saying is according 401 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,800 to the when it comes to the gospel, in regards to the 402 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,480 gospel, they're on the outside, They're opposed to the Kingdom 403 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,200 of God and God considers them enemies. 404 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:40,800 For whose sake? Yours and mine, we're the 405 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:42,960 recipients of that. It's like, what does that mean? 406 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,840 Well, Paul has unpacked in this passage. 407 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:49,760 He says that when they were cut off, they were the the olive 408 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:55,040 tree of, of Israel and God's covenant that they were cut off 409 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:59,640 as a, a native olive branch and we were grafted. 410 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,840 We were some wild tree out there and God cut us off and grafted 411 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:05,720 us in. And also we're producing olives, 412 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:07,000 man. We're producing fruit. 413 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:09,560 This is awesome. We're acting like we didn't used 414 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:11,600 to act. You know, it's the fruit of the 415 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:12,880 spirit. It's not the fruit of Dave 416 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:14,560 trying harder. It's a fruit of the spirit. 417 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:21,520 It's amazing, he said. But then the Israelites who have 418 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:25,160 rejected their own Messiah, they're like dead branches lying 419 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:29,840 in the around the olive tree, he said, But don't get arrogant and 420 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,360 look at them and like, well, look at us. 421 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:36,160 We believe and you don't. And Paul says, hey, listen, they 422 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:38,400 were cut off so that you can be grafted in and you too could be 423 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,160 cut off. Don't be arrogant. 424 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:41,760 They were cut off because of their own belief. 425 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:46,280 And you too can less unless you continue in the faith, unless if 426 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,520 you can persist in your own belief, you could be cut off. 427 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,200 And he said, and they can also be grafted back in. 428 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:52,520 But how? Through faith. 429 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:59,840 So what Paul is saying is he's well, so that this is for our 430 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:01,800 sake. So the first context is in 431 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,400 regards to the gospel, right? So in regards to the gospel, 432 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,080 God, the status, the way that God treats them as as enemies, 433 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:11,040 they need to be reconciled to him. 434 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,960 God doesn't. God says you have to surrender. 435 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,760 You know, we're at, we all were born at war with God. 436 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,400 Unless he wins, you lose. OK, that's what you've got to 437 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,200 lay down your arms and surrender. 438 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,680 God doesn't say, OK, you won, Dave, I surrender. 439 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:27,960 You know? No, that doesn't. 440 00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,720 That doesn't happen. If I need, I need to lose so I 441 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:34,920 can win. OK, so the gospel enemies, it's 442 00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:38,360 for our benefit. But in regards to election, 443 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,280 they're no longer enemies. They are. 444 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,000 What does it say? Beloved? 445 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,080 They're beloved. Why? 446 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:52,880 For the sake of the forefathers. So what is he talking about #1 447 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,280 One of our takeaways is we've got to understand, and this 448 00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:02,440 undermines it, confronts the wrong definition that Augustine 449 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,040 introduced to the church and has taken root. 450 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,480 And it's confused things. The gospel and election are two 451 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:12,720 separate things. And even though they're enemies 452 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:15,160 when it comes to the gospel, they're still elect. 453 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:19,400 And see, if you have the wrong view of election, Oh, election 454 00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,360 means you're set aside for salvation. 455 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:26,040 Then if you reject the gospel, that is evidence you're not 456 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:29,160 elect. And if you accept the gospel, 457 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:31,080 then that's the evidence you were the elect. 458 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,320 But in this case, they've rejected the gospel. 459 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:37,520 They're an enemy of the gospel, but they're still beloved as 460 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,800 elect. So do you see where I'm coming 461 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:42,560 from on that? I wish I could be clear. 462 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,240 I feel like I'm spitting mud out there and everybody's kind of 463 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,280 looking at me. You're you're what? 464 00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,920 Windshield wipers are just moving the mud across the 465 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,240 windshield. You know, so understand there's 466 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:57,080 a difference between the gospel and election election and the 467 00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:00,040 very next verse tells you backs this up. 468 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,320 OK, the the previous consensus theology of the early church 469 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,320 fathers is backed up by the very next verse. 470 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,760 What is it the the gifts and calling. 471 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:12,800 Thank you. The gifting and callings of God 472 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:16,000 are without repentance. They're irrevocable. 473 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:20,040 So what he's saying is, and they even though they rejected the 474 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,720 gospel, they're still the elect people of God. 475 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,840 God still says I'm going to use you. 476 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:31,040 I'm going to use your lives. Now you get the get to choose 477 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,560 what message is going to come through you. 478 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,480 If I were, God forbid, if I were to get up tomorrow morning and 479 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:39,600 said, you know what, I'm done with this Jesus thing. 480 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,760 I think I'm going to go back to the way I used to live 40 years 481 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:44,520 ago. I'm going to go back and start 482 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:46,000 living. I was a homeless alcoholic, 483 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,440 which would be a dumb decision, but you know what, God would 484 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,800 still use me. There is a call on my life. 485 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:55,840 He would use me, but the message would be different. 486 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,280 Now the message would be and it would be lived out before men 487 00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:02,160 and the Lord would say, I didn't ask you if you want to be used. 488 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,680 I chose you and I will use you and I'm going to put my message 489 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,120 through you. You walk with me or you will be 490 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:10,880 a message of what it looks like. A man that walks with God and 491 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,040 others will be blessed by it. And if you reject me, you will 492 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:17,280 be a message to the world. And what happens when a man 493 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:22,400 turns his back on God and you will be a tragic story and God 494 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:24,280 enlists. The callings of God are 495 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,760 irrevocable. So the Israelites are still the 496 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,520 elect even though they have rejected the gospel. 497 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:32,600 So these are two separate categories. 498 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,640 Election doesn't equal salvation. 499 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,080 Election is election to a gift and a calling that is 500 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,280 irrevocable. And the context is the people of 501 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:48,320 Israel, not individual people. It's not these passages are not 502 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,680 about what theologians call soteriology, individual 503 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,240 salvation. And when we make them that we've 504 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:58,200 got a shoehorn and pretty soon what we do is we start number 505 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,400 one, we have to look if if election means either you're 506 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,760 appointed beforehand to damnation or salvation, then 507 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:10,360 that interpretation automatically says God's done 508 00:28:10,360 --> 00:28:14,120 with Israel because they've the evidence is in their actions. 509 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,160 They have rejected God. So they're no longer the elect 510 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,960 and we are the now the elect. We're the Israel of God. 511 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:25,120 Now let me pause there. That is that we are the Israel 512 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:29,240 of God is true. The only way in is through the 513 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,880 Christ. He's the door. 514 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:33,800 No man comes to the Father, but by me. 515 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,520 You must be born again. The only way you can be born 516 00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,400 again is through Jesus. He was the only one that paid 517 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,520 the price. No man comes to the Father but 518 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:44,520 through him, through the Jewish Messiah. 519 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,240 And the only way for you and I in is through Jesus. 520 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,640 And the only way for the Jewish people is 1 at a time through 521 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,520 Jesus. And so it coming into the faith, 522 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:58,400 we were grafted in and we are the Israel of God. 523 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:03,080 But that doesn't mean that God is done with Israel Because this 524 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,440 passage is telling us in regards to the gospel, they're enemies, 525 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:11,000 but in regards to election, they're beloved. 526 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:17,040 And then he says this who? Who is this for the sake of the 527 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,920 forefathers, those who have gone before? 528 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:26,560 Well, goes way back to Abraham. And God said, I'm going to bless 529 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,160 you and I'm going to make you into a great nation. 530 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,960 And the man became a family and the family became multiple 531 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,800 tribes, which became a nation through which all the nations of 532 00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,360 the earth were to be and have been blessed. 533 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:47,200 The gospel, Paul said from them came the gospel, from them came 534 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,480 the Messiah. The gospel is gone around the 535 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:53,400 world and everywhere the gospel is gone, civilizations rise. 536 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,280 It's, it's an amazing study when you begin to look at when the 537 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,800 gospel comes to broken nations and all of a sudden they become 538 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,680 civilized. And I'm so tempted to tell some 539 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,800 stories, but we don't have time. It's it's an amazing thing. 540 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:10,800 All the nations of the world have been blessed. 541 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:15,880 You've got all these patriarchs, and not just the patriarchs. 542 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,760 You've got King David that God promised him his throne would be 543 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,920 established forever. You've got Moses who cried out 544 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,520 to God for the nation of Israel. All these people that were 545 00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:33,440 crying out and God said for their sake they are elect and I 546 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,880 interact with them as beloved. I am pursuing them. 547 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,800 My affections are aroused for them for the sake of the 548 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,840 forefathers to whom I gave a promise. 549 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:48,000 Now I can't help but make another application here this 550 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,640 morning because yes, this is important. 551 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,240 What is our attitude to be towards Israel in this 552 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:58,200 tumultuous moment in human history where anti-Semitism is 553 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:00,360 on the rise? What is the believers 554 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,680 responsibility? We'll get to that, but there's 555 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,760 another application here because what it tells us, Paul says that 556 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:12,640 God is dealing with great love and affection towards a people 557 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:16,800 who have rejected him again and again and again for the sake of 558 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,280 some people way back in their history who didn't. 559 00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:24,920 Last week I was over at Reveal Church preaching and I had fully 560 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,840 intended to preach on this one past Psalm 63 that I've been 561 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:30,800 beating on here. I thought that'll be an easy 562 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:31,840 one. I'm going to preach on that. 563 00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:33,400 The past said, what are you going to preach? 564 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,400 I said Psalm 63, you want to get some things up on the screen. 565 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:38,920 I said, unless God changes my mind, I'm going to do that. 566 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,120 And I got there. I had it already, man. 567 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,600 I had notes and I just, man, I was bubbling up with Psalm 63 568 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,600 and someone prayed a prayer and it pulled me into Psalm 132. 569 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,240 And I preached on that. And I love this passage because 570 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,760 it says it starts out with a prayer. 571 00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:00,960 Solomon Oh Lord, remember David, I'm going to paraphrase it. 572 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:06,000 Oh Lord, remember my dad and the suffering he endured. 573 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:13,400 He in the present. Solomon, it really correlates 574 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:15,920 with the dedication of the temple. 575 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,960 Psalm 132 and what is prayed at the temple are like templates 576 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,040 that lay over each other. So Solomon is saying, God, 577 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:28,520 Remember Me because of the promise you gave my dad, but he 578 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:33,400 takes it a step farther. He said, God remember my dad and 579 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,520 the price he paid for a move of God. 580 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,520 Lord, do you remember that? He said, I'll give my eyelids no 581 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,520 rest until there's a resting place for the Lord. 582 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:46,160 Lord, do you remember my dad? How he was? 583 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,720 He was after you. He was you yourself. 584 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,360 Call him in your written word a man after my heart. 585 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,200 Lord, remember him in all that he went through. 586 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,600 Now, Lord, in light of that, deal with me. 587 00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:05,320 That's an amazing thing. Listen, the way you live your 588 00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:09,520 life right now in this moment in human history, God will deal 589 00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:13,080 with your children, your grandchildren, your great, great 590 00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:17,520 grandchildren for generations. The the little things you do 591 00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:22,120 carry weight with heaven and the way you operate in the time of 592 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,400 of crisis that you turn your heart towards him. 593 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:28,600 Lord, I don't understand why this is going on, but I'm taking 594 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:31,280 my stand in your goodness. I declare you're good, you're 595 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,880 faithful and I don't know why this isn't working, but Lord, 596 00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:37,600 I'm going to worship you anyway. Those things are establishing 597 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,680 things in the moment that will have generational ramifications. 598 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:48,360 It's an amazing thing and God will deal with generations from 599 00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:50,280 now on things. I was telling the first service 600 00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:53,520 we had Bob Hazlett in one time and he was teaching on, on the 601 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:57,720 prophetic and, and so then he said, OK, he was teaching. 602 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:00,360 He said, now I want you to just, we're going to do an exercise 603 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:01,280 here. Everybody's going to pray. 604 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:04,200 We're going to ask the Lord, find someone in the congregation 605 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,440 and ask the Lord how he sees them. 606 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:08,639 And then later on, I want you to share that with them. 607 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,320 So we did that. To be honest, I don't remember 608 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,280 who I asked about. I'm selfish. 609 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,600 I remember who asked about me because my little bald headed 610 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,040 brother Christopher came and said, hey, you remember that 611 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,400 When Bob said that this was like 2 weeks later, I'm thinking it 612 00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:24,920 took you long enough. He said, do you know when that 613 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:25,639 happened? I said yeah. 614 00:34:25,639 --> 00:34:27,120 He said I asked the Lord about you. 615 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:28,560 You want to know what he said? I said yeah. 616 00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:33,400 And what he shared with me broke me in half. 617 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:39,120 And what really broke me in half was that there were things I'd 618 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:42,800 never shared with anybody, just little things between me and 619 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,639 Jesus. And frankly, they weren't that 620 00:34:45,639 --> 00:34:48,400 big a deal to me. I, I thought this, this, just 621 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:53,600 these, these little things that I, I do, but to the Lord, they 622 00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,679 meant something. And it just moved me out That 623 00:34:56,679 --> 00:35:00,520 Lord, you, you really care about that stuff, those little things 624 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,640 in those moments of crisis, when I say those things and do those 625 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:08,280 things, that moves your heart and man, it just listen. 626 00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:18,120 We don't realize God's eye is on you and the little nuances of 627 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,800 your relationship. And just in hardship, you 628 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:24,880 turning your heart towards him means so much to him and you are 629 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:28,840 taking ground that has generational ramifications. 630 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:32,360 It's an amazing day. And so God says in Romans, he 631 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,760 said the Jewish people, even though they're enemies of the 632 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,280 gospel when it comes to election, I chose them. 633 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:43,920 And for the sake of their fathers, I'm going to deal with 634 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:47,080 them. I am still after them. 635 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:51,880 Now what that means is you and I need to get in on this because 636 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:54,040 that's God's heart. And if we're like him, we're 637 00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,680 going to be caring about the things he cares about. 638 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:02,920 That should move us. I mean, Paul, the apostle to the 639 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:07,880 Gentiles was the one who said in Chapter 9, I'd go to hell for 640 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,720 them. I give my life for the Gentiles, 641 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,240 and he almost did numerous times. 642 00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:21,520 But Israel, Lord, I would have my name blotted out if they 643 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:32,070 could come in. I am telling you that God will 644 00:36:32,070 --> 00:36:34,270 not. He would never refuse that 645 00:36:34,270 --> 00:36:38,950 prayer. When God finds someone who's so 646 00:36:38,950 --> 00:36:43,360 wrapped around something like that that their life becomes an 647 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:47,280 expression of his heart for his people that they're willing to 648 00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,920 exchange their very soul, God's going to answer that prayer. 649 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:55,760 Moses prayed the same prayer, the only two guys in all 650 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,240 Scripture. Moses said, God, blot me out. 651 00:36:58,240 --> 00:37:00,120 If you're not going to go with us, Lord, if you, if you're 652 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:01,640 going to reject them, then reject me. 653 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:04,320 I can't. You called me to these people 654 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:06,280 and Lord, I know they're rebellious. 655 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:09,240 It's so funny you read Moses interaction with God and they're 656 00:37:09,240 --> 00:37:11,920 going back and forth and God saying Moses, your people did 657 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,840 this and then Moses called God, your people did this and they're 658 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,240 talking about the same people. Both were like, I washed my 659 00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:19,720 hands on them. The good thing was neither one 660 00:37:19,720 --> 00:37:22,800 of them ever washed their hands at the same time. 1 was 661 00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,560 interceding and dealing, you know, and God was you. 662 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:28,120 This relational thing was so beautiful. 663 00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,520 Moses was saying God, Lord, you've got to you've got to 664 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,280 withhold your hand. God's going to wipe out the 665 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:37,600 whole nation. And God said, OK, I will save 666 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:38,640 the nation. Why? 667 00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:40,760 Because his heart was so gripped. 668 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:48,920 My point is this that if Moses was able to get there, yielding 669 00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:52,720 the heart of God, Paul was able to get there and God said, I'm 670 00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:56,080 still I believe Moses was one that because it doesn't say 671 00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:01,000 patriarchs, it says forefathers. God was looking at Moses's 672 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:02,880 prayer and saying, I'm still going to answer that. 673 00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:05,800 I'm still going to answer that prayer. 674 00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:10,480 I'm going to do that thing. And if that's God's heart, then 675 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,480 that needs to be our heart. There needs to be something in 676 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,400 our heart that says, God, I want you to have the rewards of your 677 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:19,080 suffering. Lord, I want you to have what 678 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,480 they what you promised these forefathers. 679 00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:26,440 And and I'm telling I take great comfort in that, that as a dad, 680 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:31,040 I can pray for the future lineage that came from my loins 681 00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:34,200 and my grandkids, great grandkids, great, great, great 682 00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:37,920 grandbabies that if Jesus tarries, I won't meet them, but 683 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:41,000 they're going to be affected by this dude right here that I'm 684 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:42,680 going to live. I'm going to leverage my life 685 00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,600 for the future And and literally that our kids can say Dad, 686 00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,600 father, you remember my dad, remember my mom. 687 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:53,480 I interviewed this pastor this week. 688 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:58,200 We're going to have it on the video podcast we do Tony Meyer 689 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,920 from up at life point in Ames, the AG Church of I love those 690 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:06,760 guys, Tony and Drew and I interviewed Tony the other day 691 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,560 and I knew some of his story, but I never knew all of it. 692 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:13,120 You got to hear I'm not going to steal his Thunder. 693 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,080 You got to hear this, but it broke me in half. 694 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,440 This family went through such tragedy and Tony got bitter with 695 00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:25,400 God and was just out running. He was he, he believed in God. 696 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:27,240 He just didn't want anything to do with them. 697 00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:29,880 Screamed at God, I don't want anything to do with you. 698 00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:32,800 And he was running hard into drugs, all this stuff, just 699 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:37,520 tormented, he said. But my dad, he said every 700 00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:39,800 morning I'd walk down and my dad's on his face. 701 00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:43,320 I knew every day he's crying out to God and you hear what this 702 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,680 family went through. His dad has become one of my 703 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:46,720 heroes. I've never met. 704 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:53,080 I told him I need to meet your dad and one day finally his dad 705 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:56,200 brings him some groceries and he's just angry seeing him walk. 706 00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,680 I'm getting out of the car and his dad brings groceries in. 707 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:03,560 He's talking to him and he's sitting across the table for me, 708 00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:06,800 said Tony. You need to give your life to 709 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:08,200 Jesus. And Tony said you're right. 710 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,560 His dad about fell off the chair because there had been years of 711 00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:14,440 prayer and nothing. And he tells him you need to get 712 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:16,240 right with the Lord. And Tony got radically saved. 713 00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:19,000 All three of this man's sons are now in full time ministry. 714 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:23,400 All three are pastoring. They're just and and it's, I'm 715 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:28,400 telling you, it's a story of God bringing such beauty out of 716 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,280 tragedy. But here's the thing. 717 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:34,240 So after I talked to him, I was just talking to the Lord, and I 718 00:40:34,240 --> 00:40:39,120 saw this picture in my mind of their dad, of Tony, just in 719 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:41,280 darkness. I know what it's like to live 720 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,360 where Tony was at. I remember what it was like. 721 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:47,360 I knew the gospel, but I couldn't grasp it. 722 00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:51,240 It's like my life was so twisted and so broken. 723 00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:54,120 I was such a mess. And I would write notes to 724 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,960 myself and drunken stupors. You got to get help, man, You're 725 00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,520 a mess. I'd wake up in some strange 726 00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:01,920 place and pull a note out. What is this? 727 00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:05,880 And I just, I couldn't, I couldn't take the step. 728 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,960 I was bound in my mind. And all of a sudden I remember I 729 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,240 came into a moment of clarity. I need to get saved. 730 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:17,360 I need Jesus. That was a gift from God. 731 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:22,560 The light, according to Second Corinthians rather chapter 4, 732 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,280 this is what it says. The light of the knowledge of 733 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,840 the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus was shed abroad in 734 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,080 my heart. All of a sudden there was light 735 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,200 and I could see, Oh my goodness, I need help. 736 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:38,440 And I was able to grasp the rope of salvation that pulled me out. 737 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,760 It was a miracle. And I saw Tony in that same 738 00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:46,320 state, just so dark and broken, but I saw a picture of his dad 739 00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:49,120 laying over him just crying out to God. 740 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:53,800 And I saw like this oppression that that that blinds our minds. 741 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,960 I know what that's like that that oppression where you can't 742 00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,480 think, you can't understand the gospel. 743 00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:01,920 People say it to you and it's like dullness. 744 00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,880 You, it's, you can't grasp it. It's like a mist you try to grab 745 00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:10,600 and it's gone. And all of a sudden, when the 746 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:14,680 light comes in, I saw his dad, like, over him like an umbrella, 747 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:17,680 just weeping and crying. And it was like his dad was 748 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,040 taking the assault of the spiritual realm. 749 00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:22,760 He's getting hit, and there's lightning and hitting himself. 750 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,720 And Tony's under there. And all of a sudden, it became a 751 00:42:25,720 --> 00:42:29,720 place of clarity because the demonic assault was being 752 00:42:29,720 --> 00:42:32,880 absorbed by his father's prayer. And all of a sudden, Tony said, 753 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,520 yeah, I need to get saved. And now to see what God's done 754 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:38,880 with these boys. It's just an amazing thing. 755 00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:48,600 And listen, you and I, our prayers, the forefathers, God is 756 00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:53,040 still going to work with Israel. Paul said Israel will be saved 757 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:57,120 and it's not the redefined Israel that we are the Israel of 758 00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:58,360 God. We've been grafted in. 759 00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,720 That's true. But God is not done with them. 760 00:43:01,720 --> 00:43:04,040 They're the elect and he's going to graft them back in. 761 00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,720 And if they're being cut off, cause blessing for us. 762 00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:09,520 Paul said. How much more when they're 763 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:12,680 grafted back in? We're down here partying during 764 00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:14,440 worship. That was amazing this morning 765 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:17,000 what Paul's telling us. You think that was good? 766 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:20,160 You wait till the Jewish people start coming in in mass. 767 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:22,200 That's when the real party begins. 768 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:28,680 This is God's heart. God wants to see Israel swept 769 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:30,680 into the Kingdom. Why is this important? 770 00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:34,040 Because we have the rising anti-Semitism once again. 771 00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:40,520 It's amazing. Racism is an evil ideology. 772 00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:44,400 It's demonic. It's it's, it's an opportunity 773 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:48,240 to divide people by the color of their skin and their ethnicity. 774 00:43:48,240 --> 00:43:52,480 It's evil. It's it's despicable, but what's 775 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:56,280 shocking is that those who are the loudest now and right, 776 00:43:56,560 --> 00:44:00,640 they're crying out about racism, but some of them are the most 777 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:03,280 willing to endorse anti-Semitism. 778 00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:07,480 And it's diabolical, it's demonic. 779 00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:12,520 And you and I cannot afford to be on the wrong side of these 780 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,600 things. We're against racism and we're 781 00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:19,800 against all racism and we're against anti-Semitism and we're 782 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,240 going to. That doesn't mean that we have 783 00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:26,400 to endorse everything that the Jewish government does any more 784 00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:28,080 than when they were the elect of God. 785 00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:29,960 They did a lot of things and God spanked them. 786 00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,480 And I've read about some heinous things that the Jewish 787 00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:35,200 government has done. And you know what? 788 00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:39,040 Often it's been in cahoots with us doing heinous things as 789 00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:42,960 America, but that doesn't mean God washes his hands of us. 790 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,960 We pray, we repent, we we vicariously stand under that 791 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:50,400 crowd to God. But listen, God's heart is for 792 00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,920 the Jewish people. And before this thing called 793 00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:57,560 human history wraps up, there will be a sweeping revival among 794 00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,720 the Jewish people, the ethnic Jews, the nation of Israel, 795 00:45:00,720 --> 00:45:04,440 those peoples, and they'll be swept into the Kingdom. 796 00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:11,320 So two things this morning. We need to pick up God's burden 797 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:18,760 for Israel, yes, And understand that your prayers, your 798 00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,680 activities, your actions, that every little thing you do 799 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:25,680 matters to God and he, he, he puts weight on that. 800 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,320 And you need to realize that that you, how you live now is 801 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:30,680 going to mean something in the future. 802 00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,120 Just like those patriarchs, God is going to answer those 803 00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:36,000 prayers. They never hit the ground. 804 00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:38,360 They're still coming before his throne. 805 00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:39,880 Amen. Let's stand. 806 00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:43,080 Thanks for listening to our podcast. 807 00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:45,600 If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you 808 00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:48,200 can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on 809 00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,520 social media. If you'd like to support the 810 00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:53,360 ministries of Heartland Church, you can do so at Heartland 811 00:45:53,360 --> 00:46:46,480 Church online.com/give. It's him. 812 00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:52,480 It's for his good pleasure. Hallelujah. 813 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:57,640 If you're here this morning and you're not right with the Lord 814 00:46:57,640 --> 00:46:59,520 and you say, man, I want to get right with God. 815 00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:04,000 Listen, this is the first step into starting the life God 816 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,400 created you for. You've got to surrender to 817 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:08,880 Jesus. There's only one way to have 818 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:10,800 relationship with God. There is no other way. 819 00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:17,120 It's an offense to God when he took his only begotten Son and 820 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:21,720 he was willing to crucify him on a cross and suffer agony for our 821 00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:25,480 sake that we say, you know what, I'd like to find another route, 822 00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:27,280 another religion, another way in. 823 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:32,040 God provided the one way in at great expense to himself. 824 00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,680 He's inviting you this morning. If you, if that's you this 825 00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:39,040 morning, you're saying I need to get right with the Lord. 826 00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:41,640 I want to, I want to surrender my life to Jesus. 827 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:44,240 I want you just to raise your hand right now so I can see it. 828 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:48,400 Amen. Anybody else saying I need to 829 00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,400 get right with God, Raise your hand high. 830 00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:53,400 You know that you need to surrender to him. 831 00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:56,720 Some of you, it's something you've done before, but you, you 832 00:47:56,720 --> 00:47:59,360 know, I need to re up. I need to fully give him my 833 00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:02,960 life. I've been I've not been fully in 834 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:06,160 I've I've, you know, I said a prayer, but I'm not fully living 835 00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:07,560 for him. If that's you, I want you to 836 00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:09,000 raise your hand. We want to pray for you. 837 00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,200 I don't want to rush this this morning. 838 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:18,800 Some of you, I can feel that the desire of heaven to pull you 839 00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:20,800 into the purpose for which He created you. 840 00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:23,960 Anybody else, just raise your hand high. 841 00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:26,000 Keep it up until I acknowledge you. 842 00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:32,920 Hallelujah. All right, those that raise your 843 00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,640 hand, I want you to come forward and just just respond to the 844 00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:38,160 Lord. Amen. 845 00:48:38,720 --> 00:48:39,680 Let's give him a hand. Amen. 846 00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:42,720 God bless you. God is good. 847 00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,240 Hallelujah. Just grab one of these and 848 00:48:46,240 --> 00:48:47,320 they'll pray with you. John. 849 00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:49,200 Yeah. Hallelujah. 850 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:51,800 God is good. Father. 851 00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,680 Lord, we thank you for your goodness towards us. 852 00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:59,080 Now, Lord, I ask God that you'd continue to open the eyes of our 853 00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:02,280 understanding. Lord, help us to understand this 854 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:06,560 grand beautiful plan that you've enlisted us in. 855 00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:10,840 Lord, help us to find our place and live wholeheartedly in the 856 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,280 assignment you've given to us in Jesus name, Amen. 857 00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:17,720 Listen, if you need prayer this morning, we have a trained group 858 00:49:17,720 --> 00:49:20,520 of prayer warriors up here. You, you might be going through 859 00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:22,120 a hard time. You just need a word. 860 00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:23,720 Come on up, they're there for you. 861 00:49:23,720 --> 00:49:25,480 I love you, have a great week.