Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of
Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.
I hope the following message challenges, encourages and
ultimately changes you thanks for joining us OK, let's get
into the word Romans Chapter 11, verse 28.
We have been we're looking at the whole subject of Israel.
What is Israel's role in God's present economy?
That's that's a mouthful. That's what we're looking at.
I was telling the first service, you know, there's there's
several things that Dr. Pastoral preaching.
There's, you know, there's, there's the just the basic you
got to lay foundations and, and teach people stuff they need to
know. And so over time you lay
foundations and there's those, what I would say is prophetic
preaching. There's times where the now of
God breaks in and and there's a word for the moment and God's,
God's scratching a present itch. OK.
And there's something God's wanting to say right in the
moment. Those are fun.
But then there's another thing that drives preaching and that
is when you got people asking you the same question a lot, you
think, you know what? I'm just going to talk about it
publicly. So we can, we don't have to have
52 phone calls or, you know, 52 emails.
Let's just teach on this. And this is this.
Be one of them. That's not good grammar, but
that's good teaching. This is one of those situations
where there's there's just been a lot of conversation around
Israel. Israel is always in the news.
It's always on the forefront of what's going on globally.
It just is, but it's especially been so as of late.
And so there are all kinds of swirling theologies and
ideologies and and then that results in people coming and
asking their pastor, pastor what, you know, all these
questions. So I just figured we're going to
talk about it. So that's what we're going to do
this morning. So we're going to look at Romans
Chapter 11 verse 28. Now before we do that, it's
interesting when you read the apostle Paul, I know I said this
a couple of weeks ago, but the apostle Paul is very complex in
his arguments. He really is.
He's he's dense, not as in as in dense being you're not very
smart, but dense in his arguments.
I mean, it's like you read Paul. It's like someone made grape
juice but forgot to add the water.
You know, it's like that constant.
You could use a spoon. I mean, that's Paul.
He's just thick what he's saying, he's complex and he can
be confusing. Even Peter said that in in one
of his epistles, he said Paul is somewhat hard to understand.
And I think, thank you, Jesus, I'm not the only one.
So there's all of that we're dealing with.
And and this passage really is one of those because this
passage is a controversial passage.
It's it's a watershed issue upon which whole theological streams
flow from which whole theological stream flow.
I'll explain that in a minute. OK, so there's that.
And then Paul tells us that this subject that we're dealing with,
that's, I mean, Paul in general is hard to understand.
And then you get to this and Paul says this is a mystery.
Paul's trying to unpack a mystery because he's been
talking about the gospel in all these chapters, chapters one
through 8, glorious book. You get to Chapter 9 and Paul
say what about Israel? Because it begs the question.
The apostle to the Gentiles who was willing to give his life for
the Gentiles says in Chapter 9, I have this continual grief.
Paul has this, this pain that he bear carries with them continue.
There's not a moment's relief from this ache in his heart
because he's looking at his own countrymen.
They were the avenue through which the gospel came, and they
by and large have rejected it. And Paul is now being sent to
the Gentiles, not to his own people, to carry the message.
So Paul says, I would be willing to give my life for the gospel.
And he almost did. Many times he was, he was stoned
and left for dead, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, all these
kind of things. You know, many scholars believe
that one of those times when Paul was left for dead is
probably when he had his angelic encounter, that he or not
angelic heavenly encounter that he talks about in Second
Corinthians chapter 12 where Paul says I knew this guy,
whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know.
But he went into heaven and he saw things he can't utter.
And this guy, whether in he says it twice, whether in the body or
out of the body, I don't know. And scholars across the board
agree. Paul is talking about himself.
And maybe he says, I don't. He didn't say it was him because
he didn't want the people in the room saying, hey, what did you
hear? You can tell me, can't you?
I don't know. But it was, it may have been one
of those times where he was left for dead and he literally went
to heaven. I mean, this is a man of wisdom
and revelation. And he was the one that carried
this mystery of Israel. And and that's no small thing.
We we can't afford to Passover these phrases in Scripture when
Paul says this is a mystery, that Paul was a man again and
again that talked about mysteries.
There's several different mysteries that Paul unpacked in
the book of Ephesians. Now we have another one in the
book of Romans. And the reason Paul had a grid
work for being a man that unpacks mysteries, saying that
we need, you know, we, we, he, he prayed for us in Ephesians
chapter one that God would give us a spirit of wisdom and
revelation. And the reason Paul had a grid
work for that is he was a man who functioned in that.
He was the one that God would unravel these mysteries to and
he would write them down for you and I.
And we've got to be careful because we can get just so used
to the word of God. We kind of brush over those
things. Oh, he's being poetic.
Oh, it's a mystery. And no, these are deep mysteries
of God. We've talked about this before.
The Greek word is mysterion, the root word of which is war room.
And the idea is that it's military strategy, it's hidden
strategy, it's secret strategy. They've gathered Intel, hammered
out a strategy, and that strategy itself that God is
operating by in the earth is a mystery.
It's the mysterion. It's war room strategy.
And God longs to bring us into that.
And that's what Paul is doing here.
He's leaving us the understanding of Israel.
And so this is no small thing. Paul has gotten to Chapter 9 and
now there's this burning question.
What about Israel? What is the deal?
The he's, he's already said through them came the promises.
Theirs was the Messiah, the patriarchs, the scriptures, the
holy scrolls, all, all these promises, they belong to the
Jews. They came through them to us.
We're partying down here in worship and they're left outside
because they've rejected the very thing that they delivered
to us. So what, what's to what's,
what's to give? So what do we do with these
Israelites? And so that's what Paul is going
to answer. And so the burning question is
if they're the chosen people of God, God, if they are the elect,
the chosen, then what gives? Because they're not walking with
God, by and large as a nation, they've rejected him.
That's not to say there there's no Christian Jewish people, Of
course there are. But by and large that the Jewish
nation that was God's chosen nation by has as a nation pretty
much rejected their Messiah. So what do we do with this?
And that's what Paul is going to unpack in chapters 9 through 11.
So a lot of this, some of the problem that Paul is doing
because there's 2 views on Israel, OK, there's and there,
there's a lot of tributaries out of it.
But there's two primary views. And I'm going to just talk in
overarching terms. This one is what's known as and
some of the adherents of this philosophy don't like this, this
terminology. They don't like to use this
title, I understand, but it's just a succinct way to say it.
And that is replacement theology.
And that what that means is that the church is now the Israel of
God. So therefore the conclusion they
come from that is that Israel is now irrelevant to God's plan.
Now here here's the thing. The Bible says that the church
is the Israel of God. There's reason to believe that
there's scripture to the problem is the second conclusion they
cut, they extrapolate out of that that therefore Israel is
irrelevant. OK, so that's one view.
There's a second view that God is dealing with Israel and
dealing with the church in two different ways that God is,
there's, there's actually some people who believe that God has
one covenant with Israel and another covenant with us and
they actually go to heaven by another covenant.
That is not true, but God is dealing with them.
So how do we, how do we sift through all this complexity?
And it is complex. Matter of fact, I, I venture
into this with fear and trembling this morning because I
can already look, I'm confusing some of you.
I have that gift, by the way, some people have a gift of
teaching. I have a gift of confusion, you
know, complexity. But so how do we sift through
all this? And a lot of this is caused by a
wrong definition, a wrong understanding of the idea of
election. OK, Romans 9 is infamous
throughout theological history for this idea of election.
What is meant by election? And so there's 2 views on that.
There's the right one and the wrong one.
I'm just kidding. That's what I believe, but I'll
try to hide my prejudice and bias or whatever.
OK, so there's the one view of election is that God has it.
It means that God and electing some has to reject others and
it's election for salvation. It's it's the basis of Calvinism
a whole a whole theological school of thought over against
Arminianism, which has a different definition of
Calvinism, which then Calvinism has a different action
definition of election. And I'll just put it out there
right now. I belong to this camp.
OK, that most of you know that Calvin himself just he said that
God for his good pleasure. He took that phrase out of
Ephesians for his good pleasure and for His glory, created some
for eternal damnation to vent his wrath to bring himself
glory, and others he created out of for his good pleasure.
It pleases him. The Greek word is udochia.
It means that he's intent on a process because it makes him
happy to do so, and therefore nobody's going to deter him from
the plan he's got. That's what it means.
In Ephesians chapter 1, Calvin said that what that means is
that God actually created some for the sole purpose that he
could exert his wrath on them. And that brings him pleasure
because it brings him glory. And there's others he created
for his to He could save them and they could be in heaven, and
that brings him pleasure and it brings him glory.
And that's election. So that definition of election
is if you elect some, you have to reject the rest.
That's the idea there. OK, I'm I'm painting with big
wide and Calvin did he actually stated that very phrase.
OK, I, I adjusted it a little bit, but I didn't adjust the
meaning. He he he really believed that
Charles Spurgeon. Many of you are familiar with
Charles Spurgeon. I love Charles Spurgeon.
He was a Calvinist. He was a reformed preacher and
Calvin, he, he said, and he was accurate.
He was correct in this. He said Calvin got his Calvinism
from Augustine or Augustine, however you want to say it.
People say it both ways, so you'll probably hear both this
morning. Augustine, Augustine, I'm
talking about the same guy because I don't know which way
to say it. Men smarter than me disagree.
So there's, so Augustine created this novel and I call it novel
idea and I believe it's errant definition of election.
The reason I say it's novel is there was absolutely no church
father prior to him that viewed this passage in Romans 9:00 and
11:00. And they didn't, they didn't
define election this way. They defined it the other way.
OK, But Augustine introduces he was, he was dealing with the
heresy. We don't, we don't have time to
get into that. We're getting into the weeds
already. I can see some of your kind of
falling over, eyes getting heavy.
He was dealing with the heresy and in trying to combat a
heresy, he overcorrected. And So what he did is he
redefined this. He was the first guy in the
first church father in history. He was the the Bishop of Hippo.
He was a church father and and around the three hundreds over
in Africa, very influential and really influenced Western
theology, not so much Eastern theology.
Western theology somewhat sided with Augusta.
But if you go back prior to him, nobody he he rejected the
consensus view of all the church fathers, even the ones that were
discipled by the apostles. He rejected their view and about
300 years into church history, essentially said, hey, I've got
I've got insight that no one's had up till now.
And this is what this means. And so he said what it means is
and he took a passage that was always viewed as attributed to
Israel being the chosen people of God and then applied it to
individual salvation as opposed to national usefulness.
So that's Calvinism and Calvinism, Calvinism is really
built on that definition of election.
So and we're going to deal with election here this morning.
We'll show you in the Scripture. OK, so that's that's a little
history lesson. That's one view.
That's Calvinistic view. The other view, which would be
normally called Arminianism or even traditionalism, that view
views election not as individual salvation, but as enlistment for
usefulness. And it doesn't assume that in
choosing the one I have to reject the others, that when I
elect some, I automatically reject others.
The idea goes in it and and when Paul deals with this, he's
dealing with Israel. And all of this idea goes way
back into the Old Testament, into Genesis chapter 12, where
God originally picked the 1st Israelite, so to speak, Abraham.
So the idea over here is that it's an enlistment or a call to
usefulness. And so this idea, rather than
being I elect 1 and reject the rest, it's I elect 1 and bless
them so that through them I can bless the rest.
I'm going to call one nation Israel to be my elect, my chosen
people. And through them I will bless
the nations of the earth, which is exactly what God said to
Abraham, Abram at the time in Genesis chapter 12.
And the whole background on this.
There's, there's, there's a whole lot of, we need about 8
hour class on this to unpack this.
But in Genesis Chapter 11 was the tower of Babel, the nations
of the earth. They built a tower.
It was a ziggurat. It was a occult tower.
And they, their idea was that we're going to reach into the
heavens because the mountains were where the heavens and the
earth met. And you, we're going to get
above the clouds by building a man made mountain.
And we're going to conjure these powers.
And it was an old cult attempt at power.
And God said enough, he came down confused the the languages
and they were, they were dispersed throughout the world
according to language. And this created these distinct
nations because people hung out with people that talk like them
and they intermarried and they, you know, the strong genes won
out and you have these distinct expressions.
OK. And so that was Chapter 11.
I'm going to confuse the nations.
In chapter 12, it said he we were introduced to this guy
Abram. And he says to him, you go to a
place you do not yet know. Leave your Pagan ideology and
ERB the Chaldeans and follow me and I will bless you and through
you I will bless all the nations of the earth.
And that is what election is. Election is a calling and
enlistment. It's it's God saying, I'm going
to set you aside and I'm going to use you and it's a sovereign
thing. They didn't sign up for it.
They didn't just like you. You know, if you, there's that
we, we talked today about a call to preach or a call to be a
pastor or call to be, you know, an evangelist or whatever, fill
in the blank. When you have a call on your
life, you don't sign up for that.
You don't say pick me, pick me. God sovereignly picks people and
he enlists them and you'll meet a lot of people that fight the
call. I wanted to do this, but God
made me do that. I don't understand that.
I'm like, when Jesus found me, I was a loser, homeless.
I'm like, Lord, if you could, if you'd do that.
I remember praying, it's a young convert.
I thought Lord, I was going to this little Bible school.
I thought, Lord, there was this closet.
I did some janitorial work and I thought I could fit a cot in
here if I move some of these mops around.
And I, I remember praying. I said, Lord, if you'd let me
live here, I'll serve you all the days of my life.
If you could use me in the House of the Lord and I'll just clean
your house and hang around the things of God.
And the the fact that he lets me do this is I'd mic drop, but I
have to take it off my ear to do it.
I mean, it just blows my mind. It's the call, it's the chosen,
it's the election. And there's a a certain sense in
which we're all elected to certain things and we fulfill
that call. And what God will do is he will
uniquely bless you in a given area and then through you his
intention is it doesn't stop there.
It's not that he's saying I have given you a gift of giving and a
gift of giving means you have to have a gift of making.
You can't give what you can't create.
So a gift of giving gives wealth, but you got to be able
to create wealth. And so people that have that,
they have the ability to make money.
And the danger is, is we think, oh, I'm uniquely blessed and God
must have rejected everyone else in the financial category and
I'm meant to be rich. And then just, you know, put it
on myself and let everybody squander in their poverty.
And you know, no, that's not it. It's we're blessed to be a
blessing. Whatever God has given you, it's
to come through you to bless rest.
It's not that he said, oh, I called you to teach and
everybody else gets to be dumb and I've rejected them.
No, I've called you to teach so that you can disseminate it to
others. The blessing on you comes
through you to others. That's the idea of election.
So Augustine or Augustine redefined that in the 3rd
century and that really took hold within Western theology and
especially Reformed theology. And I would propose to you one
and, and the reason this is relevant to Israel is because we
have to realize that Paul unpacks this mystery that God is
dealing on a couple of planes simultaneously.
And this little verse, these two verses, 28 and 29 begin to
unpack that. Man, I'm out of breath and we
haven't got to the text yet. All right, go to Romans 11/28.
Look at what it says. ESV.
As regards the gospel, they, this is talking of Israel, OK,
the context is clearly Israel. I don't have time to prove that
to you, just you can read it yourself.
As regards the gospel, they Israel are enemies for your
sake. But as regards election, they
are beloved for the sake of the forefathers.
So here's what Paul is doing. Again, Paul is a little complex.
You got to kind of slow down and unpack what Paul is saying.
And Paul is saying, listen, there's a mystery and the
burning mystery is this. If they are the chosen people of
God, how can they be outside of the messianic gift all that he
brought? How can they be on the outside
and unbelief if they're God's chosen?
How does that even work if that's what being chosen is, Who
wants to be chosen? You know, that's that's what
he's saying. And so he's going to help us
understand here. So what he does is he shows us
that God is dealing in two arenas simultaneously with one
group of people. And in each arena, they are
assigned a status, a way in which he interacts them within
that unique context or that arena.
And he does it for the benefit of two separate groups of people
simultaneously. And the danger is as we reduce
it to 1 and we've come to some wrong conclusions.
That's So what does he say? He said in regards to the
gospel, How does he deal with Israel in regards to the gospel
for So the first context to arena is the gospel.
And how is he dealing with Israel as a nation, as a
corporate people in regards to the gospel?
They're enemies because by and large they have rejected the
gospel, especially during Paul's day.
They're trying to chase them down and kill them the the
religious leaders and they're enemies of the gospel.
So God deals with them as enemies.
Now, lest you start thinking, whoa, that's pretty heavy.
The fact is we were all that that terminology is used by Paul
for everyone outside of Christ that we were born with.
The King James Version says this enmity.
Good. There's a word you don't use
often. Try to find a way to reuse that
word this week. Yeah, enmity.
We're at enmity with God. We were born contrary to the
gospel. We were born antagonistic
towards God, his laws. We we didn't have to be taught
that we were born that way and we needed to be reconciled to
God. So what he's saying is according
to the when it comes to the gospel, in regards to the
gospel, they're on the outside, They're opposed to the Kingdom
of God and God considers them enemies.
For whose sake? Yours and mine, we're the
recipients of that. It's like, what does that mean?
Well, Paul has unpacked in this passage.
He says that when they were cut off, they were the the olive
tree of, of Israel and God's covenant that they were cut off
as a, a native olive branch and we were grafted.
We were some wild tree out there and God cut us off and grafted
us in. And also we're producing olives,
man. We're producing fruit.
This is awesome. We're acting like we didn't used
to act. You know, it's the fruit of the
spirit. It's not the fruit of Dave
trying harder. It's a fruit of the spirit.
It's amazing, he said. But then the Israelites who have
rejected their own Messiah, they're like dead branches lying
in the around the olive tree, he said, But don't get arrogant and
look at them and like, well, look at us.
We believe and you don't. And Paul says, hey, listen, they
were cut off so that you can be grafted in and you too could be
cut off. Don't be arrogant.
They were cut off because of their own belief.
And you too can less unless you continue in the faith, unless if
you can persist in your own belief, you could be cut off.
And he said, and they can also be grafted back in.
But how? Through faith.
So what Paul is saying is he's well, so that this is for our
sake. So the first context is in
regards to the gospel, right? So in regards to the gospel,
God, the status, the way that God treats them as as enemies,
they need to be reconciled to him.
God doesn't. God says you have to surrender.
You know, we're at, we all were born at war with God.
Unless he wins, you lose. OK, that's what you've got to
lay down your arms and surrender.
God doesn't say, OK, you won, Dave, I surrender.
You know? No, that doesn't.
That doesn't happen. If I need, I need to lose so I
can win. OK, so the gospel enemies, it's
for our benefit. But in regards to election,
they're no longer enemies. They are.
What does it say? Beloved?
They're beloved. Why?
For the sake of the forefathers. So what is he talking about #1
One of our takeaways is we've got to understand, and this
undermines it, confronts the wrong definition that Augustine
introduced to the church and has taken root.
And it's confused things. The gospel and election are two
separate things. And even though they're enemies
when it comes to the gospel, they're still elect.
And see, if you have the wrong view of election, Oh, election
means you're set aside for salvation.
Then if you reject the gospel, that is evidence you're not
elect. And if you accept the gospel,
then that's the evidence you were the elect.
But in this case, they've rejected the gospel.
They're an enemy of the gospel, but they're still beloved as
elect. So do you see where I'm coming
from on that? I wish I could be clear.
I feel like I'm spitting mud out there and everybody's kind of
looking at me. You're you're what?
Windshield wipers are just moving the mud across the
windshield. You know, so understand there's
a difference between the gospel and election election and the
very next verse tells you backs this up.
OK, the the previous consensus theology of the early church
fathers is backed up by the very next verse.
What is it the the gifts and calling.
Thank you. The gifting and callings of God
are without repentance. They're irrevocable.
So what he's saying is, and they even though they rejected the
gospel, they're still the elect people of God.
God still says I'm going to use you.
I'm going to use your lives. Now you get the get to choose
what message is going to come through you.
If I were, God forbid, if I were to get up tomorrow morning and
said, you know what, I'm done with this Jesus thing.
I think I'm going to go back to the way I used to live 40 years
ago. I'm going to go back and start
living. I was a homeless alcoholic,
which would be a dumb decision, but you know what, God would
still use me. There is a call on my life.
He would use me, but the message would be different.
Now the message would be and it would be lived out before men
and the Lord would say, I didn't ask you if you want to be used.
I chose you and I will use you and I'm going to put my message
through you. You walk with me or you will be
a message of what it looks like. A man that walks with God and
others will be blessed by it. And if you reject me, you will
be a message to the world. And what happens when a man
turns his back on God and you will be a tragic story and God
enlists. The callings of God are
irrevocable. So the Israelites are still the
elect even though they have rejected the gospel.
So these are two separate categories.
Election doesn't equal salvation.
Election is election to a gift and a calling that is
irrevocable. And the context is the people of
Israel, not individual people. It's not these passages are not
about what theologians call soteriology, individual
salvation. And when we make them that we've
got a shoehorn and pretty soon what we do is we start number
one, we have to look if if election means either you're
appointed beforehand to damnation or salvation, then
that interpretation automatically says God's done
with Israel because they've the evidence is in their actions.
They have rejected God. So they're no longer the elect
and we are the now the elect. We're the Israel of God.
Now let me pause there. That is that we are the Israel
of God is true. The only way in is through the
Christ. He's the door.
No man comes to the Father, but by me.
You must be born again. The only way you can be born
again is through Jesus. He was the only one that paid
the price. No man comes to the Father but
through him, through the Jewish Messiah.
And the only way for you and I in is through Jesus.
And the only way for the Jewish people is 1 at a time through
Jesus. And so it coming into the faith,
we were grafted in and we are the Israel of God.
But that doesn't mean that God is done with Israel Because this
passage is telling us in regards to the gospel, they're enemies,
but in regards to election, they're beloved.
And then he says this who? Who is this for the sake of the
forefathers, those who have gone before?
Well, goes way back to Abraham. And God said, I'm going to bless
you and I'm going to make you into a great nation.
And the man became a family and the family became multiple
tribes, which became a nation through which all the nations of
the earth were to be and have been blessed.
The gospel, Paul said from them came the gospel, from them came
the Messiah. The gospel is gone around the
world and everywhere the gospel is gone, civilizations rise.
It's, it's an amazing study when you begin to look at when the
gospel comes to broken nations and all of a sudden they become
civilized. And I'm so tempted to tell some
stories, but we don't have time. It's it's an amazing thing.
All the nations of the world have been blessed.
You've got all these patriarchs, and not just the patriarchs.
You've got King David that God promised him his throne would be
established forever. You've got Moses who cried out
to God for the nation of Israel. All these people that were
crying out and God said for their sake they are elect and I
interact with them as beloved. I am pursuing them.
My affections are aroused for them for the sake of the
forefathers to whom I gave a promise.
Now I can't help but make another application here this
morning because yes, this is important.
What is our attitude to be towards Israel in this
tumultuous moment in human history where anti-Semitism is
on the rise? What is the believers
responsibility? We'll get to that, but there's
another application here because what it tells us, Paul says that
God is dealing with great love and affection towards a people
who have rejected him again and again and again for the sake of
some people way back in their history who didn't.
Last week I was over at Reveal Church preaching and I had fully
intended to preach on this one past Psalm 63 that I've been
beating on here. I thought that'll be an easy
one. I'm going to preach on that.
The past said, what are you going to preach?
I said Psalm 63, you want to get some things up on the screen.
I said, unless God changes my mind, I'm going to do that.
And I got there. I had it already, man.
I had notes and I just, man, I was bubbling up with Psalm 63
and someone prayed a prayer and it pulled me into Psalm 132.
And I preached on that. And I love this passage because
it says it starts out with a prayer.
Solomon Oh Lord, remember David, I'm going to paraphrase it.
Oh Lord, remember my dad and the suffering he endured.
He in the present. Solomon, it really correlates
with the dedication of the temple.
Psalm 132 and what is prayed at the temple are like templates
that lay over each other. So Solomon is saying, God,
Remember Me because of the promise you gave my dad, but he
takes it a step farther. He said, God remember my dad and
the price he paid for a move of God.
Lord, do you remember that? He said, I'll give my eyelids no
rest until there's a resting place for the Lord.
Lord, do you remember my dad? How he was?
He was after you. He was you yourself.
Call him in your written word a man after my heart.
Lord, remember him in all that he went through.
Now, Lord, in light of that, deal with me.
That's an amazing thing. Listen, the way you live your
life right now in this moment in human history, God will deal
with your children, your grandchildren, your great, great
grandchildren for generations. The the little things you do
carry weight with heaven and the way you operate in the time of
of crisis that you turn your heart towards him.
Lord, I don't understand why this is going on, but I'm taking
my stand in your goodness. I declare you're good, you're
faithful and I don't know why this isn't working, but Lord,
I'm going to worship you anyway. Those things are establishing
things in the moment that will have generational ramifications.
It's an amazing thing and God will deal with generations from
now on things. I was telling the first service
we had Bob Hazlett in one time and he was teaching on, on the
prophetic and, and so then he said, OK, he was teaching.
He said, now I want you to just, we're going to do an exercise
here. Everybody's going to pray.
We're going to ask the Lord, find someone in the congregation
and ask the Lord how he sees them.
And then later on, I want you to share that with them.
So we did that. To be honest, I don't remember
who I asked about. I'm selfish.
I remember who asked about me because my little bald headed
brother Christopher came and said, hey, you remember that
When Bob said that this was like 2 weeks later, I'm thinking it
took you long enough. He said, do you know when that
happened? I said yeah.
He said I asked the Lord about you.
You want to know what he said? I said yeah.
And what he shared with me broke me in half.
And what really broke me in half was that there were things I'd
never shared with anybody, just little things between me and
Jesus. And frankly, they weren't that
big a deal to me. I, I thought this, this, just
these, these little things that I, I do, but to the Lord, they
meant something. And it just moved me out That
Lord, you, you really care about that stuff, those little things
in those moments of crisis, when I say those things and do those
things, that moves your heart and man, it just listen.
We don't realize God's eye is on you and the little nuances of
your relationship. And just in hardship, you
turning your heart towards him means so much to him and you are
taking ground that has generational ramifications.
It's an amazing day. And so God says in Romans, he
said the Jewish people, even though they're enemies of the
gospel when it comes to election, I chose them.
And for the sake of their fathers, I'm going to deal with
them. I am still after them.
Now what that means is you and I need to get in on this because
that's God's heart. And if we're like him, we're
going to be caring about the things he cares about.
That should move us. I mean, Paul, the apostle to the
Gentiles was the one who said in Chapter 9, I'd go to hell for
them. I give my life for the Gentiles,
and he almost did numerous times.
But Israel, Lord, I would have my name blotted out if they
could come in. I am telling you that God will
not. He would never refuse that
prayer. When God finds someone who's so
wrapped around something like that that their life becomes an
expression of his heart for his people that they're willing to
exchange their very soul, God's going to answer that prayer.
Moses prayed the same prayer, the only two guys in all
Scripture. Moses said, God, blot me out.
If you're not going to go with us, Lord, if you, if you're
going to reject them, then reject me.
I can't. You called me to these people
and Lord, I know they're rebellious.
It's so funny you read Moses interaction with God and they're
going back and forth and God saying Moses, your people did
this and then Moses called God, your people did this and they're
talking about the same people. Both were like, I washed my
hands on them. The good thing was neither one
of them ever washed their hands at the same time. 1 was
interceding and dealing, you know, and God was you.
This relational thing was so beautiful.
Moses was saying God, Lord, you've got to you've got to
withhold your hand. God's going to wipe out the
whole nation. And God said, OK, I will save
the nation. Why?
Because his heart was so gripped.
My point is this that if Moses was able to get there, yielding
the heart of God, Paul was able to get there and God said, I'm
still I believe Moses was one that because it doesn't say
patriarchs, it says forefathers. God was looking at Moses's
prayer and saying, I'm still going to answer that.
I'm still going to answer that prayer.
I'm going to do that thing. And if that's God's heart, then
that needs to be our heart. There needs to be something in
our heart that says, God, I want you to have the rewards of your
suffering. Lord, I want you to have what
they what you promised these forefathers.
And and I'm telling I take great comfort in that, that as a dad,
I can pray for the future lineage that came from my loins
and my grandkids, great grandkids, great, great, great
grandbabies that if Jesus tarries, I won't meet them, but
they're going to be affected by this dude right here that I'm
going to live. I'm going to leverage my life
for the future And and literally that our kids can say Dad,
father, you remember my dad, remember my mom.
I interviewed this pastor this week.
We're going to have it on the video podcast we do Tony Meyer
from up at life point in Ames, the AG Church of I love those
guys, Tony and Drew and I interviewed Tony the other day
and I knew some of his story, but I never knew all of it.
You got to hear I'm not going to steal his Thunder.
You got to hear this, but it broke me in half.
This family went through such tragedy and Tony got bitter with
God and was just out running. He was he, he believed in God.
He just didn't want anything to do with them.
Screamed at God, I don't want anything to do with you.
And he was running hard into drugs, all this stuff, just
tormented, he said. But my dad, he said every
morning I'd walk down and my dad's on his face.
I knew every day he's crying out to God and you hear what this
family went through. His dad has become one of my
heroes. I've never met.
I told him I need to meet your dad and one day finally his dad
brings him some groceries and he's just angry seeing him walk.
I'm getting out of the car and his dad brings groceries in.
He's talking to him and he's sitting across the table for me,
said Tony. You need to give your life to
Jesus. And Tony said you're right.
His dad about fell off the chair because there had been years of
prayer and nothing. And he tells him you need to get
right with the Lord. And Tony got radically saved.
All three of this man's sons are now in full time ministry.
All three are pastoring. They're just and and it's, I'm
telling you, it's a story of God bringing such beauty out of
tragedy. But here's the thing.
So after I talked to him, I was just talking to the Lord, and I
saw this picture in my mind of their dad, of Tony, just in
darkness. I know what it's like to live
where Tony was at. I remember what it was like.
I knew the gospel, but I couldn't grasp it.
It's like my life was so twisted and so broken.
I was such a mess. And I would write notes to
myself and drunken stupors. You got to get help, man, You're
a mess. I'd wake up in some strange
place and pull a note out. What is this?
And I just, I couldn't, I couldn't take the step.
I was bound in my mind. And all of a sudden I remember I
came into a moment of clarity. I need to get saved.
I need Jesus. That was a gift from God.
The light, according to Second Corinthians rather chapter 4,
this is what it says. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus was shed abroad in
my heart. All of a sudden there was light
and I could see, Oh my goodness, I need help.
And I was able to grasp the rope of salvation that pulled me out.
It was a miracle. And I saw Tony in that same
state, just so dark and broken, but I saw a picture of his dad
laying over him just crying out to God.
And I saw like this oppression that that that blinds our minds.
I know what that's like that that oppression where you can't
think, you can't understand the gospel.
People say it to you and it's like dullness.
You, it's, you can't grasp it. It's like a mist you try to grab
and it's gone. And all of a sudden, when the
light comes in, I saw his dad, like, over him like an umbrella,
just weeping and crying. And it was like his dad was
taking the assault of the spiritual realm.
He's getting hit, and there's lightning and hitting himself.
And Tony's under there. And all of a sudden, it became a
place of clarity because the demonic assault was being
absorbed by his father's prayer. And all of a sudden, Tony said,
yeah, I need to get saved. And now to see what God's done
with these boys. It's just an amazing thing.
And listen, you and I, our prayers, the forefathers, God is
still going to work with Israel. Paul said Israel will be saved
and it's not the redefined Israel that we are the Israel of
God. We've been grafted in.
That's true. But God is not done with them.
They're the elect and he's going to graft them back in.
And if they're being cut off, cause blessing for us.
Paul said. How much more when they're
grafted back in? We're down here partying during
worship. That was amazing this morning
what Paul's telling us. You think that was good?
You wait till the Jewish people start coming in in mass.
That's when the real party begins.
This is God's heart. God wants to see Israel swept
into the Kingdom. Why is this important?
Because we have the rising anti-Semitism once again.
It's amazing. Racism is an evil ideology.
It's demonic. It's it's, it's an opportunity
to divide people by the color of their skin and their ethnicity.
It's evil. It's it's despicable, but what's
shocking is that those who are the loudest now and right,
they're crying out about racism, but some of them are the most
willing to endorse anti-Semitism.
And it's diabolical, it's demonic.
And you and I cannot afford to be on the wrong side of these
things. We're against racism and we're
against all racism and we're against anti-Semitism and we're
going to. That doesn't mean that we have
to endorse everything that the Jewish government does any more
than when they were the elect of God.
They did a lot of things and God spanked them.
And I've read about some heinous things that the Jewish
government has done. And you know what?
Often it's been in cahoots with us doing heinous things as
America, but that doesn't mean God washes his hands of us.
We pray, we repent, we we vicariously stand under that
crowd to God. But listen, God's heart is for
the Jewish people. And before this thing called
human history wraps up, there will be a sweeping revival among
the Jewish people, the ethnic Jews, the nation of Israel,
those peoples, and they'll be swept into the Kingdom.
So two things this morning. We need to pick up God's burden
for Israel, yes, And understand that your prayers, your
activities, your actions, that every little thing you do
matters to God and he, he, he puts weight on that.
And you need to realize that that you, how you live now is
going to mean something in the future.
Just like those patriarchs, God is going to answer those
prayers. They never hit the ground.
They're still coming before his throne.
Amen. Let's stand.
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you
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ministries of Heartland Church, you can do so at Heartland
Church online.com/give. It's him.
It's for his good pleasure. Hallelujah.
If you're here this morning and you're not right with the Lord
and you say, man, I want to get right with God.
Listen, this is the first step into starting the life God
created you for. You've got to surrender to
Jesus. There's only one way to have
relationship with God. There is no other way.
It's an offense to God when he took his only begotten Son and
he was willing to crucify him on a cross and suffer agony for our
sake that we say, you know what, I'd like to find another route,
another religion, another way in.
God provided the one way in at great expense to himself.
He's inviting you this morning. If you, if that's you this
morning, you're saying I need to get right with the Lord.
I want to, I want to surrender my life to Jesus.
I want you just to raise your hand right now so I can see it.
Amen. Anybody else saying I need to
get right with God, Raise your hand high.
You know that you need to surrender to him.
Some of you, it's something you've done before, but you, you
know, I need to re up. I need to fully give him my
life. I've been I've not been fully in
I've I've, you know, I said a prayer, but I'm not fully living
for him. If that's you, I want you to
raise your hand. We want to pray for you.
I don't want to rush this this morning.
Some of you, I can feel that the desire of heaven to pull you
into the purpose for which He created you.
Anybody else, just raise your hand high.
Keep it up until I acknowledge you.
Hallelujah. All right, those that raise your
hand, I want you to come forward and just just respond to the
Lord. Amen.
Let's give him a hand. Amen.
God bless you. God is good.
Hallelujah. Just grab one of these and
they'll pray with you. John.
Yeah. Hallelujah.
God is good. Father.
Lord, we thank you for your goodness towards us.
Now, Lord, I ask God that you'd continue to open the eyes of our
understanding. Lord, help us to understand this
grand beautiful plan that you've enlisted us in.
Lord, help us to find our place and live wholeheartedly in the
assignment you've given to us in Jesus name, Amen.
Listen, if you need prayer this morning, we have a trained group
of prayer warriors up here. You, you might be going through
a hard time. You just need a word.
Come on up, they're there for you.
I love you, have a great week.