Israel's Rejection and God's Purpose

Thanks, Jeff, for your reading. If you haven't already, I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9. Today I've been given the distinct privilege and honor of doing the entire book. Not the book of Romans, but chapter nine of Romans. So I want to warn you going into this that this is a highly academic book.

I mean, I keep saying book. I mean, chapter. It is a highly academic book as well, but it's a highly academic chapter. And so the teaching today will be a little bit more on the academic side. I will look for places to apply things.

But I just want to warn you that if you've been trying to choose a sermon in which to take a nap, I wasn't saying this is the one. This is not the one. Pastor Chad, shame on you.

Yeah, that's just like you to have a nap while I'm preaching. All right, Father, as we dive into your word, would you glorify yourself? Would you reveal yourself to us? Would you help me to get out of my own way? And yeah, it's tough on a long sermon to be attentive, but I pray that you would help us to remember the things you want us to remember and forget the things that you want us to forget.

In Jesus name, amen. So in Romans chapter nine, we have an interesting topic. And the Apostle Paul begins to talk about something that is near and dear to his heart. In fact, chapters 9, 10, and 11 will cover this topic, because until now he's been covering and describing the functions of the Gospel. But the context of this chapter, that Israel has rejected the Messiah.

Yet God's sovereign purpose working through Israel still prevails. While God desires every Israelite to trust in Christ even when they don't, God still sees his purposes accomplished. So the central idea of this chapter is that God's purpose is to call for himself a people from both Israel and the Gentiles through faith, and that despite the unbelief of his chosen, his purpose will be accomplished. So that's a bit of an overview of where I'm going with this passage. So let's jump.

In the first five verses, I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ. For my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises, of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Can you sense Paul's tone?

He's grieving because his fellow Jews who have been chosen to receive the covenants, the law, the temple, sacrifices and the promises, the ancient fathers and through whom Christ has come, have rejected him.

See, everything in the law and the prophets pointed to Christ, as Jesus explained to the disciples on the road to emmaus in Luke 24, verse 25 through 27, he says. Then he said to them, o foolish ones, and slow of heart, to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Israel has a beautiful inheritance, but they squandered it.

They didn't recognize the fruit of that inheritance until it was too late. And so Paul is grieved.

But with that grief, Paul still has the ability in verse six to start off in saying, but it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. You see, Paul wasn't blaming God. He wasn't blaming God's Word for the failure of the Israelites to accomplish what they should have accomplished. And that is faith in Christ. You see, what he's going to do over the next couple of verses is he's going to draw on Jewish history and explain how God was able to accomplish his purposes as prophesied, despite the disobedience of so many in Israel.

And so the central theme of this passage is found in verse 17. I'll just read it really quickly. Romans 9:17. For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. And so what the apostle Paul is going to do here is he's going to contrast Israel's spiritual and national identities, showing that God's promise to Abraham has been fulfilled spiritually.

What the Jewish people were doing, they were looking for a physical fulfillment. They had already long ago abandoned the spiritual side of things. To them, the spiritual side was the temple, the rabbis. That was what they constituted as spiritual. And so what Paul is explaining here is that because they were so focused on the law as their identity, on circumcision as their identity from being from the line of Abraham as their identity, they missed their true calling.

And that was to have trust, to have faith in the Messiah.

So what we see here is that simply being An Israelite in the flesh doesn't make one a child of God. Let me read this here, starting in verse six. But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac, your seed shall be called, that is those who are the children of the flesh.

These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. You see that last part where it says, and Sarah shall have a son. Who is he talking about?

He's talking about Abraham, right? This is the promise, this is the seed. And how did Abraham receive that promise? Abraham believed. Right?

Abraham believed. And it was credited to him for righteousness. Now we're getting it. That's right. This is the promise.

We're talking about faith. The promise is always faith. When it comes to Christ, the line from Abraham all the way through to Jesus is a line of faith. But Israel was so caught up in the land, they were so caught up in the temporal, that they missed the eternal. So being descended from Abraham doesn't make you a child of God.

Being an Israelite in the flesh doesn't make one a child of God. Instead, only through the promise that Abraham received by faith that a son would come from him is he implied to be the father of many nations. Now I'm going to give you a statistic. Did you know that Abraham had seven other sons and two other wives?

Those boys are not sons of the promise. So Father, Abraham had many sons. Please don't let me sing the rest of it.

Not all of his sons, not all of the lines, carried the seed of the promise. It was only through, in this case, Isaac, where the promise came from. It's important to remember that as we dive into the next couple of verses. Because the apostle Paul says in verse 10. And not only that, I feel like Paul made a really good point already with Abraham.

But he thought, you know what? Now I need to double down on this. I need to make this clear. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac. And then a parentheses for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls.

That's a long one. It's was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob, I Have loved. But Issa I have hated. Now, we often stumble over verse 13 where God loved Jacob and hated Esau.

We think, how could. How could God do that? Right? And Interestingly, in verse 14, we're going to see that Paul asks the same question, like, God, what's up with this? Why would you do something like this?

But you have to understand that the way speech was communicated in that day is different than the way we communicate it today. If you went up to Paul and said, hey, bro, what's up? Paul would be, who's bro? It's you, broseph. You wouldn't understand our figures of speech.

This, too, is a figure of speech, okay? In Luke 14:26, it talks about the same idea in Jesus's statement, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters. Yes. And his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Now, would you say from that scripture that Jesus is teaching us to hate our family?

No. That's pretty easy. We're like, no, no, of course not. But when we're talking about hating Esau and loving Jacob immediately, like, wa a minute, that's, why did God hate Esau? That's not fair.

But the way the terminology works is when hate. This word, hate to hate is used in contrast to love here. It does not retain its original meaning of a literal hatred, but of a lesser degree of love. So in other words, you could say, jacob I loved, but isa I loved less.

Or when they talk about the family, you could say, don't love yourself or your family more than me. So this isa hated, and Jacob I loved. Let's not get caught up in that. Don't allow yourself to stumble over that. Here's simply what he's talking about.

Although Esau was not chosen to carry on the headship of the Covenant family, he was still blessed with earthly prosperity, strength. You see what God is, what Paul is explaining here is that God chose Jacob. I'm sorry. Yeah. Jacob, Isaac and Jacob.

To get so confused in my head, I even have a son named Jacob. I need to get this figured out. But he chose this line to carry on the seed of promise. And even before the boys were born, he chose Jacob over Esau. It had nothing to do with anything Esau did.

Now, before you think, well, Esau, he was a bit of a rough guy. He was the hunter. He was doing this and he was doing that. Let's not forget Jacob. Jacob was a sneaky little guy.

He was a liar. In fact, what does his name mean? He's a deceiver, right? Yeah. My mother in law, she used to make these little broideries for all of her kids and in law and grandchildren.

And on it was the name and the name and the meaning of the name. So when she got to Jacob, she's like, huh, can't put on here the deceiver. So this is so ironic. She, you know, she put on there truthful one.

She was awesome. I will keep that forever.

So here you can see Paul is starting to develop his argument. In Abraham, he chose Isaac as the son of the promise. In between Jacob and Esau, he chose Jacob. And you have to remember God has a purpose and he wants to use people to accomplish his purpose. And this is the direction that we're going.

What is God doing regarding his purpose in the history of the Israelites? And then what is he doing for his purpose for us in our history and how we are living? So the next question is, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? And I love when Paul asks these questions.

He goes, certainly not, God forbid, be it never be, right? This is Paul, he's, he's an emotional guy. I think he would probably intimidate me just like I intimidate some of you, apparently.

So God's choice, as we can see here, has nothing to do with the quality of the object of his choice, has nothing to do with it at all. And then he continues on here. He says, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. Now taken out of context, you might come to a variety of conclusions, but this quote comes from Moses. After God tells Moses that he has decided he won't go with the people of Israel in the wilderness anymore.

In Exodus 33:3, God says to Moses, for go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people. Sounds pretty brutal, doesn't it? Well, Moses, of course he defends his countrymen. And he says to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. Wow, talk about courage.

He was ready to forfeit the promised land because he was more concerned about God and being connected with God than anything else.

I'm going to deviate from my notes for a second because that just there's a really good principle there in our lives that I don't want us to miss when we get to the point that our walk with God, our fellowship with him is more important than anything else in the world. We will come to the point where we are willing to sacrifice every sin that we've ever done in our life, any luxury, any comfort, for the sake of being in fellowship with God. I'm not saying I'm there. I'm saying that's where I want to go. That's the direction I want to go.

So we see that God chose to have mercy on Moses and the people. Well, actually, I didn't finish reading it. It said, for now they gave you the answer before. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight, except you go with us, so we shall be separate, your people and I, from all the people who are from the face of the earth? So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.

God chose to have mercy on Moses and the people, not because of their righteousness, but because of his choice. God always chooses grace. In the same way, Paul explains that God used Pharaoh for his purposes and hardened his heart towards God. It says here back up to verse 16. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore he has mercy in whom he wills. In whom he wills, he hardens. It's worth noting that Pharaoh hardened his own heart at least three times. Some scholars say up to 10 times.

Before the text makes it clear that God took over and began hardening his heart. He went to Moses, he said, hey, Moses, relax. I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart. And when you go up to him, he's going to say, no, I will not let you people go. But know that I did that.

Why? To demonstrate my power and so that my name will be declared throughout the whole earth? You can see God's purpose just going all the way through this. But here's something that I want to bring out as another principle. And the principle is that we can draw from the hardening is the warning that we get in Scripture regarding hardening, hardening of our hearts.

In Romans 1:28, it says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. He's talking about unbelievers here, right? They did not retain God in their knowledge. They forgot him deliberately. And so then God hardened their hearts.

God gave them over to a debased mind. That's another way of saying that also in Ephesians 4, 17, 19. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of the thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to what?

The hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity. And they are full of greed. You see what's happening here? It starts out with people hardening their hearts.

And God gives them over. He says, okay, this is what you want. God, I want nothing to do with you. You don't exist. Get out of my life.

I hate you. Fine. That's okay. That's all right. I'll take a step back.

I'll let you have what you want.

If one keeps resisting God and hardening their hearts toward him, he will eventually give them over to hardness, making their restoration nearly impossible.

Now, in verse 18 we read, Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills, he hardens. And taken in isolation from other scriptures, verse 18 can seem to suggest that there is simply no hope for the people after that. But I want us to consider Romans 11:23, where Paul speaks of hardened Israel. He says, and they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. Israel had a hard heart, they had a stiff neck, they murdered the Messiah, they rejected Christ.

But even still, God is holding his hands out to them and saying, come to me. And it says, when they turn in faith, the veil will be removed from their eyes and they will see Christ for who he is, the Messiah. And Scripture gives a prophecy that says that one day this in fact will happen. The nation of Israel will see the Messiah for who he is, and they will repent. Now I'm getting into eschatology, and I'm not going to go any further than that.

Continue on. In verse 19, you will say to me, then why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God will? The thing formed, say to him, who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor.

Good question. If God chooses, why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will? But just remember what our context is from verse 17. That I may show my power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. So here is an element of God's choosing that we can't understand and he won't explain.

Here's kind of an answer. God has power over what he has created and chooses how each vessel will be used. I know this isn't really an answer to the question, but more of a statement of the facts, but it follows the pattern of Job, who questioned God about the suffering of a righteous man and whether God is truly just. God didn't directly answer him either, but he exposed Job's lack of understanding. The same is true for us.

Believing in the goodness and the righteousness of God is an act of faith, especially when it's hard to understand. So what does it mean for the potter to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

Is this a new idea in Scripture, or is it mentioned elsewhere in the Word of God? Look with me in second Timothy, chapter two, verse 20 says, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. Now here's a key scripture. First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 20.

Now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body. What's the context of this passage? The body of Christ. Right, the church. Talking about the people that make up the church.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again to the head of the feet, I have no need of you. No. Much rather, these members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on those we bestow greater honor.

And our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. Now, this kind of encroaches a little bit on our idea of fairness. We are all equal at the cross of Christ. No one is above the other person.

No one. Here's what we end up doing. We end up taking what God is doing for accomplishing his purpose in the church and saying that, well, what we really end up doing is we elevate some people above other people. We look down on some people and we honor some people. That should not happen.

However, that does not negate the fact that there are certain responsibilities, certain things that God has for each one of us in the church. Some are more honorable and some are less honorable. And you may be thinking, well, what do you think is more honorable? What do you think is less honorable? Right.

Do you have a list? Well, the scripture says that those who think that they are the ones who are more honorable, they have dishonored themselves. Right? Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the weak, blessed are the meek. And so by whose measure is it honorable and dishonorable?

Like, we can decide on our own, or we can let God decide and just treat all of each other like children of God, like the family God. But there are some things where God uses people in a greater, more visible way, and some things where God uses people in a lesser, less visible way. Okay, example Acts 9:15. But the Lord said to him, talking about, this is the story of Paul in Acts Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name. Before Gentiles, Kings, and the children of Israel.

Was Paul just a regular Joe Shmuel walking down the highway? No. Right. God used him in a great way. One of the great apostles of history.

And so there are different levels. They're just unknown to us. God is accomplishing his work. But here's a surprise for us. Galatians 3:13.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Is being cursed honorable or dishonorable?

Dishonorable, isn't it? So if you feel like I must be one of those dishonorable people in the church, you're in good company.

I think this is what he's talking about here. God uses whomever he wills, the honorable or the dishonorable.

And this is why not every person who claims the lineage of Israel is used honorably.

See, honor and dishonor are not necessarily a value statement, but a statement to determine specific purposes. God can use each person as he chooses. He calls as he desires. This is the mystery of God. Why did he make me a pastor?

God only knows.

I don't know. Some of you are probably wondering the same thing.

He chose for his own purposes and for his own reasons. Now, I think Paul finds the potter and clay illustration in the prophets and in Jeremiah 18, verses 3 to 6. Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. Do you know what the word marred means?

Messed up, made a mistake. Okay, so he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter says, the Lord? Look, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. And then in Isaiah 64, 8.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, you are potter, and all we are the work of your hand. Isn't it a bit of a relief to know that God is working his purposes out in our lives for his purpose and his glory? And we don't have to worry about that. Wherever God has put you, however he is working in your life, he's not making a mistake. But then the next question comes in verse 22.

What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory? Even us, whom he called not of the Jews only, but but also of the Gentiles. Now, vessels of wrath and mercy, I don't think are necessarily the same as vessels of honor and dishonor. I think they are referring to those in Israel whom God used as he willed. And so Paul is modifying the illustration to drive home his point.

And he uses these hypothetical what ifs. What if God willing to show his wrath and make his power known to vessels of wrath? Okay, God is enduring these vessels with much long suffering. And the question is why? Why does he have so much long suffering to these vessels of wrath?

Well, before we get into that, we need to understand that we have the Word, at least in the new King James Version. Prepared, it says, with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Then in verse 23, vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. I don't know if you knew this. I didn't.

But those two prepareds are not the same in the original language. The word prepared in the first one is meaning fitted, ready, or ripe for destruction. And I could try to pronounce it, but you wouldn't know if I was right and I would know I'm wrong. So let's not do that. But it's talking about not something prepared beforehand, but something that is being prepared for destruction.

So there are many intellect Israel, who are vessels ripe for wrath. And for them it has finally come. They have been preparing themselves for destruction, and God has been long suffering with them, not willing that any should perish, but that all should be saved. In 1st Thessalonians 2:14, Paul writes this. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us.

And they do not please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. And other places in Scripture we see that those who continue in unrighteousness and rebellion against God, they're filling up for themselves wrath in the day of judgment.

And then he continues, he says, what if God is willing to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy? And the word prepared here in this case is, is to prepare before indicating that God is the one doing the preparation, it says here. And that he might make known the riches of his glory and the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. So where else do we find vessels being prepared for glory? In recent Scripture?

Does anybody remember the teaching in Romans chapter 8, Romans 8:18? For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us in Romans 8:29, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. That's the glory. That's what he's talking about, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So what is Paul saying about these vessels of wrath and mercy?

Paul is saying that God will reveal himself in any way he chooses to whomever he desires.

Now, I've been talking about purpose, and I've already shown you in verse 17 that I may show my power in you, that my name may be declared in all the earth. But in these verses from verse 25 on, we see that God's purpose is accomplished. Paul gives two prophecies, one about the Gentiles, one about the Jews, in which God's purposes were revealed and have come to pass. I will call them my people who are not my people. And her beloved, who is not my beloved.

Talking about the Gentiles, well, it doesn't mention the Gentiles by name, but we know it's the Gentiles because in verse 27 it writes Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, also Israel, showing that he's moved on from another one people group. Now how many people groups are there when he's talking broadly about Israel? Gentiles in Israel. Right. Okay, so we know that the first one is about the Gentiles, and we see that the Gentiles will be called sons of the living God.

That's the latter part of verse 26. Be called sons of the living God. But as far as the Jews are concerned, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. Now, when you hear the word remnant, do you think of a large amount or do you think of a small amount?

It's a small amount. Paul even gave us a poetic contrast. He said, though the number of the children of Israel be like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved a small amount.

The Jews will have a remnant saved out of unbelieving Israel. Israel, I guess in the parlance of our modern language, was a failed project when it comes to the fact that as a chosen people who were given, when we go back here, they were given the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the services. We, when it says the service of God, he's talking about the sacrificial system and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh, Christ came. Talk about every single advantage that you can ever think about. And yet what did they do?

They went out of their way and they crucified the Messiah. If anybody had a chance, it was the Jews.

And then Isaiah says, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? They were wiped out. They were utterly destroyed. But God, for His love for Israel, for the sake of the promise that he gave to the fathers, he has saved a remnant out of Israel.

And God used Israel for his purposes all the way up until the apostolic period, the end of the apostolic period, God used primarily Israel to accomplish all his purposes. And Israel was a stiff necked people. Israel was a disobedient people. And yet God was still able to accomplish everything that he purposed to do. And he has now brought out for himself Gentiles, people who were not His People and a remnant of Jews.

Praise God for that. So in the last three verses we see, what shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained it to attain to the law of righteousness. Why?

Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. And as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. And whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. You see, the Gentiles, who could be classified as vessels prepared for destruction because they did not pursue righteousness, they found it through faith, they weren't even looking for it.

And God, in His mercy, you could call it his election. His choice, presented Gentiles with the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. By contrast, Israel, which could be classified as vessels of mercy because of God's election upon them, missed righteousness because they stumbled at the stumbling stone of Christ and Him crucified. And Isaiah foretold this long ago that they would stumble over the stone. What a shame.

And we need to be careful that we don't stumble over Christ.

Even as believers, we can stumble over Christ if we are ashamed of him, if we ignore him, if we allow the hardening to happen. The Holy Spirit is also God. And so when we ignore the Holy Spirit and quench it and grieve it him, then we are doing the very same thing.

Although Paul grieves over Israel, he shows us in history how God has accomplished his purposes through a disobedient nation, bringing the Gentiles and the remnant in Israel to become sons of God. Unfortunately, we are no closer to knowing how God chooses and uses people, only that he does so. Next week, Pastor Steve will preach on the means by which God brings the nations to himself. God is pleased to use the preaching of the Gospel to save both Jews and Gentiles. As I pray, I invite the team forward.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for your purposes, that from the very beginning your purpose was to bring a people for yourself, a family.

And even though the enemy came against that, even though the enemy was successful in many ways to discourage and disrupt and distract and destroy as it pertains to the people of Israel, you still accomplished your purpose because you are God. None of this is too hard for you. It doesn't matter what people do. You will accomplish what you have set out to do. Thank you that you Use people.

I think this is the difficult part because I am people and I know how stubborn and rebellious I am. And yet you condescend to use me.

I'll never understand why, but I'll never stop thanking you for the opportunity. This goes for every person in this room. I ask God that you would impress on every heart today the purpose you have for each person. And that you love and value them. And that you've called them to walk with you so that you can be revealed in them.

And that you can guide them to the ultimate purpose that you have designed for them. And I thank you for the glory of adoption, for the hope that we are looking for, that one day we will have new bodies and we will be just like Jesus. And that we'll be with you for eternity. And that we'll have these awesome hybrid bodies with flesh and spirit. And that we can still eat fried chicken.

Thank you, Lord. You are such a good God. We love you. In Jesus name, amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. It's so good to see all your smiling faces. I trust that God has spoken to you today and that you leave this place with a little more joy, a little more pep in your step than you did coming in. Mothers. Don't forget they got some little drinks for you back there.

I asked if they were special drinks. They said we're a Baptist church. I said so. You mean sugar? Yep.

I don't know for sure, but don't forget about that. Let me leave you with a small benediction. This is from the Book of Psalms. It says, the Lord is righteous in all his ways, gracious in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him.

In truth, he will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry and save them. I would say go with God, but God's already with you. So by God's grace, have a great week. We look forward to seeing you again.

Back next week. You're dismissed.