Wait, What? (God Hated Esau?)

Last Sunday we started a new series called Wait What?

But you gotta say it like, wait what?

Yeah, there you go, you got it.

And and so here's what this is based on.

Um, some idiot decided to go through the book of Romans about a year ago.

That it is me.

And if you're not familiar with the book of Romans, it's a letter in the New Testament, and it is uh a very, very comprehensive, extremely complicated explanation of who Jesus is and what he's done for us and what it means to have him in our lives and to follow him and how do we live in light of that.

Romans is come it's complex.

And I was like, let's go through Romans, because you know what?

If if you know Romans as a Jesus follower, you really understand most of what it really means to follow Jesus.

It's very comprehensive, but I forgot about this one section, which is Romans chapters 9 through 11.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

So a few months ago we were in Romans chapter 8, and every single week was just like a woo fest.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Like everything I said, everyone was like, yeah, because we're reading stuff like Romans 8, chapter, uh verses 38 and 39, if you're not familiar, people get this like tattooed on their bodies, stuff like nothing can separate us from God's love, no height, no depth, nothing.

And everyone just goes, yeah, and it's awesome.

And then you turn the page to Romans 9 and you go, wait, what?

Because there's all these things in Romans 9, 10, and 11 that sort of like fry your brain a little bit.

They challenge your understanding of who God is and what he does.

But here's the commitment that we make as a church.

Like, we can't skip the tough stuff.

We're committed to your growth.

And we use a lot of tree language here at the church.

Trees are kind of our symbol.

We're a tree of life church.

If you're here for a while, you'll you'll hear about that, what that means.

But there's a lot of tree metaphors in the Bible as well, and so we talk about how we want to have deep roots in our faith, but then we want to grow up and mature.

And we want to be people who can reach out and spread out like the branches on a tree and impact the world around us, but we've got to grow up.

And you don't you don't grow up by skipping the tough stuff.

And so it'd be very easy as a church to just sort of dodge and weave and sidestep all the difficult ideas in scripture when we come across passages like what we're going through right now, it'd be great for me just to be like skipping it.

But that would just short circuit our growth.

And the truth is, even if you're brand new to the idea of Jesus, even if you haven't given your life to Jesus yet, I need you to understand that.

I say this a lot, roll your eyes if I say it too much, but I can't really see your eyes right now, so it's okay.

Um you have been created by God with the capacity to understand spiritual things.

You are God's creation.

He created you with the capacity to understand all of it.

As much as is humanly possible.

It doesn't mean there won't be mysteries, but to whatever degree we're able to comprehend him, whatever he's revealed to us in scripture, we can we can get it, at least get it in a workable way that helps us walk out our faith in every aspect of life.

And it's very important that we do this.

And so, for example, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 12 through 14, I think on these scriptures a lot.

Ephesians 4:12–14

It says, the responsibility of, and this is talking about church leadership, is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Years ago I read this and I got very convicted because the question entered my mind do I get people excited or equipped?

And it's it's right here.

We've got to be equipped.

And so are we gonna be a church that just gets people excited and we're good at excitement?

Excitement's fun.

Like I said last week, we have a lot of woo moments as a church, and woo is fun, but woo doesn't win the battles.

We need more than excitement.

We need to be equipped.

And so it says we've got to be equipped.

It says this will continue, this equipping, until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ, and then we will no longer be immature like children.

We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.

We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.

I love how God works.

I did not know what Leah was going to share this morning when she gave Lord's Supper, but what she shared, the scriptures that she shared, we're gonna cover.

And the idea that there's so many lies out there, I have watched so many Jesus followers over the years, people who are genuinely excited about God, and some idea, some teaching, some concept, they they hear about it.

It either comes from within uh Christianity, because there's a lot of different branches within that, and some of it gets pretty off track, or it might just be from the world at large, and they're lies, but they're clever lies.

Lies so clever they sound like the truth.

And if people don't have a mature, healthy understanding of their faith, if they haven't thought it through and worked it out, they're just more susceptible to being sidetracked by that kind of stuff.

That can't be.

God has plans for you.

God has a purpose for your life, He's got a mission for you, and He wants you to pursue it, and He doesn't want you to be sidetracked, distracted every time some idea comes out there that challenges your faith.

So these scriptures, these wait what moments, they they help us do just that.

And so is anybody, is anybody ready to just jump in to our wait what moment today?

Okay, good, good.

I'm gonna move on.

Here we go.

Romans chapter 9, verses 6 through 13.

Romans 9:6–13

Some of this we covered last week.

If you weren't here, you can listen to the to the podcast, uh, watch it online, but but we're gonna keep going.

Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel?

And I'll talk in a little bit about the context of this.

No.

For not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God's people.

Being descendants of Abraham doesn't make them truly Abraham's children.

For the scriptures say Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted, though Abraham had other children too.

That means that Abraham's physical descendants are not necessarily children of God.

Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham's children.

For God has promised, I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.

This son was our ancestor Isaac.

When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins, but before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God.

This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes.

He calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.

She was told, Your older son will serve your younger son.

In the words of the scriptures, and this comes from a prophet named Malachi, who is years after Jacob and Esau, the sons of Rebekah and Isaac, he says, In the words of the scriptures, I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.

And some translations use a stronger word, like the NIV says, just as it is written on this last verse, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

Now the appropriate response to this is right here.

Like, wait, what?

God hates babies?

That's not okay.

Right?

There's a really challenging idea here.

And the idea is actually summed up in a word that some of you have probably heard before.

Uh, many of you maybe not.

I'm not sure.

It was really hard, by the way.

It took me like 10 different sheets of paper to fit this on.

Because you know, like when you're writing on a card and you start with the bigger letter first, and by the end of it, you're like, I this was this was hard work for me.

Okay, I just want you to know this is an accomplishment.

I'm proud of this.

Um predestination.

Quick show of hands.

How many of you are familiar with this word?

You've heard it before, you're familiar with the term, okay?

Uh I can't have no idea what percentage that was.

I don't even know why I asked.

It seemed about half, okay?

Predestination.

Here's the basic idea of this.

This is a definition of predestination.

It says in Christian theology, and theology, think of the word theory, it's thoughts, it's ideas about God.

In Christian theology, predestination is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul.

And so, in other words, when people are talking about predestination, and it's a word that we find in Scripture, we find many different passages that talk about it.

Romans chapter 9, this whole loved Jacob, hated Esau before they were born kind of thing, gets referenced a lot.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

It's a go-to scripture for that.

This is referencing an idea that's developed over the centuries that we've been following Jesus, that before anything happens, before any moment of your life is lived out, it's all predestined, predetermined.

And maybe your even ability to know Jesus, put your faith in him, which is something that we in our faith call getting saved, right?

Being saved from the consequences of my sin by what Jesus did on the cross, maybe even that ability to be saved has been predetermined, predestined.

Alright, that's that's an idea.

Like, who gets excited about that idea?

No hands.

No one.

Who's a little uncomfortable with that idea?

Anybody want to like own that?

Be like, I don't really like that very much.

This is a really important concept for us to wrap our heads around, and we're going through it because Romans chapter 9, that's where we're at.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Okay?

So it begs a question.

A really important question that we're gonna try to answer today.

Who chooses who?

You know, when it comes to us having a relationship with God, who's the one who does the choosing?

Does God choose us?

Leah during Lord's Supper quoted Jesus talking to his disciples, and Jesus said, Hey, remember, you didn't choose me, I chose you.

Is that how it is in all circumstances, in all situations?

Who chooses who?

Does does God choose us or do we choose him?

And the implications of this are important.

Let me give you an understanding, an idea.

I'm gonna use a lot of analogies today.

If you're a note taker, by the way, today's a good day to take notes.

If you have the mobile app, all this stuff's gonna be in the mobile app, it's all attached to the message, all the scriptures, all the points, and so that'll help you because this is important stuff.

This is vital.

We've got to be equipped, we've got to be mature.

So I've got a I've got four children.

And if you go here for long, they give me lots of stories.

And I just I'm grateful for my kids.

They give me material.

I need material, and they give me plenty.

Eli is my youngest.

I've actually gotten to spend a lot of time with him in the last two or three weeks, a lot of one-on-one time with him, which has been really cool.

And uh, and Eli, about a year ago, he was first starting to, you know, he's three now, so two, two and a half, he started to do things that made him feel big.

And he was so proud of it.

If you ever see like little children do something pretty basic, but in their mind, that's like, I just did that.

I'll never forget this.

One day he he comes into my room and he's holding a tube of yogurt.

But you would think, yeah, wow, indeed.

Uh, in his mind, his eyes, he was like, Dad, look what I got.

And I was like, Whoa, did you go to the refrigerator and open it and get your own your own tube of yogurt?

And he said, Yep.

And then he held it up, he said, I chose this.

I picked it.

And he was so excited.

And then he walked out and made a huge mess.

Um, because it's yogurt in a tube with a three-year-old, right?

But whatever.

But you know, I had this thought.

I didn't say this to him, but I could have.

Like I could have really burst his bubble and just like bent down, gotten his face, and been like, You didn't choose anything.

Because I chose that yogurt, I put it in the fridge.

It's a false choice.

You know, I could have done that, and I actually wouldn't have been true because um I I I Megan is the one who stocked the fridge.

But when you're married, you get to take credit for stuff you didn't do.

That's how marriage works.

And so I get to say things like, we stock the fridge, even though I am not involved in that we at all.

But like, honestly, think about it.

You know, he goes and he opens it up, and in his mind, I made this decision.

But did he really?

Because, like, we chose, meaning Megan, what was in the fridge in the first place.

Now, see, some people take this idea and they follow it down this very logical conclusion, be like, well, that must be how it is with God.

Maybe there's times that we think we choose God, but really it's a false choice because he actually chose us ahead of time, and so maybe we don't really have a choice at all, and people can find all types of scriptures to make that argument.

I'll let you know on the front end that where I stand on this idea, and I think it's important for us to wrestle with this and understand it because it helps us be informed about who God is.

Um, and this is gonna sound like a cop-out, it's not.

I believe that God chooses us, and I believe that we choose God.

I don't believe they're mutually exclusive.

And it's important that we understand how that works, at least to the best that we can, because again, this is like, what is God like?

Who is he like?

Like, who here remembers middle school?

Some of you are young enough that it's very recent.

I mean, but who here remembers middle school?

Who had a good time in middle school?

Like glory days, middle school was the best.

All right.

I moved a lot in middle school.

A ton.

I went to uh geez, I went to two schools in seventh grade, three schools in eighth grade.

And so I'm the new kid a lot.

Middle school's not a good time to be the new kid, you know?

And and it's a weird time in life because some boys hit puberty way earlier, and so they're like eighth graders with facial hair, and they're like six feet tall, and then most boys though look like they did when they were in third grade and they're just trying to like talk deep on purpose, like, hey guys, like it's just all that was me.

I was that kid.

So I was the new kid, and you know, if you're in middle school, and and I don't know how middle school is these days, but when I was a kid, there was always like a table at lunch.

And that table, that was like the cool table, and they were an exclusive group.

And you couldn't just go sit there, you can just be like, hey guys, what's up?

They'd be like, Why are you here?

This was like the basis of almost every teenage movie from 1980 till 1995.

Like, I haven't seen them since then because I'm not teenagers, but like it's like the idea of cracking the cool table, you know?

But it's this idea of like an exclusive group, and they don't just let anybody come in.

Is that how God is?

Is God a middle school girl?

Right?

And he's like, I'm sorry, I didn't I didn't ask you to the table, I didn't invite you to the table.

I'll I'll choose you when I want to.

Is that is that how it works?

Who chooses who?

This is an important question because it does inform us a little bit about the nature of God.

It's important that we know the nature of the God that we follow.

So so here's how I want us to go about this.

I want to back up a little bit.

Because I think there's a way for us to engage this question that actually prepares us to engage lots of difficult questions.

If we read scripture, we're gonna we're gonna encounter very difficult ideas from time to time.

Now, our faith is a simple faith.

Our faith is so simple because God, He's He's come for us, He loves us, He died for us, we put our faith in Him, we're saved.

That's simple.

But God is complex and there are difficult ideas.

So, how do we engage difficult scriptures or even difficult ideas in our culture that maybe challenge and rub against some of the core concepts of our faith?

How do we engage those in a responsible way?

Because I want all of us to be people who can open up our Bibles and read something and be like, ooh, that's tough.

But you have a framework for how to work it out.

Okay, so so here's what we're gonna we're gonna look at.

I'm gonna give you one warning and three filters.

One warning, three filters that will help you engage this concept, any concept you come across, we're gonna kind of work through this to help us understand this whole who chooses who idea.

And this has been super helpful for me for years as a person who has to teach on a regular basis.

I'm still learning, by the way.

I'm teaching, I'm learning at the same time.

It's fun, it's also tough, but these filters have helped me a lot as well as this warning.

So let's start with a warning, this will be really fast.

I want to make sure that you understand me what I'm saying.

Don't rely completely on human logic.

Logic is really important.

It's vital.

It's important that we think things through, that we work things out.

It's good that things make sense, but the reality is, scripture is really clear that God is God and we're not.

And that's why we have scriptures that say things like, Who can understand God?

Like, honestly, who can understand God?

This is gonna be heady for a second, but think about it this way.

If you, as a human being with limited experience and limited knowledge, could fully understand God, that would actually disprove the concept of God.

Because there's no way that a human being with limited experience and knowledge could fully understand an infinite God.

Does that make sense?

Kinda?

It's okay for things to kind of make sense.

That's like marriage for me.

It kind of makes sense.

I kind of understand my wife.

Also, I'm clueless.

Please help me.

That's how it goes.

Okay?

It can be like that with our faith.

Logic is really important.

But we can't rely completely on logic because sometimes God is a bit of a paradox.

Great example.

Jesus, we are taught in Scripture, is 100% God, but 100% human.

That's a paradox.

And if you study the history of our faith, the very first heresies, meaning teachings that go against what Scripture teaches us and reveals, the very first heresies in our faith, thousands of years ago, all had to do with trying to solve that paradox and landing on the wrong side of it.

So some would say, oh, well, Jesus was 100% God, but he wasn't really a man.

He just sort of pretended to be a man.

He appeared to be a man.

But he was really God appearing as a man.

And that's not true.

Jesus is a human being, he became a human being.

The sun became flesh.

But then others would say, oh, oh, well, well, you know, he was definitely a human being, but he wasn't really God.

He he was, you know, he was a prophet, you know, he revealed things about God.

And so both of those are heresies of just landing on the wrong side of a paradox.

Trying to rely too much on human logic and work it all out.

And I'll say this as a warning: if anyone ever gives you a theology, a way to understand God, that is incredibly neat and tidy, and it all makes total sense, and if you buy into it completely, you feel like you're always right and you always have an answer, that that's probably too much of this and way too little of the Holy Spirit.

Because God is mysterious, and human logic will only get you so far.

That doesn't mean we don't use any of it, but they're just we have to understand that if you say, Well, I will only believe this when it makes sense, you're gonna have to wait a long time.

Okay?

The Holy Spirit, there's a mystery there, which is why, even as someone who's followed Jesus for 25 years, constantly when I when I read Jesus, he says something that just shatters some type of idea that I had, like, oh man, I thought I had them all figured out.

And then that happened.

Okay, so don't rely too much on human logic.

But here are the three filters, and this is really gonna help us out, and we're gonna use this to sort of look at this idea of who chooses who, predestination.

Do we really have a choice or is it all just false?

Okay, everybody's still with me, by the way?

You good?

Okay, good.

I just want to make sure, because this is kind of like this is not a normal typical message as far as how we would approach it.

This is kind of like highly conceptual, but let's have fun with this.

Filters.

Context, breadth, Jesus.

If you want to fully understand something as best as you can as it relates to your faith, whether this is something you read in the Bible that makes you go, wait, what?

Or it's some idea that you hear in the world, some idea that our culture is pushing on us hard, trying really hard to get us to adopt, to get us to bend to, because that's the just the cultural idea of the day.

How do we how do we process this with scripture and work it out?

And the idea of this is really simple.

You have to look at the context of the scripture.

Who is it being spoken to?

What was the purpose of what was being said?

What's going on?

Who's talking?

Who's being talked to?

Context matters.

It matters a lot, which is why, by the way, uh, one time, I won't go into the details of this, but my mom called me once from my little brother's phone.

And I answered it in a way that was very disrespectful to my mother because I didn't know it was my mom, thought it was my little brother.

And my little brother and I, we go way back and we just talk to each other in different ways that I would never speak to my mom like.

I'm not saying it was like filthy, I'm just saying it wasn't super wholesome either.

And my mom was like, Justin, and I was like, Mom, this by the way, 10 years ago, before I was a Christian, a pastor, all those things, I'm just joking.

Um, wasn't that long ago?

But I was like, mom, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

She's like, is this how you and Aaron talk to each other?

I was like, yeah.

It's a joke.

We just we we goof off with each other, and it's brothers speak.

And I would never I'm sorry, mom, don't call me from why did you do that?

That was my please don't do that again, right?

Because context matters, who you're talking to, who's being talked to, it matters.

Okay?

And then you have to look at the breadth of scripture.

Because anybody can pull out a verse here and a verse there and twist it and pick and choose and create some theology that has a lot of scripture that supports it, but is totally off.

That's how cults get started.

There's lots of those.

And that's why we live in a world today where there's like pastors who will use scripture to justify like spending lavish amounts of money on things that clearly like Jesus would be like, What?

Stop that.

No, like it's just it's they're pulling verses here and verses there and using it to build something that's wrong.

You have to look at the breadth of scripture.

What does the whole of scripture say?

Not just one little thing here or there.

And then finally, and probably most importantly, the person of Jesus.

Jesus, he's like he's like a set of glasses.

When you put them on, everything gets more clear.

In fact, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says that the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

Hebrews 1:3

In other words, Jesus is the clearest picture of God that we have.

And so if I Encounter some idea in the world or some idea in Scripture, and I'm going, wait, what?

I don't know how to make sense of this.

I'm going to look at the context of Scripture, if I'm reading Scripture, and that's where it came from, like predestination.

I'm going to look at the breadth of Scripture, and I'm going to look at the person of Jesus.

And that, those three things combined are going to give me the best chance I have of being right.

Let me give you an example that's kind of controversial.

1 Timothy 2.12.

Paul, who wrote Romans, is writing to Timothy, his protege, who's a pastor in Ephesus, which is a city that Paul started a church in.

And here's what he here's some advice he gives to Timothy.

By the way, men, if this is any of your favorite verse, do not woo right now, unless you are a fool.

Paul said, I do not let women teach men or have authority over them, let them listen quietly.

Don't do it.

The one guy wants to raise his hand, don't do it.

Now, if you've been a part of his hands for long, you would know that we've had many women in leadership roles here.

We've had many women teach from the stage.

In fact, we had a 16-year-old girl teaching us just a few minutes ago.

Did anybody learn something?

Was anyone blessed by that, right?

Yeah, right?

That's awesome.

Um but but listen, it's very important that we don't look at scripture through the lens of our culture and just discount scripture because, oh, that doesn't mesh with modern American culture and I don't want to be like an outsider.

I don't want to feel like I don't belong.

No, no, we we look at our culture through the lens of scripture.

And so I've had people when we've had times in the past where Megan or another woman has given the message, I've gotten emails with this this verse in it, with people saying, hey, your your church is not right, because clearly this says, don't let women teach men.

Well, a few things.

Let's look at it through these filters.

Because I don't want to just be like, oh, well, we're like, we're just super progressive and get with get with the times.

That's not that's not a good answer.

Get with the times.

Like, terrible things happen in every era of human history, and those people are just getting with the times, and it was bad.

All right?

Let's look at context.

First of all, notice that Paul says, I.

He tells Timothy, hey, I do not allow this to happen.

This isn't the way that I organize the churches that I lead.

He doesn't say God says not to do this.

He's he's giving his personal opinion.

We actually see this in many of Paul's letters.

The context of the culture, by the way, very interesting in the first century, and it's sad and it's tragic, and it's great that it's changed, but it was the truth of their time.

Women were not educated.

Women were almost always illiterate because they weren't educated.

And Paul's saying, look, it's it's not a good idea to put that person in charge of everything and be the teacher over everyone when they haven't been given the ability to be trained up.

It just it in Paul's mind that wasn't the right way to go about it.

Okay, that's that's some context.

Now, ladies, if you still don't like Paul after reading that, that's okay.

Paul's dead.

And uh you're funny, nothing that you're gonna say is gonna bother him at all.

Okay?

So, he's been dead a long time.

That's the context, right?

It's it's a guy, and he's giving his opinion, and it's an opinion that's greatly informed by the time that he's living in and the way that the culture is, and he's like, I don't think that's a good idea.

Okay, it's like it's like in our world, you know how sometimes we have that idea of like let the children teach us?

No.

Children don't know stuff.

Like, my children have very little to offer me.

I mean, I they they teach me things like I learn how how like messed up I am and how much I have to learn and grow as a person because I mess up a lot, but I don't ever go to my seven-year-old and be like, teach me.

You know?

And she didn't know very much.

Now, the math she's doing, I'm having a hard time with, but that's neither here nor there.

Okay.

That's context.

But let's look at breadth.

Let's look at breadth.

What about the whole of scripture?

On the idea of women in leadership and women teaching, are there times in scripture where women lead?

Absolutely they do.

Read the book of Judges.

I think Judges chapter 4 and 5, there's a woman named Deborah, and she's amazing.

Judges 4 · chapter mention

And a judge in that book was actually a leader of the nation.

This is prior to Israel having a king.

The way God had set it up is he appointed people to lead, but they weren't kings.

It wasn't like their children were automatically gonna become the next person.

They were kind of people that God's like, they're ready, they're the one.

And Deborah is the judge of Israel for 40 years.

And we're talking like thousands of years ago, ancient times, Deborah is the judge.

She's the leader, and she leads them in battle.

There's so many times in scripture where women are raised up.

Esther would be another amazing example.

The entire salvation of her people from annihilation, from genocide, all rests on the courage, the bravery, and the wisdom of a woman named Esther.

And she crushes it.

Even Paul, by the way, for some people like to label Paul today as like, oh, he was just this regressive guy that didn't like women.

No, no, Paul had tons of women that he constantly commended and gave very vital responsibilities to in the church.

In fact, there's a woman named Priscilla.

And she and her husband Aquila are mentioned constantly in Paul's writings, many times, and what's really weird about it is Priscilla is always named first.

At least she's named, I think she's named first five of the seven times that they're mentioned.

He says, Hey, uh, I commend Priscilla and Aquila, and in their culture, you would have put the guy's name first, and most scholars will read that and say Priscilla was probably the more uh predominant and influential person in the church at that time.

And so even Paul is like, yeah, Priscilla's amazing, and he had her do very important things.

She was a leader in the church.

So if you look at the breadth of scripture, you see, okay, hold on.

It's not as simple as just, oh, this one verse says that, so therefore, that's that's the way it goes.

And finally, let's look at the person of Jesus.

Jesus, man, he he championed women like very few people, if anyone, had ever done before.

And this is one of my favorite moments.

When Jesus raises from the dead, the very first person that he interacts with is a woman.

Her name's Mary.

And he tells Mary, Go and tell my disciples that I'm risen.

Now, he could have said, I have something important to say.

Go get the men and bring them here so that I can tell them what I need to tell them.

But he didn't do that.

And what's so cool about that, guys, is that that is the gospel.

You boil the message of Jesus, that's what the gospel is, the message, the good news of Jesus, you boil that down to its simplest form, it's that he is alive, he is risen.

And the very first person that was ever given the responsibility to deliver that good news was a woman.

And if you remember that game of telephone from elementary school, like where you go around and someone has a the first person's kind of important in the game of telephone.

And if Jesus trusted a woman to be that first person to give the most important message that's ever been given, like if she messed that up, like we're all lost right now.

And so my point is that with this idea, because it's something that people have brought up here at his hands, hey, you have women teach.

Like, what's that about?

Because look at this one verse.

I'm like, yeah, I see that verse, but if I look at the context, the breadth, and the person of Jesus, I feel totally comfortable.

Not just comfortable because it's like it goes along with the cultural values of the day, but comfortable with scripture that this is okay.

Does this make sense?

All right, now, I am looking at the clock, don't worry.

Um but we don't have anything happening after the service today, so I mean, come on.

I'm just joking.

All right.

Let's let's go back to the idea of predestination, and let's do our best to look at it with these filters in mind.

Choice.

Do we have a choice?

Or is it all just predetermined?

Because let's look at the context.

Okay, the context of Romans chapter 9 is Paul is addressing this idea.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

He's just talked about what Jesus has done, and that we talked about this a little bit last week.

A lot of people are recognizing that, hey, the message of Jesus is it's spreading beyond the Jewish people.

And up to this point in time, the God that the Jewish people worship was exclusively an ethnic God.

He's worshipped by the Jewish people, and that's really it.

Every once in a while, someone might convert to Judaism, but they're a really small group of people and they've remained very exclusive, and now the Jewish Messiah is being preached about in non-Jewish communities and it's growing like wildfire.

And some people are saying, well, hey, does that mean, Paul, that God has now abandoned Israel?

He's left them behind?

Because many of the Jews didn't believe in Jesus.

And so has God like, has he left Israel behind?

Has he abandoned his promises to them?

And if that's the case, then why should we believe the promises he has for us?

And Paul says, no, that's the context of this whole conversation, is really what about Israel?

And Paul, we talked about this a little bit last week.

He's saying, No, no, no, God hasn't abandoned Israel because you actually have to go back to the promise.

Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

Genesis 12:1–3

The Lord said to Abram, who's the father of the Jewish nation, leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, go to the land that I will show you, I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you, I will make you famous, and you'll be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you and treat you with contempt, and all the families on the earth will be blessed through you.

So the original promise that God gave to Abram was that all the families of the earth will be blessed through the lineage of the Jewish people, and Jesus came from that.

And so Paul's, in context, right, that's the first of those filters, is saying, no, no, no.

God hasn't left Israel behind because his promises were never just for Israel in the first place.

It was for all people.

That's why God has opened up the way of knowing him to everyone.

This is the way it was supposed to be.

This is what was supposed to happen.

This is very important to understand when you read Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

A lot of people interpret this whole Jacob and Esau comment in Romans 9 about being something related to personal salvation.

Paul is not talking at all about personal salvation here.

He's not talking about individuals, he's talking about nations.

He's talking about whole groups of people.

In fact, the the reference to that whole God loved Jacob, and if you know the story of Jacob, Fred and I were talking about this on Thursday.

If you know Jacob, it's amazing that God loved Jacob.

I hold that he is like the worst.

But I'm not better than him, he's just the worst.

I'm also not the namesake of God's people.

They're not the Justinites.

You know, it's it's the Israelites, because God changes Jacob's name to Israel, and he's kind of a rough dude to follow if you read his story.

But God loved Jacob and hated Esau.

Well, that comes from a scripture of Malachi, which was written centuries after both Jacob and Esau had lived, and it wasn't talking about Jacob and Esau as individuals.

If you read that scripture, it's talking about the nations and the people groups that came out of each of their lineage.

And what's being communicated here in Romans 9, the context, is that God has a plan for history.

This is important for us to remember.

God is doing things.

That's why, as Christians, we're not supposed to get bent out of shape every single time something is happening in our culture or in our world, and we're like, oh, is this gonna be the end?

Is it gonna undo it?

No, because God's in control and he's not surprised by anything.

Like God, he's not.

He's not sweating it.

There's never an election or he's like, I hope my guy wins.

You know, that's not how it works.

Like he has a plan throughout human history, and there's nothing that can change it.

And again, that's the context of what Paul's saying.

He's saying, look, God chose before Jacob or Esau was ever born, before they'd ever done anything to show their merit, he chose that his his will was going to flow through Jacob and his line, not through Esau.

Even though Esau was the firstborn, and you can make the argument, the better guy.

He's like, no, I'm going through here.

He's talking about his overall will throughout human history, not individual will.

And there's a distinction.

There's God's overarching will for human history, and then there's his will for us as individual people.

I heard someone explain it like this once.

It was a pretty good explanation.

Imagine that we're all on a boat.

Who here has been on a boat?

I'm just saying if you're still awake and with me because we're talking about yeah, all right, we've all been on boats.

Not all of us.

Who here's not been on a boat?

You're like, never done it, never been on a boat.

Well, you some of you guys didn't raise your hand, and okay.

So we've all been on boats.

Just making sure.

Okay, imagine you're on like a cruise ship, which I have not been on and don't really have much desire to be on.

Uh, but maybe one day.

So you're on a cruise ship.

That boat is going somewhere.

Now, while you're on the boat, you've got a lot of freedom.

You can go here, you can go there, you can do this, you can do that.

If you want to jump off the boat, feel free.

Not a good idea.

But it's gonna stop at different places.

Some people are gonna get off, some people are gonna get on.

But while you're on the boat, you've got all these different choices that you can make.

But that boat is going where it's going, and you're not in control of that.

So the idea is that God has a will that history is headed somewhere, and we're all we're all going in that direction, whether we want to or not.

But that doesn't override that even though history is moving in that direction, we as individuals still have choice, still have will.

I'll give you another analogy.

This is way less thought through.

So it might fall apart fast.

Just give grace.

I love to play basketball.

Sometimes I will call people up or text them and be like, hey, let's go play.

And I've invited those specific people to come play with me.

And they show up and we play.

But sometimes while we're there, other people are like, hey, can we play too?

And I go, Yeah.

And so some people we're all playing the game.

Some people were invited, some people just opted in.

And this brings me to the next, the next sort of filter.

And we're gonna move fast, I promise.

I am looking at the clock, but not that much.

So making you nervous, but don't be nervous.

It's good.

The breadth of scripture.

Because again, we can't just take this one verse out of Romans 9 and build a whole theology about what about the whole of Scripture?

I'm gonna read a big chunk, real quick.

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14.

Ephesians 1:3–14

I totally should have made this two messages.

All right, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm reading from the New American Standard Version because it's the closest to the original language, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us, ooh, here we go, in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us to adoption as the sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of cr of his grace, with which he favored us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us.

In all wisdom and insight, he made blessed.

Uh wow, this I messed this up.

I'm gonna read it from here.

Where are we at?

Okay.

He made known to us that this is actually in the if you're looking at the mobile app, it got edited weird.

That's my bad.

Here we go.

He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him, with a view to the to it and ministration suitable to the fullness of the times.

Everyone's tracking with this, right?

This is all easy?

Okay, good.

That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

Let's keep moving, let's go.

Uh, in him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.

In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possessions to the praise of his glory.

Okay, that's a lot.

A lot of words.

A lot of big words.

But here's what I want you to notice, and go back and read this later on.

There's two really cool ideas happening here.

He says predestined a lot, and he keeps saying, we were predestined.

And who's the we he's talking about?

He's talking about the Jewish people, if you read it in context, right?

He says, we were predestined.

And then he goes on and he says, and you also, when you believed, were added to us.

So a lot of people use Ephesians chapter 1 to be like, see, God just chooses and no one has a choice, because it says predestined, that predestined word is in there.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Yeah, but look at the scope of it.

Look at all of Scripture, what it says, and it's saying that, hey, we, Paul's saying, the Jewish people, we were predestined.

But then you also, when you believed, you were added to us.

So, like I said, that basketball idea, like I sometimes I might invite people to play with me, and we're playing.

And then other people see it and they're like, hey, can we play?

And I never look at them and go, no, I didn't text you.

I'm like, sure.

And that's what Paul's saying.

Hey, there's a group of people that God chose that he picked, and he's like, You're you're you're coming with me, let's go.

And those people went along, but then he's saying, then there's these other people.

The Gentiles, anyone who's not a Jew, who the Jewish people thought they're out, and God said, No, no, no.

Paul's saying, you were added to us, so we see both.

We see both predestination and people making a choice.

Final one, and worship team, you guys can make your way out.

Let's look at Jesus.

Right?

We want to look at the context, the whole of Scripture, and then the person of Jesus.

I'm gonna read some Jesus to you.

A bunch of verses starting with Mark chapter 16.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

John 7.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

John 3 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.

John 11, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Do you believe this?

John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

In John 6, 35, then Jesus declared, I'm the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Now there's a word that shows up in all of those scriptures.

Did anyone catch it?

And if you did, just yell it out.

Oh wow, was that in all of them?

Because if you have taste, then there's two words that show up in all of those.

Believes, believes, believes.

Oh wow, you guys are you're smarter than me.

All right.

There's another word that was in all of those.

Anyone know what it is?

Boom! They're the smartest ones in the room.

This section wins.

Okay.

Clap for yourselves.

You guys, yeah, clap.

Come on.

Yay.

Oh, you know, thought they'd be more enthusiastic.

Whoever.

Is the word whoever an exclusive word?

Like, if someone says whoever, do they have high standards?

You know?

Like, think about it.

If someone's like, hey, who do you want to come to the party?

You're like, whoever.

Is that like a person who's like exclusive and piggy?

Is that a middle school girl at the cool table?

That's what I'm asking.

Or boy, sorry.

It's just that the girls were the ones that gave me the harder time.

In middle school.

No, who whoever.

That's a pretty like all-encompassing word, right?

And see, when you look at the person of Jesus, things become clear.

Jesus, he's the perfect, he's the perfect example of God.

He's the clearest picture we have of God.

You look at him, it's like putting glasses on, it gets clear.

And he says, whoever.

Hey, who who can belong to God?

Whoever.

Quick show of hands.

Who here believes that you are included in the term whoever?

You're a whoever.

Congratulations, you're a whoever.

Wow.

That's amazing.

Praise God for low standards.

You know, like, because I'm I wouldn't earn it.

But God said, whoever, and that counts for me.

I'm a whoever.

Jesus, if you look at his story, he's constantly like making people angry because he's including people that shouldn't be included.

And the Pharisees, the religious people, they're all like, they shouldn't be here.

They're bad people, they're sinners.

They're notorious sinners.

They even say that to some of his followers, and Jesus is like, Yeah, but they're a whoever.

And so this idea of choice, who chooses who?

I believe that it's both.

I actually think it's really simple.

This is not a scripture we have to read and be like, oh no, before I was born, God either picked me or didn't pick me.

What about my friends?

What about my kids?

What about my loved ones?

Like, before they were born, they had no choice.

It's just like, sorry, you're not one of the you're not one of the lucky ones.

When I read Jesus, time and time again, there's people who are on the outside and he brings them in.

In fact, there's a great story, Andrew, who might be my fate, my favorite disciple.

But Andrew, uh, he brings these people to Jesus, they're Greeks, they're not even Jewish, and the message of Jesus hasn't really spread beyond the Jewish people or at least those closely related to them.

And they show up, they're like, we want to meet Jesus.

And they're like, is that even okay?

And they they go to Jesus and he doesn't go, No.

I don't like Greeks.

Not a big fan of hummus.

He doesn't say that.

He says, Yeah, bring him.

Bring him.

So could it be, and this is what I believe is true, could it be that there are people that God calls and invites?

And if you look at human history in the scripture, in times that's been a whole group of people, like Abraham and his descendants.

And at other times there have been specific people, like Paul, who was working against Jesus, and God's like, hey, Jesus shows up, appears to him, like, changing your plans.

Sorry.

And if you don't want to go along with me, you're blind, so figure that out.

If you want to see again, do what I say.

Like, it's pretty.

Paul doesn't really have a lot of choice in that situation.

It couldn't be that there are people that God picks and chooses and says, Hey, I'm calling you, I want you to come along.

But at the same time, whoever wants to go along can.

That's what I believe.

If you look at the context, the whole of Scripture, the person of Jesus, that's what we see.

Ephesians chapter 1, Paul's like, hey, we were predestined, talking about the Jewish people, but then you also, when you believed, you were added to us, we're all the same.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

So here's the way I think it breaks down.

He chose us so that we could choose him.

And I believe this is consistent with scripture.

You look at the people of Israel, they're enslaved in Egypt.

God sends Moses, He frees them from slavery.

It's amazing, it's awesome, it's epic.

They've been picked, they've been chosen, they've been rescued, and then after that, he has a conversation with the nation of Israel.

He says, Laying before you is a choice.

Choose life, meaning choose to follow Him.

He gave them a choice, even though they were chosen.

This is the point.

He has chosen to open up the way of knowing Him to everyone.

As long as you can consider yourself a whoever, that choice is yours because of what He's chosen to do.

Every single one of us has the ability to choose Jesus.

Have you chosen him?

Have you picked him?

Because he's chosen to give you the opportunity.

He died for you.

Have you chosen him?

And if the answer to that is no, then I would just highly recommend maybe choosing him.

He should always be first pick.

He's the greatest of all of human history.

No one can stand above Jesus.

And he's picked you, pick him.

Choose him.

Give everything to him.

And if you've done that, if you've already done that, many of us have, most of us probably have in this room, then keep choosing him every day of your life.

Choose Jesus because every day I have choices laid before me.

And those choices are to continue following him or to go a different route.

And sometimes I make the wrong choice.

Sometimes I choose things that don't line up with my faith, and that's wrong.

And when that happens, I have to humble myself and pray and ask for forgiveness and grow.

But every day I have the opportunity to choose Jesus.

When it comes to what kind of husband am I going to be, what kind of father am I going to be?

What kind of friend?

What kind of coworker?

What kind of leader?

What kind of man?

What kind of citizen?

I always have the ability to say yes to whatever choice is in front of me based on the yes that I've already given to Jesus.

I chose Jesus.

I chose to follow him, so I'm going to choose to go about my marriage and my role as a father and my role as a pastor to line up with my choice to follow Jesus.

Does this make sense?

He's chosen you.

So choose him.

And if you haven't, you can do that right now.

You just pray and you say, I'm yours.

I believe.

Maybe you've been predestined.

I don't know.

Or maybe right now you have an opportunity.

Again, it's kind of mysterious, but it's both.

It's both.

He's chosen you and given you a choice.

So choose him.

It's actually appropriate the way we're gonna wrap up today.

Thank you guys for your patience, because I know we covered a lot of ground today.

A lot.

And now I'll never talk about this again, ever.

Um I'm teasing.

We've got some people who have made that choice.

God chose them.

He chose to die for them, to reveal himself to them, and now they've chosen to go all in with him.

And so um I'm gonna pray, and we're gonna wrap up our day by celebrating a couple baptisms.

Does that sound good?

All right.

That's the right way to end it.

Alright, so Lord, thank you, Jesus, for choosing us.

It feels really good to be chosen.

It feels really good to be picked, and all of us know what it's like to not be picked, to not be chosen, to not make the cut, to have other people say, you know what, you're just not, you're not who we're looking for.

You don't measure up, you don't meet the requirements, but you don't look at us that way, Lord.

You have you have such an all-encompassing love for people, and you say over and over again that whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever believes, and thank you for letting everyone see that but me today, Lord.

But whoever believes is in.

So thank you, Jesus, for choosing humanity and giving us the choice to choose you, the ability to choose you.

Help us make that choice for the first time, for the millionth time.

Help us make that choice.

We love you, we praise you, we're grateful for you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.