1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,680 Our scripture today is Genesis chapter 25 verses 21 through 26. 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,120 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she 3 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:13,520 was childless. The Lord answered his prayer and 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:15,840 his wife Rebecca became pregnant. 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:20,920 The babies jostled each other within her and she said, why is 6 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,000 this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,680 Lord. The Lord said to her, two 8 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:30,720 nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will 9 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,680 be separated. One people will be stronger than 10 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:36,440 the other and the older will serve the younger. 11 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:41,400 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys 12 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,520 in her womb. The first to come out was red 13 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,360 and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they named him 14 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,400 Esau. After this his brother came out 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:56,080 and his with his hand grasping Esau's heel so he was named 16 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,640 Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when 17 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:03,320 Rebecca gave birth to them. May the Lord add his blessing to 18 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:05,680 the reading and hearing of his word. 19 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:10,480 We're talking about God's choice today and one of the clearest 20 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,880 examples of choosing things that that I can think of in my own 21 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:17,360 life experiences. Choosing teams. 22 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,680 You ever part of choosing teams, whether you know, we used to 23 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,400 play, whether it was baseball or football, we played straight 24 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,080 base when we didn't have enough people to have a full baseball 25 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:27,760 team. We play with just, you know, 26 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,080 home base and second base and run back and forth. 27 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:33,600 You can do that with four people or football volley, whatever. 28 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:36,120 We were playing kickball, we would choose teams. 29 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,680 I always wanted to be the one choosing the teams, right? 30 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,360 You want to be able to choose. When you get the choice to 31 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:46,040 choose teams, what are the two criteria that you use? 32 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:48,520 Best people. That's one. 33 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,080 You like to win, don't you? Absolutely. 34 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:53,800 You don't care who, whether your friend, they might be your best 35 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:56,880 friend, they might have donated you their kidney, but if they 36 00:01:56,880 --> 00:01:59,000 can't hit, they're going to get picked last. 37 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,880 So to to win, what's the other criteria? 38 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,840 If it's not picking the best people, picking your friends, 39 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,039 you don't care whether you win. You want to have a good time 40 00:02:09,039 --> 00:02:11,520 with your friends. So even if your friend can't hit 41 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,200 or catch, you're picking your best friend first. 42 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,680 That's what we do when we're choosing teams. 43 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,120 What happens when God is the one choosing the teams? 44 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,880 What does that look like? We're getting a picture of that 45 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:28,520 in the scripture that we read today. 46 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,160 One of the things that I'll back in, in Jacob and Esau's day, 47 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:36,720 Isaac and Rebecca's day, I don't know if they picked teams for 48 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,360 things or not, but they had to pick some things. 49 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:43,320 And one of the things they had to pick was when mom and dad 50 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,880 die, who gets the stuff? Who gets the land, who gets the 51 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,720 property? And, and you are wise enough to 52 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:55,320 know and experienced enough to know that not everyone's a nice 53 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,680 person. And sometimes when you have an 54 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,080 inheritance to pass on, siblings will fight over it. 55 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,600 And, and sometimes that fighting in our day and age can take 56 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:08,680 legal forms. And that day and age, it could 57 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:12,200 become very violent and very disruptive, particularly when 58 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,720 you had an estate as large as Abraham's was or as Isaac's was. 59 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:21,840 Massive amounts of wealth, no real property at that point, but 60 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,120 lots of wealth, lots of livestock, lots of animals. 61 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,080 And in in that time and that place and that culture, they had 62 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:34,720 developed a custom and tradition to help grease the wheels when 63 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,760 it came for time for inheritance is to be divided up. 64 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,160 And and it was what everybody understood. 65 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,840 It's what everybody accepted. It's what everybody around 66 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:47,200 agreed on. And under Hammurabi, it 67 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:49,920 eventually became law in Babylon. 68 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,320 And under Moses, it eventually became law for the children of 69 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,120 Israel. And that was the custom of 70 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,440 primogeniture. They didn't want people 71 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:01,040 fighting. They didn't want wealth being 72 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:05,240 wasted in family squabbles. They wanted a smooth system to 73 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,280 pass on wealth without creating social disruption. 74 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,480 And the custom which became the law of primogeniture was this. 75 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:17,720 The eldest son inherited it all, and then it was the eldest son's 76 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,800 responsibility to provide for other siblings. 77 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:25,880 It was a custom that eventually became a law, which God it 78 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:30,240 seems, well, it doesn't seem in fact ignored. 79 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:36,440 In this case, God ignored it. God picked Jacob. 80 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:40,920 Esau was the older. In the case of twins, just like 81 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:45,960 now, the first one out of the womb is the older and and and 82 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:48,880 Esau was the elder. Under the custom of 83 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:53,760 primogeniture, Esau would inherit Isaac's wealth and 84 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:57,240 Rebecca's wealth as well, including the blessing, 85 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,720 including that blessing that came to Abraham, that Abraham 86 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:03,960 passed on to Isaac. It didn't go to Ishmael. 87 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:05,880 It didn't go to Abraham's other kids. 88 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,400 It went to Isaac. And for as far as Isaac was 89 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,560 concerned, it was going to go on to Esau. 90 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:14,680 Esau was his oldest. He loved Esau. 91 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,120 Esau was a man's man. He loved the outdoors. 92 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:19,880 He loved hunting. He was hairy. 93 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:24,080 I have Italian ancestry. I thought my relatives were 94 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:26,840 hairy. I felt I'm hairy. 95 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:29,880 But when you hear he saw, he saw was not only born with a full 96 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:33,560 head of hair, he apparently had back and arm hair at birth as 97 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:35,160 well. That would freak me out a little 98 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:40,120 bit. Just going to say he was. 99 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:42,560 And he loved to hunt. He loved the outdoors. 100 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,440 He was a real man's man. And he was Isaac's favorite of 101 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:49,080 the two. Jacob was a real mama's boy, 102 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,040 very much so. He was favored by his mother. 103 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:53,800 He didn't like to go out in the fields. 104 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:55,600 He didn't want to go out and take care of livestock. 105 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:56,680 He didn't want to go out and hunt. 106 00:05:56,840 --> 00:06:00,520 He stayed among the tents. He learned to cook, and he was 107 00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:05,800 his mom's favorite. And God picked Jacob to inherit. 108 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:13,800 And for centuries, millennia now, people have argued and 109 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,640 debated and discussed, well, why did God pick Jacob? 110 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,760 God must have had a reason. One of the main reasons that I 111 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:22,920 was taught when I was growing up, kind of the thing that I 112 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,640 heard most often, it was that because Esau didn't value his 113 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:31,200 inheritance, his birthright, highly enough, he disdained it. 114 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,160 And God, no, he didn't do that till he was an adult. 115 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,240 But God being God, knew he was going to do that. 116 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:40,040 And so God had already decided to give it to Jacob because Esau 117 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:43,360 just didn't value it enough. And we see that when Esau comes 118 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:47,400 back from a hunting trip. Yeah, you would've thought that 119 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:49,480 he would have at least learned how to cook enough to, like, 120 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,160 kill a rabbit and cook it out in the field, but he came back 121 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:53,960 really hungry. I haven't had anything to eat 122 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:56,160 for days. I'm dying to starvation. 123 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,320 Jacob had just made a big pot of Stew. 124 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:00,160 Apparently, Jacob was a pretty good cookie. 125 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:03,640 So I'll give you some food, brother, if you give me your 126 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:05,240 birthright. And. 127 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:10,120 And Esau made the worst bargain in the history of the world, and 128 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:14,040 he sold his birthright for a bowl of Stew, and Jacob took it. 129 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:21,080 Jacob took it, and then later Jacob disguised himself as Esau 130 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:25,000 when Isaac was very old and he was blind and it was time to get 131 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,600 the father's blessing now, which was more than just words. 132 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,920 It carried weight, it carried significance, and it had 133 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,040 practical and real impact for the one who received the 134 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:39,560 blessing and and Jacob disguised himself as his brother Esau. 135 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:46,080 Here's how hairy Esau was. Jacob took goat skin, goat hide 136 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,880 and glued it on his hands. And his father felt the goat 137 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,760 furries like, oh, it's Esau that's a hairy dude. 138 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:56,720 I don't know why the Bible felt the need to tell us how hairy 139 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:58,280 Esau was, but he was a hairy dude. 140 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,320 But here's Jacob lying to his father. 141 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:09,000 He he swindled his brother once. Now he's outright stealing from 142 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:12,920 his brother and he gets it and he gets away with it. 143 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,040 He had to run for his life, but he got away with it. 144 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:20,240 He ran away with the birthright and the blessing. 145 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,600 Why did God choose Jacob? Some folks say Esau didn't value 146 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,280 his birthright. Esau's character was too low. 147 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:35,240 He was too focused on the material things of this world 148 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:37,080 and not on the things of the future. 149 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,080 Well, Jacob was pretty darn focused on the material things 150 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:43,960 of this world and demonstrated no high character whatsoever. 151 00:08:44,159 --> 00:08:47,080 Instead of just my goodness, give your brother a bowl of soup 152 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:49,880 already. Let him have some food. 153 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:53,680 I know you don't get along real well, you're not bosom buddies, 154 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:57,320 but let him have some food and don't steal their father's 155 00:08:57,320 --> 00:08:59,680 blessing from him. But that's what Jacob did. 156 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,960 Why then would God have chosen Jacob over Esau? 157 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:10,200 Paul tells us in Romans, but it's not the answer we really 158 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:12,320 want. Let's take a look at it in 159 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:16,720 Romans with Esau, and I'd say with Esau and Jacob, God 160 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:19,720 violated the cultural custom and tradition of prima generator. 161 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:24,160 God said that's y'all's custom, that's your tradition, that's 162 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:27,880 your law. I'm God, I'm not bound by your 163 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:29,800 laws. I'm not bound by your customs. 164 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:31,920 I'm not bound by your traditions. 165 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:34,640 Why though? Why did God choose Jacob? 166 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,840 Why? Let's hear what Paul says in 167 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,520 Romans. Yet before the twins were born, 168 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:44,320 or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose 169 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:49,320 and election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls she. 170 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:52,720 That is, Rebecca was told, the older will serve the younger, 171 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:57,320 just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but he saw I hated. 172 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:00,520 What then should we say, Is God unjust? 173 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:05,040 Not at all, For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom 174 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:08,480 I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have 175 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:11,760 compassion. It does not therefore depend on 176 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:16,360 human desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 177 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:23,320 Here's the reason we're giving. God says why did I choose Jacob? 178 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:30,160 Because Because I did. It's like when our kids, mom, 179 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:32,600 why can't I have it? Because I said so. 180 00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:36,480 Dad, why do I have to do this? Because I said so. 181 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,120 God, why did you choose Jacob? Because I did. 182 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:47,080 Because I'm God. God chose the younger to 183 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,520 demonstrate yet again. He'd done it before. 184 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:55,280 He accepted Abel's offering and rejected Keynes, and he would do 185 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,240 it again. He chose David, the youngest 186 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:04,000 son, to be king because he's God. 187 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:11,880 It's very, very important to God to remind us repeatedly that 188 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:15,960 He's God and is not bound by our customs, laws, and traditions, 189 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:22,360 even if our customs, laws, and traditions are based on the 190 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:26,560 Bible. By the time David was born, 191 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:31,840 Moses had written Deuteronomy. It was the law of the land, 192 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:35,840 God's given law of the land in Deuteronomy that the eldest 193 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:38,240 would inherit. But David, the youngest, was 194 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,960 chosen David the youngest, not the oldest. 195 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:46,520 Trying to explain or justify God's choice of Jacob really 196 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:48,880 misses the point. It's a waste of time. 197 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:53,280 And it misses the point because the point is, God chose Jacob to 198 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,800 demonstrate that God is God and we are not. 199 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:02,400 And God is not bound to do things the way we think he ought 200 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:05,640 to do them that we think the way we think they ought to be done. 201 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,840 God's choices supersede our choices, our customs, our 202 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:15,760 traditions, and our laws. Even when our laws are based on 203 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,160 things that God has said already and done already in the 204 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:20,880 Scripture, God is still not bound by them. 205 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,120 God gets to do what God wants to do. 206 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:30,200 This is an extraordinarily easy thing for us human beings to 207 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:33,640 forget, an extraordinarily important thing for us to 208 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:36,520 remember. And I'm going to explain why as 209 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,320 we take a look at what I I very poorly labeled practical 210 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,720 implications. This is we'll get to the 211 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:46,600 practical stuff in them, but my 4 bullet points here are more 212 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:50,440 more doctrine and theology than they are practical, but they 213 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:52,720 have the practical implications are in here. 214 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:57,040 We'll get to them. The Kingdom of God is not based 215 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:03,280 on what humans assign value to. There is a way of ordering 216 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:06,840 society and government called ascriptive society. 217 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:13,520 Ascriptive being what we ascribe value to, what we assign value 218 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:17,320 to. In Isaac and Rebecca's day, 219 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:22,400 people assigned greater value to sons, and particularly to the 220 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,800 eldest son. There's some cultures that way 221 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:32,080 today in certain parts of the world where girls just aren't as 222 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:37,440 valuable as boys. Men are just more valuable than 223 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:41,000 women. The Kingdom of God is not based 224 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,680 on that. The Kingdom of God is not based 225 00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:47,960 on who's older or who's younger. The Kingdom of God is not based 226 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:50,120 on skin color, the Kingdom of God. 227 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:52,320 And when I talk about the Kingdom of God, I mean entry 228 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,680 into the Kingdom of God and life within the Kingdom of God. 229 00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:01,320 It's not based on what human beings seem to, and a lot of 230 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:05,320 senses very arbitrarily assigned value to. 231 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:09,000 It strikes me as an extraordinarily arbitrary thing 232 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:13,040 to say that males are more valuable than females. 233 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:17,160 I got to tell you. Without the females, the males 234 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:19,920 aren't here. Without the males, the females 235 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:24,120 aren't here. Seems extraordinarily arbitrary 236 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:27,800 to say that white skinned people are more valuable than brown 237 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:30,680 skinned people. Extraordinarily arbitrary to say 238 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:32,920 brown skinned people are more valuable than white skinned 239 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,320 people. Extraordinarily arbitrary. 240 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,480 And, and even when those systems have been designed by human 241 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:46,320 societies to grease the wheel of social advancement and social 242 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:49,440 progress and the minds of the people who are in charge of 243 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:52,240 these things, God says I am not bound by that. 244 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,240 I'm just not even our moral and ethical systems. 245 00:14:56,240 --> 00:15:00,160 That's what Job was about. The moral and ethical system of 246 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:03,840 that ancient time was a system of reward and retribution. 247 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,800 You had wealthy people that became patrons of folks that had 248 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,880 less wealth and they needed, they needed the patronage, they 249 00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:12,200 needed the support of the wealthy powerful people. 250 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:14,840 And the wealthy, powerful people would give them housing, they 251 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:17,120 would give them land to work, they would give them shelter, 252 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:19,440 they would provide military protection for them. 253 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,280 And in return their their subjects would provide faithful, 254 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:26,920 loyal service. And if you were unfaithful or 255 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:29,520 disloyal, you would be there would you would receive 256 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:31,120 retribution, punishment for that. 257 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,360 If you were faithful and loyal, you would be rewarded for that 258 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:37,040 reward and retribution. It was an ethical system that 259 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,480 everyone understood and that most of the societies operated 260 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:42,120 on. And when people violated that, 261 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:46,560 the society at large would get together and punish them, except 262 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:52,280 Job, who was entirely faithful to God and instead got from God 263 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:55,840 what he and everyone else could only define as punishment. 264 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:02,080 And when Job said why God, God's ultimate answer was because I'm 265 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:07,040 God and I'm not bound by your systems of reward and 266 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,640 retribution. I will have mercy on whom I will 267 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,840 have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I 268 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:17,080 have compassion. I decide it's my choice. 269 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:22,160 God's Kingdom is not based on what humans assign value to. 270 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,920 There's another side of this coin, which is that God's 271 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:27,960 Kingdom is also not a meritocracy. 272 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:32,360 God's Kingdom is not based on what we can earn or achieve. 273 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:36,400 Theologically speaking, that's works righteousness. 274 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,400 I get into the Kingdom of God by being a really good person. 275 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:41,920 Therefore that's back to reward and retribution. 276 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,440 You know, I'll be really, really good then God is bound to reward 277 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:47,520 me for my goodness by including me in his Kingdom. 278 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:50,760 And if I'm a bad person, God is bound to punish me for my 279 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:53,320 vadnais and and exclude me from his Kingdom. 280 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:59,440 And God says, no, it was before Jacob where Esau were born, 281 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,080 before they had done anything good or bad, that God chose 282 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:08,079 Jacob, that God chose Jacob. God's Kingdom is not a it's not 283 00:17:08,079 --> 00:17:11,000 based on assigned value. It's also not a meritocracy. 284 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:15,000 It's not based on what we can do, what we can accomplish, or 285 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,720 what we can achieve. It's based on God's choice. 286 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,960 And not getting our preferences is often a sign of God's will 287 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:28,640 being done. I'm going to take these three in 288 00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:31,320 time together before we get the last one. 289 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,160 God's not based on God's will being done every week, right? 290 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,400 We pray every week. God, don't give me what I want. 291 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:39,280 You realize we pray that every week. 292 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:42,400 Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. 293 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,200 That's what we pray, God. We want to be done. 294 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,240 We're asking you to do what you want to do. 295 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,840 The implication of that? God, don't give us what we want. 296 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:57,520 Instead, give us what you want. One of those I, I, you know, one 297 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:00,040 of the times in my adult life when I was whining, I don't know 298 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,880 what I was whining about. And I was whining to a pastor 299 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:04,600 friend of mine. And he said, you know, Scott, 300 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,560 one of the clearest signs of God's will being done in your 301 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:09,800 life is when your will is not being done. 302 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:13,640 If your will is being done, there's a good chance that it's 303 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,560 you that's in charge. If, if, if things are happening 304 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,120 that you don't want to happen, that's a good sign that God is 305 00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:23,960 still in charge in your life. I hated that. 306 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:26,560 I hated hearing that. I hate the fact that I remember 307 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:29,520 that he said that I would much rather that God simply agree 308 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:36,360 with me that, that God would want for me what I want for me 309 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:39,560 and God would want for those I love, what God what I want for 310 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,720 those I love. But God is God. 311 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,200 And when we don't get what we want, that's a sign that God's 312 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:52,920 will is being done. And, and the further down the 313 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:59,600 road we go of being addicted to our assigned values or 314 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:04,680 meritocracy, the more likely the correction is to be something 315 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:09,840 that is very, very painful and very, very difficult when God's 316 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,560 will is ultimately done. Because God's will is always 317 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,800 ultimately done. And the further off track we've 318 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:18,880 got, the more painful the correction is. 319 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:23,480 This is what happened in Israel when twice in their history, 320 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,920 once by the Babylonian Empire and then another by the Roman 321 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:31,200 Empire, their entire country was wiped out, their capital city 322 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:34,680 sacked and destroyed, a large majority of their people 323 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,080 deported or killed. Why? 324 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:45,320 Because they made the mistake of believing that God lived by what 325 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:50,400 they assigned value to, or that they had earned God's favor by 326 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,160 merit. God chose Israel. 327 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,520 God chose Abraham. Why? 328 00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,320 Because Abraham was a better person than other people? 329 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,680 No, because God chose Abraham. God chose Isaac. 330 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:03,400 Why? Because Isaac was a better 331 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,720 person than Ishmael and his other siblings? 332 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,840 No, because God chose Isaac. God chose Jacob. 333 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:10,720 Why? Because Jacob was No. 334 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:15,320 Because God chose Jacob. But gods, they're descendants, 335 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,240 which became the nation of Israel, the Israelites, they 336 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:21,600 began that they knew they were God's chosen people. 337 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:24,360 They've been taught that from the time they were, you know, 338 00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:27,280 knee high to a grasshopper. They've been schooled in that we 339 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:31,040 are God's chosen people. And they began to believe that 340 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:34,480 God had chosen them because they were better than other people. 341 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:37,080 Why would we be God's chosen people? 342 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:39,120 Why would God choose us if we weren't better? 343 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:41,760 We're better than other. And if we're better than other 344 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,320 people, then what we want must be the best thing to happen. 345 00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:50,080 And they just started doing things their way, believing that 346 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:54,280 God would have to honor them and support them and defend them 347 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,000 because they were God's chosen people. 348 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:02,120 God could not allow harm to come to them because God had promised 349 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,160 them to be a great nation, and all nations on earth would be 350 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:10,280 blessed through them. And God twice allowed them to be 351 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:15,160 wiped out to remind them that they were God's people because 352 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:17,640 God chose them. Not because they were better 353 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:23,000 than everybody else, Not because somehow God their their, their 354 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:28,080 race, their nationality, their language group, their moral and 355 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:31,280 ethical system was more valuable than other people's. 356 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:35,400 God chose them because God chose them. 357 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:41,200 Not because they earned it, not because they were worth it, but 358 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:46,200 because God chose them. Reception and, and when they 359 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:50,880 got, their nation was overrun. When their nation was overrun, 360 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:55,320 they were forced to contend with the fact that God's will was 361 00:21:55,320 --> 00:22:00,200 being done when their nation was overrun because they had gotten 362 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:04,880 so far off track that God needed to correct them in very painful 363 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:08,400 ways. Reception into God's Kingdom is 364 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,880 a matter of God's choice, not our merit, not our assigned 365 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,160 value. And this is a very good thing. 366 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,000 If reception into God's Kingdom is based on our merit, then 367 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,760 we're all at risk because we are all going to fall short. 368 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:25,560 If reception into God's Kingdom is based on some sort of 369 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:30,440 assigned value, based on gender or skin color or, or, or age or, 370 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,560 or birth order, something like that, then most people will 371 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:36,520 always fall short. And those who don't fall short 372 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,960 will eventually be superseded by others. 373 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:43,200 But if reception into God's Kingdom and life in God's 374 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:48,000 Kingdom is based on God's choice and God's promises, then we 375 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:52,520 can't fall because God's promises never fail. 376 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,000 And God is always faithful. God is always faithful. 377 00:22:57,200 --> 00:22:59,920 So Jesus is doing the choosing of the teams. 378 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:02,120 Jesus is doing the choosing of the teams. 379 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:05,040 And you don't have to sit back and say, I hope I'm, am I good 380 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:06,560 enough? Am I good enough? 381 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:08,120 Well, Jesus choose me. Am I good enough? 382 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:10,520 Am I, am I pretty enough? Am I smart enough? 383 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,080 Do I look right? Do I dress right? 384 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:15,760 Do I have this? Is it all of these things to my 385 00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:17,120 right? Am I the right person? 386 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:19,720 Well, Jesus choose me. But Jesus, I choose you, and I 387 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,480 choose. You and you and you and you and 388 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,280 you and you and you and you and you and you and you. 389 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,200 I choose you and you and you and you and you. 390 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,920 And this knucklehead up here with the loud shirts on, I 391 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,680 choose him too. Because God chooses. 392 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,680 God chooses. And if it's God's choice, if 393 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,040 it's God's choice, then our place within God's Kingdom is 394 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:47,760 secure because God. God's promises can't fail. 395 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:53,520 God's promises can't fail. In Jesus name, Amen. 396 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:54,480 Amen.