Romans [Season 2]: Romans 9vv1-18- Ian Graham: Urgency. Dreaming.

Pastor Ian Graham starts our second round of Romans as we begin our summer book series. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have not done this before.
So what we're going to try todo is kind of transport
ourselves back to a sermonseries that we started last
summer.
So in hopes we started with thebook of Romans last summer that
hypothetically we would pick itup again this summer and, like
those people that make lists andwrite things down they've

(00:21):
already done we're going to giveourselves a little credit here.
We're now going to pick up inRomans, in the second half of
the book, in Romans, chapter 9.
So we'll be starting that.
That'll carry us through thesummer.
Often, throughout the summer,we like to cover the course of a
book of the Bible, and so ourbook will be the second half of
Romans.
Now imagine with me and this isno shade if any of you went to

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a community college.
Okay, that's a good place, allright.
But like we live in Princetonand you're walking through the
streets of Princeton andeverything about Princeton has
prestige and education writtenall over it, right, and you go
to your community college andyou're like you know who the
best educators, communitycollege, and you're like you

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know who the best educators, thebest institution in the world?
It's Tulsa Community College,mercer County Community College,
and you are just so staunch inthat belief.
Obviously, people will belooking at you sideways and
you're like you know what was mysafety school, princeton?
You know what was my firstchoice Mercer County.
That's where I'm at Now.
Again, nothing wrong with that.

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But if you were having thatkind of discussion with someone,
they'd be looking at you likewhat are you talking about?
Are you serious?
Like, are you seeing all thebuildings?
Are you seeing the magnitudeand the magnificence of this
place?
And you with your little, youknow linoleum classroom are
saying how great.
This is right, it'd be veryinteresting, but there's not all

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that dissimilar from what theearliest Christians were doing.
Remember, we have to always dothis the Bible is not divine
communications written to randomtimes and places.
It is God's word to real peoplein real time and space.
And so the first thing we haveto account for we're talking
about the book of Romans is thatthese people are presumably in

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Rome.
And if you think about what youknow about the Roman Empire,
especially at this point inhistory we're talking somewhere
in the 50s AD, especially atthis point in history, we're
talking somewhere in the 50s ADwe're basically at the height of
the Roman apex.
So these Christians of whichwe're talking, a city of
anywhere between a million, amillion and a half, two million

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people, based upon differentestimates so in this city of at
least a million people there aremaybe, maybe a couple hundred
Christians you think about thatratio and they're walking to go
to a church.
Presumably they're meeting as achurch in the house of a
wealthy person, because mostpeople lived in these kind of

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tenement houses in the topfloors of these fire hazard
buildings with no windows and noventilation, in the top floors
of these fire hazard buildingswith no windows and no
ventilation, and so presumablythere was one member of the
church who had some space wherethey could put several people.
But as they walk to this churchgathering, everything they see
tells them that Rome is theultimate, the apex of humanity.

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The statues, the buildings, theinscriptions, everything is
just saying this is the truestory of the world.
And yet these Christians aremaking their way to their little
church gathering and they'resaying Rome has all of its
pretensions and all of itsstories about its might, and yet

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we have the true story of theworld.
Caesar has his claims to beLord, and yet we know that Jesus
is in fact, lord, this Jesus,who was crucified under the
authority of Caesar, is the trueLord of all the earth.
Caesar has his Pax Romana, hispeace that is given to the world

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, that is maintained bybrutality, by taxation, by
ideological colonization, but wehave the peace of Christ which,
as he will write in anotherletter, surpasses all
understanding and is not won bythe blood of shedding one's
enemies, but by the blood givenfreely of Jesus.

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You can see the juxtapositionof this story right Gathering in
a room like this one and sayingthis is the center point of
what it means to be human, andthen walking outside and be like
, wow, these are big buildingsand we have to put ourselves in
the shoes of these first RomanChristians, because these are

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the people that help us to hearthese words.
Well, now, as we talked aboutwhen we first opened this book
last year, after the death ofthe emperor Claudius in about 54
AD, jewish people that had beenlargely expelled from the city.
So there was a revolt in Romeand Claudius, as so often is the
case, decided to scapegoat agroup of people, and the people

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that he chose, as is so oftenthe case and throughout our
history, was the Jewish people,and so all of the people who
were ethnically Jewish had toleave the city.
Now the church persists meetingduring this time, and so,
whereas the church previouslywas probably made up of a
mixture of Jewish Christians andGentile Christians, the Jewish

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people are then removed from thecity, so then the Gentile
Christians step into places ofauthority and leadership.
They get accustomed to justdoing things the ways that are
comfortable for them.
We all have preferences, right?
It's one of the hard thingsabout showing up to church.
We all have our things we like.
We all have our songs, we likethe ways of singing those songs
that we like, and conversely, wehave things we don't like.

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You know, people start doingthat.
You're like oh, not that again.
And so the Gentiles hadprobably become a little
comfortable, and maybe, maybehave you ever made a theological
justification for why somethinghappened.
Perhaps in their heart ofhearts, in the darkness, they're
saying you know what?
The Jewish people probablydeserve this.

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They probably had this comingto them, and so they've become
comfortable in their settledform of church.
And now we're reintroducing awhole population back into Rome,
and so much of what Romans isabout, as in so many other of
Paul's letters, is about how dothese two groups, jew and
Gentile, live together?

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Ephesians 2,.
He has broken down the wall ofhostility which divides you and
made peace by his blood.
He's talking about people,groups, that have been
historically at odds with oneanother, because the vision of
the scriptural story has alwaysbeen about God creating one
covenant family, one newhumanity, knowledge of God

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covering the earth like waterscover the sea, in the words of
Isaiah.
And so we see this in microhappening in Rome these people
trying to figure out how to livetogether.
We've just scaled the heightswith Paul, and one of the things
that we have to do when we'rereading Paul's writing which

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Paul is the author of Romans isto trace what we are focusing on
back to what has come before.
So what comes before?
Romans 9?
Romans 8.
Wow, I knew, I knew I was inlike, really, really good hands
here, and if you've ever been toa funeral, I had the honor of

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reading Romans 8 at mygrandfather's funeral and you
want to talk about telling thegood news in the midst of
sadness and grief and death.
It's worth rehearing again todayRomans 8, verse 31.
What, then, are we to say aboutthese things?
If God is for us?
Who is against us?
He who did not withhold his ownson but gave him up for all of

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us.
How will he not, with him, alsogive us everything else?
Who will bring any chargeagainst God's elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
It is Christ who died, orrather who is raised, who is
also at the right hand of God,who also intercedes for us.
Who will separate us from thelove of Christ?
Will affliction or distress, orpersecution, or famine, or

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nakedness, or peril or sword?
Interestingly, paul would beexecuted by the Roman government
by the sword.
No, in all these things, we aremore than victorious through
him who loved us, for I'mconvinced that neither death nor
life, nor angels, nor rulers,nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height,nor depth, nor anything else in

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all of creation will ever beable to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus, ourLord.
Amen and amen.
And it's this that brings us toRomans 9.
And it seems that Paul's toneshifts rapidly here from
rapturous heights to lament.
Romans 9, verse 1.
I'm speaking and remember.

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It bears repeating that theseletters, though we have them in
written form for the people thatwere gathering in church.
Many of them were not literary,they could not read, and so
they're gathering as a churchand they're hearing these
letters read, and these letterssound like long sermons.
Now, if you want to think abouthow long it would take us to

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read Romans 1 through 16, thenyou'll be thankful for the
length of my sermons.
Then you'll be thankful for thelength of my sermons.
Alright, romans 9, verse 1.
I'm speaking the truth inChrist.
I'm not lying.
My conscience confirms it bythe Holy Spirit.
I have great sorrow andunceasing anguish in my heart.
Who will ever be able toseparate us from the love of God

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in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I'mspeaking the truth in Christ.
I have great sorrow, unceasinganguish, for I could wish that I
myself were accursed and cutoff from Christ for the sake of
my own brothers and sisters, myown flesh and blood.
They are Israelites and to thembelong the adoption, the glory,
the covenants, the giving ofthe law, the worship and the

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promises.
To them belong the patriarchs,and from them, according to the
flesh, comes the Christ who isover all.
God blessed forever.
Amen.
We see that Paul, drawing fromthese heights, is now drawing
back to his own personal lineageand story.
Paul in Romans 8 has beenspeaking of the impossibility of
any earthly or spiritual forceseparating us from the love of

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God in Christ Jesus, but then heturns his attention to a
potential challenge to hisbeautiful and soaring statement.
And we have to get aroundPaul's argument here because it
will give shape to everythingthat comes next.
Romans 9 is a historicallycomplex chapter and we'll get
into some of the complexity nextweek and really I'll bring you

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into my first crisis of faith inreading Romans 9, but that's
for next week.
Paul is a Jewish man and when hetalks about his own brothers
and sisters, the NRSV translatesit my own flesh and blood.
The NIV says my own race.
He's talking about those whoare related to him ethnically
and he's offering a shorthand oftheir history and their story

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with God.
To these Israelites belongadoption as a people Deuteronomy
talks about.
You were not a people once youwere not a people, and yet I
brought you out of slavery inEgypt and I adopted you as my
own, the glory of God.
Paul references here descendingat places like Sinai and the
temple, the covenants given toAbraham and David, the giving of

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the law to Moses, the worshipof tabernacle and temple, the
patriarchs Abraham, isaac, jacob, moses.
It's from their own very storythat Christ, at the beginning of
Matthew's gospel, at the verybeginning of Luke's gospel,
traces his family of origin.
How, then, paul is beginning topose the question could all of

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Paul's race, his ethnicallyJewish brethren and sistren, not
have received the good newsthat Jesus is the Messiah?
Sure, some have responded tothis good news, paul being one
of them.
But how is it so that God hasfulfilled his promises and yet
it seems that so many of thepeople who are the people of the

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promise are not responding toit?
It's a poignant question and,as we see, for Paul, it's not a
question that he asks in sort ofsterile philosophy.
I am anguished.
I wish that I could be cut offfor the sake of my people.
Paul's assessment of theircurrent state leads him to
despair, and we cannot miss thesubtle point that is here.

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To be far from Christ in thewords of the Greek here in
Romans 9, is to be anathema, acurse, and Paul is displaying
how he feels in saying that hewishes in some way that he could
take the curse on behalf of hispeople.
Paul's broken heart and urgencyshould inspire and motivate us

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towards those who don't knowJesus and don't know that they
are loved by him.
These people are not justmisguided or missing out, not
just living lesser lives, but,as Paul says, they stand under
the curse of the fall that Jesushas already redeemed us from.
It's not that God is cursingthem, but they have not received

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the blessing that God has givento undo and redeem all that is
cursed, and that should make usa bit anxious and anguished for
them, as it does for Paul whenwe walk outside.
Again.
We can't judge people's hearts.
We don't know individualstrangers' stories, but we do
know, when we interact withpeople, that there are people in
our lives that are far fromJesus, and so often I think

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we're just able to sort ofconsign them to oh you know,
maybe they'll figure it out, andperhaps God has put you in
their lives as a beacon, as alight set on a hill, and that we
can be a people, gently andwinsomely, a people though that
are saying it is my heart'sambition and my desire that you
would come to know Jesus.
And we see what Paul is sayinghere.

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The Israelites, paul's fellowJewish people, have a long,
accumulated history with the Godrevealed in Christ.
How is it that all of them havenot responded to the good news?
How can we say with anyconfidence that God keeps his
promises?
You see, throughout historypeople have seen the wider

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outlay of the scriptural storyand determined that God, in
Christ Jesus, basicallyinstituted a plan B.
He tried plan A with thecovenant people and he's like
you know what it's not working.
Jesus, get down there.
People like Markian, one of thefirst heretics of the church,
basically said the Old TestamentGod is a different God than we

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see presented in the NewTestament.
And what Paul is doing isviscerally holding on to the
integrity of the story andsaying that it's all one
integrous, united story.
But you could see how you wouldread this and be like did God
just change his mind?
God just changed the rules,changed the game, and what Paul

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is trying to do is trace thestory for us in such a way that
we see it as one whole fabric.
Verse 6, it is not as though theword of God has failed.
Did God's word fail?
Did God's word fail?
Paul poses the question verysubtly and he's like no, for not
all those descended from Israelare Israelites and not all of

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Abraham's children are hisdescendants, but it is through
Isaac that descendants shall benamed for you he's quoting here.
This means that it is not thechildren of the flesh who are
the children of God, but thechildren of the promise are
counted as descendants.
For the word of the promise isthis About this time I will
return and Sarah shall have ason.

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Nor is that all.
Something similar happened toRebecca when she had conceived
children by one husband, oneancestor, isaac, even before
they had been born or doneanything good or bad, so that
God's purpose of election mightcontinue, not by works, but by
his call.
She was told the elder shallserve the younger.
Okay, so how is it that God'swords and promises have been

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shown through Christ to betrustworthy and stable rather
than fickle?
Well, paul's first move is togo back to the story.
We're talking about Sarah andRebecca here, so we're talking
also about Abraham and Isaac.
Right In verse 7, paul says itplainly Not all those who are
ethnically Abraham's childrenare his descendants.
You see this exact conflict whenJesus is conducting his earthly

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ministry in John's Gospel,they're saying we have Abraham
as our father, and Jesus issaying very, very intently.
He's saying unless you listento me, your father is not
Abraham, rather, you have adifferent father.
And he says that that father isthe father of lies.
And so Jesus is very pointed onhis criticism and Paul is

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saying listen, god has alwaysworked through a remnant.
When you read throughout theprophets places like Isaiah,
jeremiah, ezekiel God ispronouncing that there is an
impending judgment, and again wecan get into all the reasons
why those events are occurring,why those things are coming.
But within that pronouncementthat there is something coming,

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there's also this promise thatGod will preserve a remnant, a
group of people to carry thepromise through.
And Paul is drawing from thatimagery here.
Paul now pulls from the theme inGenesis, where God will subvert
both the physical order and thesocial order.
First he subverts the physicalorder when God comes to Abraham

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in Genesis, chapter 12, and saysto him go from your country,
your people and your father'shousehold to the land I will
show you.
And then this is the promisethat really forms the bedrock
and foundation of all that willtranspire.
In both the Old Testament andthe New Testament God says to
Abraham I will make you into agreat nation and I will bless

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you.
I will make your name great andyou will be a blessing.
I will bless those who blessyou, and whoever curses you I
will curse, and all peoples onearth will be blessed through
you.
And so God's promise to Abrahamis I will make you into a great
nation.
And if you know the story, whatis the problem with this promise

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?
What is the problem for Abrahamand Sarah?
As we come to see, as we scrollthroughout Genesis, 12 through
18, we see that Abraham andSarah cannot, for whatever
reason, have children.
In a culture that is primarilyoriented around the blessing of

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children and, frankly, all thelabor that they can provide,
abraham and Sarah, for whateverreason, are not able to conceive
a child.
And so here we have the promiseI will make you into a great
nation.
But we have the reality as well.
We see that Abraham and Sarahhave their moments of doubt.

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They have their moments oftrying to wrest control of the
situation.
Sarah gives Hagar to Abrahamand a son is born to Hagar,
ishmael.
In my estimation, god is sayingto the people I will not
fulfill my promises any otherway than the way that I have

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drawn out.
And we see that, though Sarahcannot have a child, that God is
intent, that he is undaunted bythe promise that he has made.
And Paul is talking about thisin terms of election, we see
this even further.

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So we draw this differentscenario.
In Genesis we have Abraham.
One son is born to Hagar.
Ishmael is the oldest son, buthe's not the son of the promise.
Then we have Isaac come alongIn the next generation.
We have a very similar scenario, but instead of two sons being
born to two different women attwo different times, in the next

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generation we have twodifferent sons born to the same
woman who are conceived at thesame time Jacob and Esau.
Esau, we are told, emerges fromthe womb first and again.
In the cultural assumptions ofthe ancient Near East, this
would make Esau the heir and theyounger son, jacob would be
secondary to his very slightlyelder brother.

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Can you imagine just missing itby that much Like Jacob's
literally grasping onto his heel?
That's where he gets his name.
Now we're not told why Jacob ischosen to be the one who will
carry the promise.
We are just simply told that heis Paul.
Using this line of thinking issaying that we cannot assume,
based upon our proximity to thepromise, that we have attained

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the promise.
But here, as we kind ofsummarize this little section
because it is complex, but wehave.
Isaac is the bearer of thepromise.
God subverts the physical order.
Abraham and Sarah could nothave children, but God is a one
who makes a way Jacob, thesecond born, the youngest born,

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carrier of the promise.
And it's basically God saying Iknow your cultural assumptions,
I know the cultural norms, butmy purposes will stand.
What this isn't saying and Ithink where we get into a lot of
trouble in Romans is that Godlikes Jacob better than Esau.

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Romans 9, verse 13, as it iswritten, I have loved Jacob, but
I hated Esau.
Whoops.
Harsh words indeed, but only ifthis is about arbitrary choice.
Again, if we read these versesin isolation, you can do all
kinds of damage with them.
You can do whatever you want.
You can justify just aboutanything with the Bible.

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If you just take little piecesof it and if you read the Esau
story in Genesis, what you seeis something quite different.
The last action we see of Esauis that he is giving Jacob
profound mercy and is the agentof God's reconciliation.
Jacob says to Esau to see yourface is like seeing the face of

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God.
So does God hate Esau, as Paulseems to be suggesting here?
No, is Paul wrong?
No, paul is quoting a passageof scripture from the book of
Malachi.
If we turn over to Malachi, whenGod says Jacob I loved and Esau

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I hated, he then immediatelyreferences the Edomites.
The Edomites are the historicallineage of Esau and they are
the source of a lot of conflictwith the people of Israel,

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people of Israel.
When God starts talking aboutthe Edomites, he then starts
talking about the priests ofIsrael, and if you read the book
of Malachi, it's not about someforeign people who are doing a
bunch of things wrong.
He's saying your priesthood isrobbing the temple of God.
They are not the kind of peoplethey should be, and so what
Malachi is doing, what the wordof the Lord is doing there in
Malachi, is saying you know who?
Your priests are acting likethe Edomites.

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They're not acting like thecovenant people.
They're not acting like thosewho uphold righteousness and
faithfulness.
They are being a people thatacts like they don't know God.
We could get into all sorts oftrouble if we take these verses
in isolation.
When I think about this termthat Paul will use here, where

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we gather our term election, weoften think of it in terms of
did God pick me for the eternalkickball team before the history
of the world, or did he not?
And we'll get into that alittle bit next week.
But I want to read to you avery long quote from my good
friend, leslie Newbigin, who Iwill meet in heaven, because I
think he captures what electionis really all about, and so I'm

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going to read this to you.
It's a long quote, so I've nowprepared you.
It is the universality of God'ssaving love which is the ground
of his choosing and calling acommunity to be the messengers
of his truth and bearers of hislove for all peoples.
There is election in thescriptures, right?

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God doesn't say to every singleperson who ever lived go from
your country and I will make youinto a great nation.
He says it to one person whoever lived go from your country
and I will make you into a greatnation.
He says it to one person.
He says it to Abraham Jesusdoesn't trace his family line
throughout all the people whohave ever lived.
No, he can draw linesthroughout the course of history
.
And so we see that God, becausehe is a relational God, because

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he's not a generalist, he's aparticular God who wants a
face-to-face relationship withus does choose, but what is the
purpose of that choosing is nota question that we often ask or
answer, and this is whatNewbigin's getting at.
God's electing grace calls intobeing a people charged with the
responsibility responsibility ofbeing the bearers of his

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universal salvation.
Christ died one for all.
They are chosen not forthemselves, not to be the
exclusive beneficiaries of God'ssaving work, but to be the
bearers of the secret of hissaving work for the sake of all.
They are chosen to go and bearfruit.
To be chosen to be elect,therefore, does not mean that

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the elect are the saved and therest are the lost.
To be elect in Christ Jesus andthere is no other election
means to be incorporated intohis mission to the world, to be
the bearer of God's savingpurpose for his whole world, to
be the sign and the agent andthe first fruit of his blessed
kingdom, which is for all.
It means, therefore, as the NewTestament makes abundantly

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clear, to take our share in hissuffering, to bear the scars of
the passion.
It means, as Paul sayselsewhere, to bear in the body
the dying of Jesus, so that thelife of the risen Jesus may be
manifest and made available forothers.
It means that this particularbody of people who bear the name
of Jesus, through history, thisstrange and often absurd
company of people, so feeble, sofoolish, present company

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included, so often fatallycompromised with the world, this
body, with all its contingencyand particularity, is the body
which has the responsibility ofbearing the secret of God's
reign through world history.
The logic of election is all ofone piece with the logic of the
gospel.
It is an absurd statement tomake that right here in this

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room, the most important meetingin Princeton is happening, and
there are a couple other roomslike it right now.
And yet that is exactly what'sgoing on right now, verse 14.
What, then, are we to say?
Is there injustice on God'spart?
By no means, for he says toMoses I will have mercy, on whom

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I have mercy and I will havecompassion on whom I have
compassion.
So it depends not on human willor exertion, but on God, who
shows mercy.
For the scripture says toPharaoh I have raised you up for
this very purpose that I mayshow my power in you.
Okay, paul's like all right,let's draw another example from
Israel's history.
Pharaoh, like.

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All right.
Let's draw another example fromIsrael's history, pharaoh Again
.
If we take this verse inisolation or we see Pharaoh as
merely an individual that God issimply toying with, then that
certainly tells a story aboutGod's absolute sovereignty,
while at the same time telling astory about human freedom and
possibility.
But if, in the imagination ofthe ancient Near East, if
Pharaoh is representative of hisnation and slavery, if he is

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seen as his role rather than asan individual, something quite
different is being said.
In Egypt, pharaoh was regardedas divine, a son of the gods,
and the assumption in theancient Near East is that
conflicts between nations werecontests between gods.
So there was a war that wastaking place in the physical

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reality that you could see.
But as those two nations orpeople groups were at war, there
was also a contest taking placein the heavens, because in the
ancient Near Eastern imaginationthere were many gods.
And the Israelites come alongand as their imagination is
formed by the revelation of God,they come to this conclusion

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Hear, o Israel, the Lord, yourGod, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord, your God, withall your heart, your soul, your
mind and your strength.
It is a wholly uniqueexpression of religion and faith
that the Israelites come tobecause of the revelation of
Yahweh Adonai, that they seethat God is not a multitude of

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gods, that God is not localizedto certain places, that God is
not localized to certainfunctions, but that God is God,
the creator, god over all, that.
He is one and undivided.
And Yahweh in Exodusdemonstrates his sovereignty and
his purposes over the gods ofEgypt.
And we see this contest playingout Like have you seen the

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prince of Egypt?
The magicians have their ways.
I don't know how they do it,but first, when Moses is
throwing his staff on the ground, they're like yeah, we got that
trick too.
Fine.
Now, as things escalate, godshows himself to be far superior
to the gods of Egypt.
But there are spiritual forcesat work in the book of Exodus.

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This is a part of an extendedargument where we've been
dropped into in the middle ofRomans 9.
And we're going to try toextrapolate that extended
argument Romans 9 through 11.
But today, what I simply wantto do if you're drinking our
coffee today, you're drinkingsome nice African blends,
actually single origins, Ishould say.
You've got the Yergeshef region, which often has like a fruity

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note.
If you get a little bit of that, you've got Kenya, which can
have like a very earthy note.
Okay, so what we're doing iswe're just drawing out a couple
of the tasting notes today.
We'll get into more of thishere in Romans 9, extended to
Romans 10.
I started working on the broaderscope of Romans 9.
I was like this is a five-hoursermon.
So, god is merciful, we won'tdo that today, but we will keep

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going Now.
So, god is merciful, we won'tdo that today, but we will keep
going Now.
Remember, this is an extendedargument which is important, so
we're going to look at somehighlights today.
First of all, we see Paul'sbroken heart and it is so
informative of what our postureshould be.
Verse 2, I wish that I myselfcould be cut off for the sake of

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my people.
And again, this isn't aboutdrumming up some sort of false
like God, I really really wantyou.
It's seeing the world the waythat God sees it and I don't
know about you, I had thesemoments.
It's one of the ways that sortof God speaks to me where I am
aware and I am present and I amseeing people's faces, and it's
almost like the wonder of themyriad, the mosaic of the way

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God has made the world.
I don't always see it this way.
Trust me, I drive around onRoute 1 like you do, and
sometimes I wish I was a littlebit slower to anger.
But there are times, if I'm onthe corner in Princeton here and
I see the people walking by,there is this sense of like wow,

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god, what a wonder that youhave made.
And then I start thinking aboutwhat are these people's stories
that I don't know, and how Goddesires that all of them would
come to know him, that theywould know that he has saved
them, that he would know that heloves them.
And then you think about howpeople live in the world, so
often feeling alone, feelinglike they've been abandoned,
feeling like they've been donewrong, embittered, hardened.
And here is the love of Christthat breaks all of this down and

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it brings out of me a sense oflonging and prayer.
And I think this is what we'reseeing here in Romans 9, is that
, as we assess our world withall of its brokenness, as we see
so often that our world withits pretensions, the culture
that we live in in America hasits things to say about what it
means to be human, about what itmeans to flourish, we have a

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better story.
We have the true story of theworld and for me I always want
that to draw me and drive me toa sense of urgency and prayer.
Say Lord, please draw them toyourself.
And so often what that works outfor me on the relational end
people that I know is I'm justtrying to gently point them to
Jesus, trying to be faithfulwhen there's time to say

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something about Jesus, to say it, and when it's time just to be
a normal person in their midstand be a friend.
Not always have this objectthat I'm trying to draw them
towards, but in general I alsofind this practice to be very
helpful.
Again, when I'm sort of seeingthings broadly and I'm seeing
people, I'm seeing them as Ithink God sees them.
Friends, if you just walkaround saying bless you I know

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that may sound very cliche andtrite, but just like God, as he
shows us in his promise toAbraham, through you all the
nations on the earth will beblessed.
And you think about how oftenour default posture is sort of
criticizing or judging or beingannoyed.
It's mine too sometimes, butwhen I shift that default

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posture I'm like Lord, just letmy presence here, even if I
don't talk to a single person bea blessing.
May I be a small strand in thetapestry that brings them to you
.
Just pray, lord, be here inthis place.
Would you do something beyondwhat I can see here?
But so often that starts with abroken heart.

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I encourage you walk aroundyour neighborhood, pray for
those people that you know livein those houses.
Pray for the people that yousee walking their dogs.
All the time we can be aprofound outpost of blessing.
We have so much more agencythan we've ever imagined and so
often we just don't tap into it.

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Romans 10, verse 14.
How are they to call on onewhom they have not believed?
How are they to believe in onewhom they've never heard?
And how are they to hearwithout someone to proclaim to
them?
And how are they to proclaim tothem unless they are sent as it
is written?
How beautiful are the feet ofthose who bring good news.
You know, every week when I tiemy boots on before I come here,

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I think of that Beautiful feet.
Man, they're really kind ofgnarly.
I run a lot, but Our brokenhearts call us to be bearers of
God's truth to our neighbors andour neighborhoods.
That's a gift.
The second thing I just want youto see from this beautiful
passage God's word will not fail.

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The tracing of the storythrough Abraham, sarah, isaac
and Rebecca reminds us of thestunning miracle of our faith.
God makes a way through theimpossible in the land of the
living.
It's a constant tension forthose of us who believe.
I would suppose confidently inthis room that you have dreams
for your life, no matter yourage.
Dreams that involve yourrelationships, career building

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something, dreams to serve God.
In short, you have desires.
Now, in some Christian circles,we're taught to cull and curate
those desires, almost to thepoint of stamping them out
completely.
How can we know that my desiresare in line with God's desires?
Doesn't Jeremiah tell us thatthe heart is deceitful?
Above all else, who can trustit?
In other Christian circles,you're taught to give free reign

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to every desire, thateverything is inherently good,
or to use the word of God as ameans of achieving the life that
you think you want.
But when we say the word of Godwill not fail, we gather up all
of this into the mosaic ofChrist's love and his fullness
of life.
It's no secret that we live in aconsumeristic society that
tells us a vision of success, ofbeauty of flourishing that is

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glossy but impoverished.
God's word will not fail us.
It will not fail to confrontthese lies with the beauty of
the truth of God in Christ Jesus.
But we can also think of howthe salvation of the world is
brought about not only throughthe death of Christ, but the
incarnation of Christ, not someotherworldly cosmic miracle.

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Do you ever just stop to thinkof the story itself?
To all the hopes and dreams ofall the years, god sends a child
and that child lives inobscurity for 30-something years
, doing what Don't know, being ason, being an apprentice to a

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carpenter, walking along thewater, and so much of that is
saying Ecclesia.
That so much that we consign tothe realm of the mundane, the
boring, the unimportant, isactually the place where God is
working.
It's an altar of the mundane,the boring, the unimportant is
actually the place where God isworking.
It's an altar of his presence.
There's something about thedecidedly this worldly nature of

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Christ that reminds us thatit's okay to pray for things to
materialize into this world.
And here's the beautiful thing.
I don't often do this well, andI've been thinking about this a
lot.
We brought my son to a minorleague baseball game last night
and I knew this was coming,because this is what happens
when you have young kids theguys walking around with the
foam fingers that are like 15bucks for a foam finger.

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Dad, can I have that?
No, no, no, you cannot havethat.
You know, there's like 15 otherthings.
The team had changed their namefor the night.
They were no longer theSomerset Patriots, they were the
Zoros, which entails a bunch ofother gear.
I was like Dad, can we get someZoros gear?
Like no, no, no.
And you know, like, initiallyI'm like dude, it's fine, it's

(38:29):
funny.
But as he keeps asking, I startgetting annoyed.
Right, and my son is notthinking about the morality of
asking for all these things.
He's not thinking about thereality of our bank account,
he's not thinking about any ofthese things.
He's saying Dad, I want that.
I love the Tim Keller quote.
He says the only person boldenough to wake a king at night

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for a drink of water at 3 am isa child.
My son's just being a childthere.
It's my job and myresponsibility to cultivate his
desires, but also, too, it's myjob and my responsibility as his
father to understand that he'sgoing to have those and I don't
have to beat that out of him.
I can shape him, I can mold him, and this is what God does with
our desires.
Ecclesia, yes, you may bewanting things that aren't going
to be good for you, but God isgood for you.

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Things that aren't going to begood for you, but God is good
for you.
He can be trusted with thatwhich you want and he will
direct you and he will do itpatiently and kindly, much more
than I often do.
And so his word will not failis not saying you can have all
the life that you've ever wantedbecause you can use his word as
some sort of magic trick.
It's saying that he will neverfail you.

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You can use his word as somesort of magic trick.
It's saying that he will neverfail you.
Look at how Paul traces thestory through generations.
God is glacial, drawing towardshim, and we see that he has
done this in his son Fully.
And finally, he has spoken andlived out his good news in the

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reality of the blood of ChristJesus given for us.
And so let us be people who areurgent in our broken hearts.
Let us be people that aretrusting that God will not fail
us.
Come Holy Spirit, jesus, wethank you for this really
beautiful and rich text fromRomans.
God, this really beautiful andrich text from Romans, god, god,

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we know that you are drawingnear to us in the midst of these
words, because that's what youdo, lord.
Your word doesn't fail and whenwe try to adhere to it, god, we
try to build our life on it, asJesus suggested that we do, god
, we find life in flourishing.
So, god, here in this place,lord, lord, would you give us

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permission to dream again, god,to dream in the midst of broken
relationships, to dream in themidst of broken dreams, or
dreams deferred or altogetherlost, lord, lord, to dream what
the last phases of our life maylook like, the last 10 years,

(41:09):
the last 20 years, god, that wecould become saints, lord, that
look like you, loving, patient,kind God, you loving, patient,
kind God.
As our bodies fail us, lord, wetestify to the fact that we
will receive a tent that isindestructible, god, that, as
our perishable natures pass away, god, we are receiving your

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imperishable nature.
And, god, help us out of thesettled sense of safety that
your word provides to us.
Be urgent ambassadors to ourneighborhood, lord.
Be people who love well, god,who see well, who speak

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courageously.
Jesus, may we see that, just asthose earliest Christians in
Rome could have never foreseenwhat the Christian movement
would become in the course of100, 200, 300 years, god, god
that you are always bringingabout fruitfulness and abundance

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through your faithfulness, god,and as we try to copy you and
be like you, jesus, you aredoing it in us.
We love you, jesus.
We pray you bring us to a fullawareness of what you've done
for us.
God, your blood, god, your bodyshed for us.

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We ask these things in yourname and the beauty of the name
of Jesus.
We pray Amen.