Why would God choose me?

Good morning, church. Today we're going to be reading

from Genesis 25, verses 19 through 28.

Genesis 25:19–28

And if you don't have a Bible, you can look under your seat.

It'll be on page 18, starting in verse 19.

These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son.

Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he

took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Pidan,

Aram the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.

And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was

barren. And the Lord granted his prayer,

and Rebecca his wife conceived. The children struggled together

within her. And she said, if it is thus, why

is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the

Lord, And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you shall be divided.

The one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall

serve the younger. When her days to give birth were

completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.

The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak.

So they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came out

with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called

Jacob. Isaac was six years old when she

bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was

a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet

man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate

of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.

This is the word of the Lord. Good morning, Port City family

and friends. How we doing?

My name is Tanner, one of the pastors here.

It's a blessing to be with you. I recently had a birthday.

I've been following Jesus for a little over 15 years.

I'm just feeling nostalgic. Yeah, I, I feel old.

OK, people, one of the things I wanted to share with y'all is

just the the story of how Port City started that some of you

may not know, is that this church is a little over 2 years

old now. And we just started in my house.

And when I was preaching, my kid was clinging to my leg.

And you know, just looking over the last two years, what's so

unique about a church plant in a younger church and newer church

is it just takes a lot of sacrifice.

There's just a lot of sacrifice in this room.

It takes a lot of people going first, you know, the first

person to be a college student when you could go to some church

where there's hundreds of college student or the first

minorities to buy into. Like I'm a primary.

I'm the primary teacher here and I'm white, OK.

And they're like, hey, I'm buying into the vision of being

a multi ethnic church and there's sacrifice.

There are the first couples that are north of 60 years old in the

midst of a bunch of 20s and 30s and 40 year olds.

And they're going first so that those next people is not first

for them. And there's lots of first.

There was the first Navy couples and the first people that didn't

live in Norfolk. But we have a Norfolk centered

vision and they're like, we buy into this, even though we don't

live in that neighborhood. Or maybe the first person from

your neighborhood that that came here.

And we're hoping to have neighborhoods all over the city

of Norfolk. And y'all, I just am feeling in

this season like maybe God's calling more of us to be first.

So somebody else could be second.

And maybe for some of you, it's just with Jesus, this can happen

for a lot of people. Maybe you grew up in a house

where Jesus was respected. Maybe it was tradition, maybe it

was some sort of religious sentiment.

But to actually love him? Base your life.

On him. Preach the gospel, you will get

pushback. From your own family many times,

maybe God's just calling you to go first to really like love

Jesus. Maybe he's calling you to go

first with the church. And we could just get so

comfortable with maybe how we saw, you know, our parents live

out their faith in our house or maybe a friend or we just don't

even know what this is. I've never seen it modeled.

And it just takes like going first.

We got people on our worship team who taught themselves that

instrument for the purpose of leading us in worship.

And so I just want to call you to, to maybe God is just calling

you to go first in some way, either with Jesus or his church

or his mission. But for anybody who's done that,

it's always worth it when you look back.

And, and if you need a story of going first and feeling silly as

you do it, I'm happy to share with you.

And there are a lot of people in this room who would do that too.

OK, And y'all, we all just figuring this out with Jesus.

We all know what we're doing. So it's just a blessing to be

with you. God is good.

Let's pray. And then we're going to dive

into the biggest full scoundrel in the book of Genesis, that is

Jacob. Even even from the womb, this

man was wildling. Let's, let's, let's pray and

then we'll, we'll dive in. Our Father, we love you.

Thank you so much for the gospel story of sacrifice.

How you, God, do for us what we can't do for ourselves.

A story of, of rescue, of redemption, of your heroic

effort to save us. God, this is all about you.

So today exalt your own name and by your spirit, make this word

fresh. Make it pop.

Lord, just squeeze out of us the tradition, the religion, the

superstition, the the self righteousness, the the making

excuses got just by your spirit Pierce your word says you Pierce

all the way to the division of the soul God and I pray you

would do that. So God, what we know not right

now, please teach us what we have not.

Please give us and who we are not.

Would you please make us let the words of my mouth and the

meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight and

everybody who agree with that said Amen.

We all I love movies and one of the things I love about movies

is in a lot of ways they're all kind of the same thing.

They're they're sprinkled different side characters

subplot, but at the end of the. Day, a lot of them are just

rescue stories. Somebody say rescue.

Whether we talking Shrek, Black Panther, Lion King, it don't

really matter. It's a rescue story.

You got a hero, you got a villain, you got victims, and

you got a need for somebody to go in there and do the thing to

make it right, Right. That's a rescue story.

It's the best kind of story. And I wonder.

Today, what kind of story you think the Bible is?

There's a technical answer to that, and then there's a really

simple answer to that. Here's the technical answer.

The Bible is. 66 books compiled into one book, all centering on

the person of Jesus who is the eternal Son of God, who was born

in the Roman Empire full of the Spirit.

To walk in reconciling relationship, to unite us back

to the Father and the purpose we are designed to have.

And one day He will make all things new.

Here's the really simple version of what I just said.

The Bible is a rescue story. That's what it is.

It's not about us. It's not our path to climb a

ladder. It is about the Son of God

coming down the ladder and living it out and gifting us His

victory. That's the Bible.

It's a rescue story. And so as we come back to the

Book of Genesis, this is season 3 of Saints and Scoundrels.

We started it a few years ago. With Abraham and then we went

Isaac and now we're in Jacob. Y'all, what I hope to show you

is we're going to answer this question of.

Why would God? Choose me.

Maybe that's a question you've had in your life before.

Here's a really simple answer. Because God is writing a rescue

story and you need rescue. That's why He would choose you.

And He would choose you and bring you in.

And here's a miraculous grace, y'all.

He then includes us in the ongoing rescue story.

We don't just receive it. We become a conduit of it when

we trust Him. So to get there, I want to show

us through the story of Jacob. We're going to.

Look at how God is authoring a rescue story.

We're going to look at how God is the hero of the story and how

we can play a part in His ongoing rescue story.

If you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.

All right, point #1 God is authoring a rescue story.

Let's look here in chapter 25 at verses 19 and 20.

These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son.

Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he

took. Rebecca, the daughter of Bethul,

the Aramaean of Paran. Aram the sister of Laban the

Aramaean to be his wife. Hey this phrase these are the

generations of it happens 10 times in the book of Genesis.

That's the structure of the book comes when that phrase is said

it's the the Bible writers way of saying something new is

happening. OK So what I want to do for just

a minute is catch you up on what Genesis is OK God creates all

things good full of potential Genesis 1 and 2 humanity is the

chief crown of creation. We.

Bear God's. Image as man and woman, we are

living in our purpose and jobs and marriage.

We're naked, we're unashamed no sin and then humanity falls into

sin and with the fall there's just a fracturing the curse of

sin enters and there's just total brokenness right away.

We are not right with ourselves. We're not right with the earth.

We're not right with one another or with God in the opening

chapters of Genesis thereafter just show chaos in many

different ways. And so we're left wondering

like, what's going to happen? And as humanity is being kicked

out of the garden because they fell into sin, God makes this

just tucked away promise that one day somebody would come born

of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, who was the

source of how we were deceived. OK, so the the readers of the

text are left looking for who is going to be the one to make it

all right? Who is going to crush the

serpent? Who is going to redeem the

curse? How is this going to be made

right? And with each character, you're

like, are you the one? And quickly, chapter after

chapter in Genesis, you're like, it ain't you, It ain't you, it

ain't you. Then we get to Genesis Chapter

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

11, which is a unique moment in Scripture where the Tower of

Babel occurs. This is kind of humanity

thinking it's at its best, but it's actually at its worst,

which is often goes together. Amen.

Somebody and they think they're like God, they're trying to make

themselves like God, and God laughs at it.

And his response to what happens in Genesis 11?

You're going to see the phrase, these are the generations of

right after the Tower of Babel, which means I'm doing something

about it. You see, when God wants to do

something for us, he calls a person.

So he calls Abraham to solve Adam's problem.

Y'all track it with that. The solution to Adam's curse is

to call Abraham. OK, And he calls Abraham, he

says from you all nations on earth will be blessed.

That's that's the plan a little bit.

OK, so here's the two ingredients.

I just want us to get in us as we get back into thinking about

Genesis and and this series Saints and scoundrels.

Here's the two ingredients. First, God is authoring a rescue

story. The story is a rescue story.

Somebody say rescue. It is clear as you read Genesis.

What we need is rescue. We need total like God choosing

Abraham, God calling Abraham. If he doesn't babbles, all we

get are you all with me? Like if God doesn't intervene,

no rescue. So you have to start with that

premise that intervention is required.

The default is total wreckage. Are you all with me?

So you have to read the story correctly, which is that God is

authoring intervention. And whatever you think about how

he's authoring that, you've got to think about what the

alternative would be, which is no intervention, just Babble.

OK, so God is authoring a rescue story.

Here's the second ingredient is that the plan is to get to the

many through the one. You'll see that the plan is 1 to

many. Goal is many, but I'm going to

get to the many through the one. He.

Called Abraham with all nations on earth in mind.

It's. So important in Genesis, 12/1

through three. You can go back and read that

promise. It's through the one to the

many. Now you might think, why didn't

God just start the story over once sin entered and rewrite it

where there's no sin? Well, if you were God, you might

have written it that way. OK, But again, a premise of

Genesis is we're not God. This is the story of.

God. He is the author and his plan is

to solve the problem from the inside God's.

Plan is to redeem and redeeming is beautiful because it uses

fallenness and in the midst of brokenness and ash creates

beauty. He's kind of God is the the the

person on your street that planted a a tree there a long

time ago and they tell you that story if I remember when there

was nothing there. And now look at that tree and

it's the biggest tree ever and you don't even notice the tree

and you kind of ain't even listen to that person, OK?

God is the person that just thinks like that.

He's playing the long game and. I get that that's hard.

And what about all those people that were dying or didn't know

Abraham? That's hard.

The plan is to the many through the one that's the plan.

So before we go on here today and get into some details with

Jacob, I just want you to process.

Do you see that the stories ingredients are a rescue story?

Do you see? That do you see that the the

the. Center of the universe is a

person. It's not an energy, it's not

karma. All the money you threw in your

secular jar this week where you hear the words universe, karma

or energy, you just throw a dollar in there and by the end

of a month of watching TV, you're going to have like $100.

OK? Our culture is telling us it's

just randomness, it's vibes, it's energy.

It's not true. Y'all The the the center of the

universe is a person reality itself.

Is a story OK, And it's the story of a God who is

intervening to rescue people. Y'all.

And it's not just like fairy tale type story, it's truth.

What I love to tell people is that Christianity is helpful.

No doubt. I get asked all the time, how do

you deal with X? How does your faith help you?

Whatever. And I always pause them and I

say, well, real quick, I think what I believe is true and I

have good historical grounds to stand on.

And because it's true, it's helpful.

But we do not believe this story because it's helpful.

We believe it because it's true and there's good historical

ground to stand on. All those dynamics play in.

But y'all, we have good reason to believe that the the

universe, you see what I just did?

I got tricked that the center of reality itself is God, and he is

writing a story, and that story is a rescue story.

So is it possible that you already know that here today,

even if you're not a believer, part of you knows that's true,

that reality has meaning and purpose and it feels like a

story because it is. And God is the author of the

story that you're in, and he is seeking to rescue.

People. From the one to the many, we

good so far. OK, point #2 God is the hero of

this rescue story. God is the hero.

Let's read the rest of our text starting in verse 21.

And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because.

She was barren and the Lord granted his prayer and Rebecca

his wife conceived. The children struggled together

within her. And she says is if it is thus,

why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the

Lord, and the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you. Shall be divided.

The one shall be stronger than the other.

The older shall serve the younger.

When her days to give birth were completed, behold there were

twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his

body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau.

Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's

heel, so his name was called Jacob.

Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them.

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the

field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents.

Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved

Jacob. Yeah, there are three

ingredients in what we just read, that God is the hero.

God is the hero, God is the hero ingredient #1 barrenness.

Barrenness. So the text said that Rebecca

was barren. And if you you know the story of

Genesis, the first person to experience barrenness was Sarah.

OK, so this reminds us of that, that when Abraham was called, he

was 75 years old. By the time that Sarah gave

birth to her son Isaac, he was 100 years old.

So there's 25 years. So God's plan is everything we

just talked about, He calls Abraham.

And then for 25 years, nothing happens.

OK, No child is born, no child of promise.

They tried to force it with some things and the question.

Just has to be raised because we see in our text that he was.

Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca.

And how old was he? Did you notice by the time the

twins were born, 60. So that's another 20 years of

barrenness. OK, why so much barrenness

y'all? The reason is it's

communicating. This is still me.

This is all God. God is doing this.

Baroness is the most helpless. Some of you all know this.

It is so painful. There's nothing you can do.

You feel just so. You just feel like.

What am I supposed to do? OK and God uses Baroness in his

story to send the message. Even though I chose you, this

is. Still me.

It's showing that humanity's strength will not be the source

of how this comes about. South Baroness is our first

ingredient, second backwardsness backwards.

In this and the text. Rebecca's pregnancy is so rough,

so brutal. She's like, I just want to die,

God. What is happening?

She inquires of the Lord, and he answers her.

Don't you love it when you pray and you get an answer and

sometimes you're like, OK, the funny.

Thing is, we think we'd be fine if we got our answer.

It's like that's what you think. So she gets her answer and the

answer is 2 nations are in your womb, 2 people.

And the phrase the older will serve the younger means that the

second child, not the first born will carry for the line the

promise, the lineage of Abraham. It's going to go Abraham, then

Isaac, then Jacob, not Esau. OK, this is backwards y'all.

It's upside down in our culture. We just don't get the power of

the first born. We don't get how assumed and

default that was that all of the privilege of the family went

into that first born. If ever you are first born in

here and you felt like that carried the most pressure for

you and you've got stories of trauma or whatever it is, or

maybe you're the kid that you you have no idea, OK.

Because back then, culturally, not only was whatever you think,

you feel a thing, which in our culture it ain't, it actually

was and it was on paper and it was written down.

And my first born will be this and that.

Particularly if you were a male. OK, all of the family rode on

the shoulders of that first born, and God says the older

will serve the younger. Well, Paul brings us up in

Romans 9. He makes it.

Clear, he says God didn't look ahead.

They hadn't done anything good or bad yet.

He didn't look into the future to see how they act.

And let me take. The younger because I like him

more. OK, The point here is just sheer

divine choice of God. He just chooses that the older

will serve the younger. And that's just backwards.

It's just not what we would do. It doesn't make sense to us.

We don't get it. And guess what, y'all?

That's sort of the point. It's unconventional because it's

not the convention, Amen. It's backwards.

It's upside down. So if you're reading Genesis as

you go, you're getting a picture of a God who knows exactly what

he's doing. But even when he tells you what

he's doing, you don't know how. He's going to do it.

It's not just what he's going to do.

How he's going to do it is upside down.

Right. So when you hear that God is

redeeming and rescuing all things, it makes sense that one

day the way God would go about that blows your mind, makes

sense. And yet so much of humanity for

thousands of years is going to ignore it.

That God himself would step onto a piece of wood naked on a hill

in Jerusalem under the Roman Empire and be killed.

That's our victory. That's your plan.

That's how we're saved. That's how it's going to go.

So in some ways, backwardness was baked into the very

beginning. Do you see that to the one

through the many? And then the one, the lineage

I'm going through, it ain't him. It's him.

And it's like, wow, it's backwards.

And the third thing we see in our text is brokenness,

brokenness, third ingredient that God is the hero.

We see kind of some brokenness of of Jacob already.

He comes out of the womb grasping.

His his brother's heel. Now, some of us already know the

story of Jacob. And what you can do that I want

to encourage you not to do is we can view the Jacob story through

a really clean conversionistic lens.

Meaning we know he gets rest, he wrestles with God at the end and

that's when he comes to Christ. And then he's a new Jacob.

And I would just encourage you try not to do that.

OK? The way Genesis thinks is a

little different. Like think about Abraham for

example, believes God chapter 12, believes God chapter 15.

Romans 4 says he believed God and it was credited to him as

righteousness, referring to the Genesis 15.

And then in Genesis 16 he sleeps with Hagar.

OK. So Genesis just doesn't think

conversion clean. It's more like through a like

you've got to view it through a a belief in formational kind of

lens. Does that make sense?

So Jacob is going to go from a false grasping clutching.

I'm going to take it to I've been.

Wrestled into I'll just receive it by the end of his life.

Does that make sense? But it's it's not the way we

tend to think of it. Of when was the, it's sort of

like when you watch the disciples, like when did they

get saved? It's just different, like it's a

different moment in history. And it's hard to 1:00 to 1:00

what our experience of salvation is.

Does that make sense? So I just want to encourage us

as we're watching the life of Jacob.

The point is God is using the brokenness.

The point is, is he purposefully chose.

Them in the midst of it. That's why we named this series

Saints and Scoundrels. It's not that you were a

scoundrel. Now you're a St. in function.

That's the way that it works in status.

When Christ saves you on this side of the cross in your

status, you will go from scoundrel to Saint.

Right now, if I die, God is going to treat me as a St.

Why? Not because of what I've done

and how saintly I've been, but because Christ made me a St.

But best believe there's still some scoundrel in this man.

OK, So what we're going to see is God continue to use the

brokenness of this family which is a dysfunctional family.

The text pointed out to us the parents preference for each kid.

You see that? Why did Isaac love Esau Moore?

Because of the food. Did anything else bad happen in

Genesis around food? People from somebody not leading

their life but listening to their wife when she gave him

some food and hello, this has happened before.

And then Rebecca loves loves Jacob because they just hang out

and chill in the tents. It's my baby.

OK, so we just see all kinds of all kinds of brokenness.

Why is God doing this? Why the barrenness?

Why the backwardsness? Why the brokenness?

Why his rescue story this way? So that it's clear there's one

Hero 1. He's going out of his way to

make sure nobody could say there's a hero other than him.

Here's the way First Corinthians put this First Corinthians one.

If you could turn there, get there.

If you can't, that's OK. If you get there, you got about

7 seconds. Tell me what page is on.

We're going to be in chapter 1, verses 26 to 31.

This is Paul. Talking about God's plan and the

way he did it and the gospel and Jesus died on the cross and

preaching and how he's not a good preacher.

It's not words of eloquence. He's just up there telling

people they killed Jesus and they're believing it.

And this is Paul describing the way God thinks, OK?

Here we go for consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth,

but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despise in the world, even

things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that

no human being might. Boast in the presence of God,

and because of him you're in Christ Jesus who became to us

wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and

redemption. So that as it is written, let

the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Y'all, the Bible is painting a picture of a rescue story with

one hero. One hero.

What leads us to point #3 we could play a part in God's

ongoing rescue story. Let the one who boasts boast in

the Lord. Ephesians 289 says, for by grace

you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a

result of work, so that no one may boast.

It's not a result of works. God has specifically designed

this that we get no credit, zero credit.

Like I want to be clear, somebody say 0YO no credit.

If it's a football field, Jesus don't run at 99 and you take it

1 yard that this is a zero to 100 situation.

OK, so I just want to be clear, there's one hero.

Ephesians 2 just said even the faith that we have is a gift.

Even the belief is a gift from beginning to end.

One hero that's that's specifically the design and for

some of you who have come to Christ.

That makes sense to you on this side of things, right?

Like I had this friend in college, he was like one of our

leaders. He's probably like 5-6 years

older than me. He had this habit of during

worship, he will come up behind you and put his hand on his

shoulder and he go. Can you believe you're here

right now? And he was dead serious.

And I used to think it was weird.

And I was like, just think about it some of y'all.

Just think about the life you used to live.

And now I remember walking into my first church service and I

saw somebody. Like this, I was like, they

crazy, crazy watch. Them and then years later, I'm

like, you look back and you're like, no, I can't.

Believe I'm here. I used to think I was the

coolest person in the world. I thought I was a good person.

I thought I was this, I thought I was that, Didn't care about

this, didn't care about that. And God just slowly what he did

in your life. It happens different ways for

different people, but you just start to think and you're like,

you know what? Maybe I am a Sinner.

Maybe sin is actually a thing, you know, Everybody knows

they're not perfect, but to actually believe?

That you are. Sinful.

So the Bible. Genesis view of sin isn't just

that we do it, it's that you. Are a Sinner.

You sin because you're a Sinner, like your nature has fallen, not

just your actions. So the idea is that you have to

come to a place where you agree that you actually can't help

but. Sin.

That's tough. As much as we New Year's

resolution, bad habits and all that stuff, you can't.

Bad habit, a broken heart you can't unhabit.

What's broken and cursed? Does that make sense?

And I did not agree with that and now I do God just slowly

just just brought me to a place where I saw oh like the cross is

not just God saying I love you. Now go your live your life and

try to be as good as you can. I came to a place where I saw

this is a rescue story. This is him doing for me what I

couldn't do for myself and for those of y'all who are in

Christ, like, yeah, now I'm there and I wasn't there for

some of you. You're in that process right

now. I don't know how God has started

to chase you, but He is. Sometimes it happens through

just a Christian getting in your life.

You're like, I thought they were weird and now I don't.

You see how that works now I respect them and like.

That God is pursuing you like He Maybe it's.

You, you just genuinely want to live a just and good life.

And you look around the world and you're like, this place is

busted. I would have thought by 2026

wars and all these things wouldn't be a thing.

And I'm just looking for the story that makes sense of why

things the way are the way they are.

And yeah, I don't think secularism or any other

philosophical thinking is doing it.

And I'm intrigued by Christianity.

Maybe you're reading the scriptures and coming under

conviction of sin, and you're agreeing with with God's

assessment of your need for him. God pursues people in all kinds

of different ways, but this is what it comes down to.

This is really the question, do you think you need rescue?

That's really what it comes down to.

You have to come to a place where you agree with God that

you need rescue. Don't matter the house you grew

up in, where your parents are or weren't or aren't, We really

don't need that much more knowledge.

It really comes down to do we agree with God that we need

rescue? And do we see the way the rescue

comes? Y'all, this is important.

Do you see the way the Bible story as we zoom out to the

person of Jesus? Do we see the way the rescue

comes? Because Jesus would be born of a

woman from the lineage of Abraham, from the lineage of

Isaac, from the lineage of Jacob.

He would come and be the one y'all who was all St. no

scoundrel. He would be the one who lived a

life of beauty and goodness and truth love.

Full of the Spirit, walking with the Father at all times.

No curse in him, no Babble in this man.

And at the end of his life, what he is doing is he is taking upon

himself on the cross as if he was scoundrel.

He's taking upon himself the life that all of us live, that

Jacob lives, because Jacob is us.

We are the ones. Who take what God wants to give.

We are the ones who over function.

We are the ones who live in anxiety instead of trust.

We are the ones y'all who can't help but sin and Jesus.

Died as if that was him, but the curse had no claim on him.

But he rightfully, willfully just gave over his life on

behalf of those who were helpless.

So the way the rescue comes is not through coaching you how to

be like. Jesus.

It's not through giving you God, God's road map, OK?

The way the rescue comes is through a hero dying for the

villain. You know when we.

Think about the ingredients of the stories we get told.

We tend to think of ourselves as the victim.

What's unique about the Bible story is that you are victim and

villain simultaneously. There is a sense of which we are

held captive by sin and Satan's schemes and death, but there's

another sense of which we are culpable villains of the very

process we found ourselves victims of.

Isn't that crazy? Like if you begin to lean into

you feeling like victim, keep. Reading the scriptures until you

see yourself as villain. And if you lean villain, the

victim paradigm is helpful because there is a hero who

wants to save you. It's just part of how he does

that is by helping you see you've been part of the problem.

Does that make sense? It's just coming to agree with

the assessment that the villain is alive and well in you as

well. So you are part victim, but you

are villain. That's the curse of sin.

And So what the hero did is he came to die for the villains.

He didn't come to die for people looking for him.

He came and gave his life away. To those who wanted nothing to

do with him, the way the one goes to the many isn't through

coaching them. It isn't through throwing some

bread crumbs now follow me. It's through laying his life

down for them. It's total.

Gift. Total, total, Total gift.

Yeah. For some of y'all, this is the

season of life where God is seeking you out.

He wants to rescue you. And the way he does that is you

just agree with him. I received that.

I agree that I need to rescue, and I agree.

You're total hero. I agree.

What if faith is more agreement than it is some weird concept?

Faith is trust. It's agreement.

It's living like it's true, living in alignment with things

as they're truly revealed. And that's the truth.

Here's the second way you can play a part in God's ongoing

story. The first way was you could be a

picture of his grace. That's what we just talked

about. You receive grace.

You're a picture of the hero down for the villain.

The second way is you be a part of the picture.

So the first. Way it's like you as a testimony

become like a trophy of God's grace.

But the second way that we become a part of God's ongoing

story is we become a part of the picture.

It's like every believer is a picture, and then you're

supposed to be a part of the picture that is the church.

Does that make sense? Like the way the Bible.

Thinks about it is imagine like a heavenly council where people

are like talking trash to God, OK and imagine some of God's

fans are around and everybody like imagine like a council of

people being like God. What are you most proud of?

And he's like, what is my gospel done?

What is Christ dying done? What is it accomplished?

It's the church, it's the union of Jew and Gentile, it's the

bringing together of diverse backgrounds and languages and

tribes and tongues from all nations from all times.

Then being united together is what makes me most proud.

Let me read that over you. That's not my idea.

This comes from Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, 7 through 12.

This is what Paul says of this gospel.

I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace,

which was given to me by the working of his power to me,

though I am the very least of all the Saints.

This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable

riches of Christ. Hey.

And to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the

mystery hidden for ages, and God, who created all things, so

that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now

be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly

places. This was according to the

eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our

Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence

through our faith. In him.

Y'all what he's saying is the plan hidden forever now revealed

in Christ is to unite all people around King Jesus in this thing

this people called the church. Y'all nothing makes God look as

good as when the only reason something's happening is because

Jesus. It makes God look so good when

an Arabic speaking background new believer is serving some

white woman helping them move houses.

Why? Because we both love.

Jesus, that does not happen any other way, and that stuff

happens. In the church all over the

world. And that's why we're committed

to being multiethnic and multigenerational, because we

want to be a picture of why are you all together?

Jesus? That's why.

And if Jesus wasn't alive, we wouldn't be together.

Does that make sense? We don't all like LeBron or

whatever it is. We love Jesus and he rescued all

of us. The church becomes the group of

rescued people who are committed to making their hero look good.

So for some of y'all, yeah, we're going to keep talking

about the church because the church isn't port City.

The brand. You know what I'm saying?

It's not the five O 1C3. It's the people in this room, so

you can become a. Picture and become part of the

picture and the third thing you can do is become a mouthpiece of

his grace just become a walking, breathing, living testimony.

A lot of y'all know so so the text we read today from Genesis

25 gets quoted in Romans 9 because y'all again God is

author and how it all works in the mind of God like Paul dips

his toes in that and Romans 910 and 11 of just the calculus of.

Who God chooses and why? Why Jacob Esau, it just the

calculus of it all can blow our minds.

Y'all there is great mystery because the reality is God.

Desires all to come to the knowledge of the truth and not

all will just facts. He has made access for all.

We are accountable. For what we choose to do and not

do. And it's clear that we are not

in a pool struggling and we're all looking for the Lord.

We dead at the bottom of the pool.

So if God doesn't intervene and hero us, rescue us, we won't get

out the pool. But then we're accountable for

if we get out the pool. And in some great mystery, Paul,

just going to say yeah, and just hold that mystery, OK?

Just hold it. All right?

Just hold the mystery that got it.

Got to do it or you won't do it. But you got to do it, OK?

You got to believe. You got to see Christ

accurately. The mysteries of Scripture stay

mysterious because he's God and we ain't.

That's hard, but in the middle of that argument is some of the

most important verses on sharing the gospel in all Scripture.

Romans 10 is in the middle of Romans 9 through 11 and that

gospel calculus argument. Here's what he says in Romans

10. Maybe I've heard this passage

before. If not, you've got to be

blessed. Romans 10.

I'm going to start in verse 9 and we'll go through verse 17.

Check this out. Because if you confess with your

mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God

raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart 1 believes and is justified, and with the

mouth 1 confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone

who believes in him will not be put to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

For the same Lord is the Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all

who call on him. For everyone who calls on the

name of the Lord will be saved. How then?

Will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never

heard? And how are they to hear without

someone preaching? And how are they to preach

unless they are sent as it is written?

How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

But they have not obeyed. All obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says Lord, who has believed what he has heard from

us, from us. So faith comes from hearing and

hearing through the word of Christ.

Y'all here's the way this works. We have no idea what God's going

to do on this side. We don't, we really don't know

how this is going to go. We know what God wants and we

know the means of how to get what he wants, which means we

share the gospel, we share Christ.

We share them in big ways and little ways.

We talk about them, we brag about them and it, it, it's

going to look super organic and friendship and long term.

And it needs to be zealous, just short, just quick.

I think if you've been walking with Jesus for a while, you're

going to go through phases of what you're sharing the gospel

looks like. And I think maturity is just

getting to where you just share the gospel a lot in a lot of

different ways. OK.

Sometimes what you could do is you can get in the mode of like

it means to share these 5 words in this succession with these

verses, with this diagram. In this way, it's handing out a

track. It's doing.

This. And then, as with many things,

you might think you've moved past that and think you're

beyond that. And be careful that don't you

don't become one who never shares the gospel.

OK so the idea is be friends of people love them in the long.

Term have them over for dinner, share good truth with them ask

them questions, get to know their story, share your

testimony and share the gospel right when you meet them like

the idea is do it all OK share the gospel through your favorite

movie. I love to talk to people about

Lord of the rings. I'm like, did you know that

Smeagol is what sin does to your heart?

People can be like, huh, Like if they have no backgrounding, but

like, what? It's like, yeah, man.

Smeagle loved the ring, but the ring owns Smeagle.

Smeagle was voluntarily A victim.

He's villain and victim. Perfect villain.

Victim is Smeagle. So if you're wondering how does

that work, there you go. OK, Just share the gospel

through the themes and the movies.

You see. Oh, this person sacrificed that

Batman. I don't care.

Share it and read the scriptures.

Ask people to read the Bible. Invite them here.

Pray for them, share your testimony, share Christ, because

God is rescuing people from every tribe in Tongue and

Nation, every neighborhood in Norfolk, all over the 757.

And the means by which he does that is through teaching, just

through sharing. If you don't know what else to

say, hey, if you ever read the Bible, Nope.

Do you know what it is? Nope.

Can I tell you what it is? Yep.

It's a rescue story. You need rescue and God wants to

rescue you. What if we complicate it, but

it's not that complicated. We read Jonah a couple weeks

ago. Jonah was the worst preacher

ever and he led like 240,000 people to Christ maybe I don't

know we don't you know again, how does all that work?

We don't know be all the point is is God is seeking to rescue

people. He is the hero.

He has done all the work. We're talking about a.

Victory that he gifts. It's just a gift.

We just got to, we just got to, we just got to ask.

People, if they want the gift and God is in the business of

he's slowly changing people's hearts and minds and

perspectives. He does it quickly.

He does it over the long run. He's playing the short game and

the long game and you get to play the role of just begging

God to opens people's talk to people about God and talk to God

about people. That's it.

That's living Micheline, and intentionally go on your prayer.

Closet and talk to God like if. He don't change, then they ain't

going to change. OK, because it's true.

God, get them off the bottom of that pool.

Resurrect them by the power that rose your son, please.

Then go plead with your friend. Like if you don't plead really

well, don't be lazy. Plead with them according to

their temperament, personality in the short game, in the long

game. Like if they don't listen to

you, it's on them because it is. And you're living with missional

intentionality and God is going to lead people to Christ, OK.

Why would God choose you so that you could be a picture of His

grace, so that you could be a part of the picture of His

grace, and so that you could be a.

Mouthpiece of His grace. And here's the funniest thing if

you ever thought you don't know what I did.

Do you hear how, in light of this story, whatever you think

is keeping you from being worthy is exactly why he would rescue

you? Does that make sense?

Like, we think I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough, I don't

know nothing. It's like if you listen to the

sermon, that actually makes you a better candidate, not a worse

one. Are you tracking?

Paul says. He says I'm the worst of sinners

at first Timothy 1. He says and God saved me so that

I would be an eternal demonstration of God's patience.

So some of y'all don't tell me what you did, just read the

story. You are a.

Perfect candidate for rescue. And then to go tell other people

that they need rescue. And when they look at you and

say, who are you to tell me you need rescue?

You're going to say I'm exactly the person I needed to tell you

that you need rescue. Do you see that?

Like we get it backwards. Because what that reveals is we

want to be the hero. We're afraid we won't be the

hero on the story, so we don't want to enlist.

Until we feel worthy to be recruited, you will never be a

recruit. You are not a potential hero.

You are a zero that God wants to gift victory and once you get

that you just so free man. Like you let go of all

pretension, all pretending and you just receive a gift and your

life changes. He's the hero.

We get the victory. Let's pray.

Our Father, we love you. Thank you so much for the

victory of Christ. God that you gift it to us.

Praise be to God the Father who gives.

Us the victory through Christ Jesus and God.

The next verse in First Corinthians said therefore.

Let us be abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in Him

our labor is not in vain. I pray for your church here

under the sound of my voice. I pray God that we would

understand what it means to be your church and that God, we

would be abounding in the work of the Lord.

We play the short game, the long game.

We'd work hard in our jobs. We'd love our neighborhoods.

We would give money. We would.

Just Lord, live with such intentionality and share Christ

with people and God, we get one shot at this to be a part of

your rescue story in this way. God, what an honor and a

privilege. God, would you awaken us to the

boldness and the access through your spirit that we have in

Jesus and got to pray for my friends who need rescue.

God, would they just see that you want to gift them rescue?

You want to gift them this through the death, burial,

resurrection of Jesus Christ. God that they are not the center

and that would be freeing to them.

They would be relieved of that burden.

They would just receive a gift. So Father, have your hand on

this time. We love you.

Pray in Christ's name, Amen.