Sermon Tone Analysis

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SLIDE 3

Romans 9:6

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SLIDE 4

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SLIDE 5

Rom 9.11-

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INTRO:

One of the most common questions that little children ask, is “Why?”

-You can’t have a cookie.

Why?

-You can’t play on the road.

Why?

-Let’s clean that maple syrup out of your hair.

Why?

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There’s always a why… but with the ‘why’… there might not be an answer that fits into their limited wheelhouse of understanding.

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When I was a little kid in the early 70’s… I wanted to go and play with the Little Rascals.

I actually thought they lived close by.

I looked for them when we would drive places.

I couldn’t understand that those kids were actors from the 40’s.

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I remember asking my grandma about them… but her answer didn’t make sense to me.

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The world of a child, is very small.

Their understanding, is very elementary.

Their perspectives are simple… therefore, when they ask, “Why?” - Well, we can’t always give them an answer that works.

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They don’t understand why you have to go to work… they don’t understand taxes… or mortgage payments… or medical bills.

The answer to their “Why?”…

sometimes goes very deep… too deep…

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WHICH IS WHY THE COMMON ANSWER WE GIVE IS: “BECAUSE.”

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As we grow up… we still ask why.

Sometimes we have the capacity to understand, receive and process an answer.

Sometimes, even as adults.. we don’t.

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Sometimes, it’s not an intellectual limitation… but rather, an issue of philosophy… loyalty… hate… emotion… or sympathy.

- Which is part of the reason why our nation is so philosophically divided right now.

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One side asks, “Why?”… but when the answer is given by the other side, it does not work.

We have a strong drive to place our loyalties and our sympathies in front of reason and logic.

If our enemy says a truth… it can’t be true.

If our team mate says a lie, it has to be a truth.

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We are unwilling to set aside loyalty, or hate, or sympathy… therefore… we become incapable of receiving an answer to our question.

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Why?

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There’s a lot of this in the Bible.

Jesus was always coming up against the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were asking, “Why?”

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And while some were able to receive an answer… even as it offended their titles and their team philosophies… - MOST WERE HORRIBLY OFFENDED.

- They couldn’t look beyond their loyalty to a belief system, and consider the answer that Jesus offered them.

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When we open our Bibles… we open them… usually, with this question in mind.

Why? -

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And we might get an answer.

Some people have already contrived their desired answer in advance… and they will make the scriptures say what they need them to say.

THE BIBLE CAN say anything… if we QUOTE IT IN PART AND OUT OF CONTEXT .

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SO… If your agenda, or your hate, or your loyalty, or your sympathy… have wired you to only receive a specific answer… well, you might not get a true Biblical answer to your question: “Why?”

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Because the context of the Bible, does not take a back seat, to the context of our limitations… our prejudices… and our loyalties.

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So… the Bible gives us an answer… but sometimes it’s a hard answer to both understand… and receive.

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We often times lack that ability, to fully understand and accept what is in the mind of God.

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Today’s passage, would be a prime example.

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God… why are some saved, and others are not?

Why are so few saved… and so many are lost?

God, why did you love Jacob, and hate Esau?

Why?

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God’s answer… in so many words… is simply this: “I am the potter, and you people… you are the clay.”

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If we make God out to be like us… puny humans with limited understanding… we might try to box him into our own sense of short sighted judgment.

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And we might say… if I were God…- I would do this differently.

I wouldn’t allow war, or natural disaster, or I would save everybody, or I would change the list of rights and wrongs…

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We sing a worship song called, “The Earth Is Yours”… it’s a great song, that is true.. and was written by a talented song writer.

- HOWEVER… -That song writer, Michael Gungor, has declared that he no longer believes in God.

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I recently heard him tell his story in an interview… -He spent years trying to re-define God into someone he wanted to believe in.

-He used his life experience, his sympathies, his culture, and his influences… to determine what he thought God should be like…

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And since God was not like… the god he wanted… he finally came to a place where he said, “I don’t believe.”

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Like many others… he continually asked God “Why?” - But, like children who don’t understand quantum physics… he wasn’t satisfied with the answer… - And so, like many… Michael reconstructed his idea of God, until he couldn’t handle the burden of trying to believe in a God he had to continually recreate…

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The moment we start to reconstruct God… is the moment we take charge of God.

We become His creator.

We mold him into a being that does our bidding, and agrees with our ideas…

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That end of that road… is ultimately… disbelief.

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In today’s passage… Paul makes it clear… - God is who God is… and God does, what God does.

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This conversation was sparked by the thought of Israel.

God is doing a new thing with the church… but what about the old thing… with Israel?

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And we looked at verses 1-5 last week, where Paul explained the incredible privilege that Israel was given…

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And then, we considered verses 6-8… Where Paul spoke to them on their own terms.

Israel understood, that some who were from the lineage of Abraham were children of promise… and some weren’t.

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Through Isaac… not Ishmael… through Jacob… not Esau… - They understood that.

They banked on that.

They built their prejudices upon that.

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There was a lineage that they depended upon… because God had a plan for that lineage… spoke through that lineage… and had a purpose for that lineage…

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The end of this plan… this message… and this purpose… was a Messiah named Jesus… through whom, the promise of Abraham was fulfilled.

We cited this last week....

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…from … where God promised Abraham, through his seed, or his descendant (a word which was singular, not plural)… all of the nations of the earth will be blessed.

- Jesus is that seed.

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And because of Jesus… some are children of promise… and some are not… and it is no longer a matter of physical lineage.

Now… it is a matter of spiritual lineage… this is where we experience the promise.

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Let’s look again at vss 9-13

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SLIDE 7

Rom 9.9

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SLIDE 9

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I want to focus in on a phrase in verse 11… but first, let’s tackle this thing in verse 13 that many of you are struggling with right now..

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Wait a minute: God hated Esau?

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I thought God was love.

I thought God so loved the whole world… How can God hate Esau just because he was innocently born from the wrong mom?

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If we think wrongly about what the Bible is saying here… at least two damaging things could happen.

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ONE: We could actually thing that God loves some and hates others based on our direct and literal reading of this , devoid of context and culture… - And we might walk away from God, because God is a hater.. and we don’t want to serve a god who hates..

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+That would be problem number one…

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TWO: If God loves His children, and hates everyone else… then I can do the same thing… I can hate Muslims and Homosexuals and and Atheists… because God hates Esau… - And some think this way… SOME IN THE CHURCH, express their difference in belief… with hate.

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= and a wrong understanding of verse 13… could lead to this dangerous conclusion.

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But sometimes… the context of a verse is linked to languages and cultures that thought completely differently than how we think.