Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Thank you. If you guys have your Bibles, I'd ask you to find the, the, the book of the Italian prophet Malachi.
[00:00:09] My favorite Bible joke, I think Malachi, chapter one.
[00:00:14] And I don't know about you guys, I don't know about you, but this is one of these times I'm going to be raw and honest and, and I, I don't know if it'll resonate with anybody else, but there are times when the joy of the Lord, which is supposed to be like this well, spring of living, of living water, is evaporated in my spirit. Am I the only one?
[00:00:39] And I know, I know where the whale is, but I don't seem to be getting water from it.
[00:00:43] And I don't know what is it. Is it the harsh realities of life?
[00:00:48] Is it the conundrum of boredom which strikes us sometimes?
[00:00:56] I feel like in my case, it's an endless list of to do's, that each, each list is like a collection of sponges that are just pulling at all this joy of the Lord in me. And sometimes that to do list is just simply, it's all good things, but it's just a lot.
[00:01:18] And sometimes it's troubles, troubles around, troubles within. And what I mean by that is troubles brought to me by others and troubles I seem to have no problem manufacturing in myself.
[00:01:32] I'm a praying man, I really am. But I do wonder sometimes what God is doing.
[00:01:40] The book of Malachi. Malachi comes along at a good time in my life, not because I'm necessarily at one of these times, but I'll tell you, if I was at one, it wouldn't be the first one, and I doubt it would be the last one. I've experienced many times where I don't know what else to say, but it feels like the joy of the Lord has evaporated. And it's like, where did it go?
[00:02:03] Where did it go?
[00:02:05] Now imagine the life of someone in Israel facing the struggles of living on top of being under a very dominating, harsh foreign government.
[00:02:20] In other words, just, just living. Like, if you think things are bad in America, you need to fill out your, you know, fill out a form for your passport and go somewhere.
[00:02:29] I'm dead serious. We are so blessed that it's almost a crime that we complain.
[00:02:35] I mean, I'm dead serious every time.
[00:02:38] I don't want to get off on that. Just stop complaining.
[00:02:42] You have double reasons not to complain. You're redeemed by the blood of Jesus and you're living in a very, very affluent culture. Stop Grumbling. Anyway, so it's hard for us to sort of imagine what it's like to be eking out a living and under this crazy, harsh government, a foreign government.
[00:03:03] I know yesterday, and I'm not here to get into politics, but I know yesterday was no king's day, and it makes me laugh. I literally. I'm like, you guys need a civics lesson. We would have to have a armed revolution to go back to having kings. I mean, what are you talking about?
[00:03:19] There's no way our executive branch can rule like a king. I haven't liked any president since Andrew Jackson.
[00:03:29] As an exaggeration, I kind of like Ronnie Reagan.
[00:03:35] But I mean, like, my goodness, guys, we're really, really blessed. Amen. So it's sort of hard for us in a national sense, to enter Israel's mindset, but I guarantee you, we can enter it in a personal sense. God, what are you doing?
[00:03:53] I think the church can enter it in here.
[00:03:57] In our area, there are churches drying up left and right.
[00:04:02] You know that, right?
[00:04:06] I was telling Karen. Karen and I went for a ride this weekend, kind of a long ride. And we were passed by these beautiful church buildings, and we had. I don't know, we had passed by, like, a couple hundred.
[00:04:18] And I love architecture. And I always want to know, hey, what kind of church is that? Because if I'm driving fast, I want her to tell me, because I can see the building. I can't always read the sign, you know?
[00:04:29] And I started. I said, I want you to start noticing the parking lots.
[00:04:33] And so she started noticing how many parking lots covered in grass?
[00:04:40] You know that means something, right?
[00:04:42] Right.
[00:04:44] Now, let me tell y' all how far of a ride this was. We went to Hoboth Beach, Delaware, and back in about 24 hours.
[00:04:53] And we went in a big circle. We saw a lot of churches, right?
[00:04:59] Don't have a heart attack, Joe. Delaware is only six and a half hours away.
[00:05:03] It's not that impressive.
[00:05:07] And I said something to her, and this comment here is very personal to this local church.
[00:05:13] Me and Kara started talking about this. We're a little emotional about this.
[00:05:17] This parking lot used to be covered in grass.
[00:05:23] There was only lightly disturbed gravel for the space of about five cars.
[00:05:30] Since then, we've had to build parking lots, and we're happy to make more room, especially, you know, Peyton Lockbaum got her permit this past week.
[00:05:41] Peyton, we're getting ready for space for your car. Amen. John, get to work on that. You got a year, brother.
[00:05:47] Right.
[00:05:48] And this is not to make anybody feel bad. But I think the church. The church. If we think.
[00:05:55] If we think about the church. Right, the church. Capital T, lowercase C. I mean, capital C.
[00:06:02] Not just our church, but the church.
[00:06:06] I think we could say, like, hey, God, what's up? What are you doing?
[00:06:11] In this way, we're like the Israel that Malachi was speaking to.
[00:06:15] We're tempted to think you made some pretty big promises to us. And in my context, I don't know that I see those happening.
[00:06:24] And we could be tempted, like the people in Malachi's day, to take our happiness into our own hands and to create different definitions of success and holiness than the Bible gives us.
[00:06:39] I think the Israelites could have said, hey, isn't this supposed to be better?
[00:06:47] Sometimes. Sometimes I. I'll cook something, and I very rarely go by a recipe. And the only times I seem to mess something up is when I'm going by a recipe, and I'll go by the recipe and. And I'll taste it, and I'll go, isn't this supposed to taste as good as that picture made it look?
[00:07:06] And I'll start going back like, did I do everything?
[00:07:10] Did I do everything?
[00:07:12] And I think we can fall for that temptation, too. God, have I done everything now? Okay, so, yes, I have. Why isn't this better now? I know not many of you would say it out loud, but I will.
[00:07:28] I sometimes wonder if God really loves me.
[00:07:33] Now, I can come at that from two angles. I don't feel very lovable.
[00:07:40] Carrie just gave me a little wink, y', all, and it was over top of her readers, which meant.
[00:07:51] She wasn't trying to get a read on me. She's trying to give me a read on her. Let's pray, guys, it's time to end the service.
[00:07:58] I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding.
[00:08:03] Am I the only one? Do you guys ever just look at yourself and say, I don't feel very lovable?
[00:08:08] It would make sense to me that God doesn't love me. I don't feel very lovable.
[00:08:13] Then other times, I'm like, your love has made big promises. And it has nothing to do with how I feel. It's like I'm not seeing it. Where's this stuff?
[00:08:24] So I'll say it, and I'll say, I feel it in categories. I feel it as an individual. Sometimes I feel it as a head of household, you know, something I like to talk about with guys, you know? And if anybody feels like I'm putting somebody down here, you're hearing Me wrong, say amen.
[00:08:44] But you know, women are better and more open at saying how hard things can be for a woman.
[00:08:51] And I'll say things are hard for a guy too. We just, we're kind of lame and don't talk about it enough. Right? I feel the pressure of being the head of the household.
[00:09:00] I do. I mean, I feel it big time.
[00:09:04] And so sometimes these things come at me not just as a person, but like when I think about leading my family well and loving them well and caring for them, I feel the weight. Hey God, isn't this supposed to be a little better, a little easier, a little more, not just infused with a bit of joy, but flowing.
[00:09:27] I definitely feel it. As the executive director of my Life Matters, I don't mind saying it.
[00:09:34] I feel it being working on this revitalization team. And the more I get out in these churches, the more the weight of that lands on me just in a crazy way. And I feel it here.
[00:09:50] And so I'll just say it. I know it's a long introduction, but I, I want you guys to hear that when I. When I read these words from Malachi, which are from a long time ago to a people in a specific situation, God also has chosen to put them in the canon for the church, capital T, capital C, our church, lowercase C. Steve Riley and Clay Shipley and Joseph Loon and everybody else as individuals too. You get what I'm saying? This word is relevant and it almost sounds so nationally political to just Israel that we may miss that. This is a word to you, it's a word to me.
[00:10:37] And this is the word not that simply God has spoken in history. He's speaking.
[00:10:44] This word is alive.
[00:10:45] It's sharper than a double edged sword. And he intends to pierce us and to confront the same issues in us that he was confronting in them. So he might bring the same grace to us as he did to them.
[00:11:00] So I know it's a long introduction. Bear with me.
[00:11:04] I think my baseline question as I prepared looking at these few verses was if I'm really honest, Lord, if you love me, why is this so hard?
[00:11:21] You feeling your this? I can tell you what my this is everything.
[00:11:30] The only thing I seem to be able to do with no problem is mess up.
[00:11:34] I can see it on drop of a hat and this question is plaguing me, but it's also sent me into the doctor's office and he's been ministering to me.
[00:11:47] So what if I told you you're not going to get the ministry if you don't admit the sickness.
[00:11:55] Malachi, chapter one, beginning at verse number two.
[00:12:00] I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us?
[00:12:07] Is not Esau Jacob's brother? Declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says, we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of Hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down.
[00:12:28] That sounds like working in the nursery back here.
[00:12:31] They will build and I will tear. Okay, they may build, but I will tear down. And they will be called the wicked country.
[00:12:39] And he's also saying they'll be called these two things, the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is what church?
[00:12:47] Isn't that a bothersome phrase right there?
[00:12:50] Whoo. Verse 5. Your eyes shall see this, and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. Let's pray.
[00:13:02] God, I have endeavored to paint a picture, but I pray, Holy Spirit, you grant us a reality.
[00:13:12] Make us like.
[00:13:14] Make us like little Samuel who would hear the voice of the Lord and say, speak for your servant is listen.
[00:13:22] Make us like good Mother Mary, who in her very young years said to the Lord, let it be to your servant as you declare.
[00:13:32] Let us be hearing people who say, yes, Lord, in Jesus I pray. Amen.
[00:13:39] Amen.
[00:13:41] Firstly, is this. God is loving his people.
[00:13:44] Malachi, chapter one. The first part of verse two is one of those things that it's very difficult to translate into English without using a huge paraphrase, right? And so you got to pick a lane. You have to pick a lane. You could say, God is saying to them, I have loved you. And that sounds like. What kind of tense in language? What tense is that? Okay, everybody knows that.
[00:14:08] Praise the Lord. Education's paying off.
[00:14:11] But you could also translate this as, I am loving you. Now, it wouldn't be like, I love you, but we need to hear it in English. You know, English is full of all these weird rules. I am loving you.
[00:14:27] And the best way it could be translated would require a paraphrase about this long.
[00:14:31] It would be like saying, I have loved you, and I love you, and I'm loving you, and I will love you with a loving love that never runs out of loving love.
[00:14:44] Now, you want that? In the technical terms, it's what you call perfect error tense.
[00:14:50] That's why my kids got that good homeschool education. Yo.
[00:14:57] That means he's saying this. This is like this. This expression. Has always been alive. And it is alive, and it will always be alive.
[00:15:07] And that's very important.
[00:15:09] Not because English is a funny language. Because sometimes we only think of God having loved us in a historical sense or in a sense attached to our feelings or circumstances in a moment.
[00:15:23] And so you notice how they shoot back. He says, I've loved y', all.
[00:15:27] And they just start singing.
[00:15:29] What's love but a secondhand emotion?
[00:15:36] Isn't that what it said?
[00:15:42] There's this book out there. I'm not sure if I recommend it. I kind of recommend it. I would say I want to take it so seriously, but it's called the Five Love Languages. And I kind of think every couple, no matter how long you've been married or if you intend to get married, I think you should look at it. Because you just take, for example, if you don't know your partner's love language, you could be, you know, you could think, man, I go to work every day, and I work real hard, and I provide for them.
[00:16:11] And I got this second job, and I'm trying to do it. I'm providing for them.
[00:16:15] You say, I'm really loving them, but what that person, the way they hear love or experience love is by spending time.
[00:16:24] So they might go through a bad part in their relationship and say, you don't love me. What do you mean, I don't love you, lady? I'm working my fingers through the bone.
[00:16:33] And she said, but you're never home because I'm working my fingers through the bone. He thinks he's saying, I love you, but she's not hearing the I love you. He's saying, does that make sense to anybody? Some of y' all have experienced this. Some of y' all are the cause of this.
[00:16:49] Do you know, I would say it's healthy in friendships, too, to find out people's love language.
[00:16:54] You know, we're not preaching about that. But you see their question. God says, I have loved you. What's their question? Right back to him.
[00:17:07] You got to show me.
[00:17:10] I don't feel very loved. God, brothers and sisters. Some of us.
[00:17:17] Some of us may say.
[00:17:20] Some of us may say it's been a long time since the cross.
[00:17:28] Some of us may say, it's been a long time since I first met the Lord and knew the power of his transformational spirit within me. And it seems like that's gone.
[00:17:44] So can we. Can we kind of say, with Israel, I get where you're coming from. God says, I loved y'. All. And they go, I want to know what love is.
[00:17:55] And I want you to show me. I mean, that's God. We don't.
[00:18:01] We're not feeling it. We're not feeling it.
[00:18:04] I need you to know, Church, that just as God says to them, I have loved you. And they didn't understand it. It did not mean it wasn't a reality.
[00:18:17] One more quick illustration.
[00:18:19] How many. How many of you guys have ever frustrated one of your children by show of hands? Who's ever frustrated. Who's ever frustrated one of your children when you were doing what was right for them and they did not like it?
[00:18:38] And in their method of hearing love, they might. If they could have been more sophisticated, they might have said, you don't love me.
[00:18:48] Matter of fact, a few weeks ago, Brett Carver, you know, Hayden's in.
[00:18:51] I don't know what she's in. To tell you truth. I think middle school.
[00:18:55] She seems like she's 33 now. I don't know. She's tripping me out.
[00:19:00] He says he got his first you're ruining my life from her.
[00:19:06] He's well on his way to probably ruining her life and getting more of those comments.
[00:19:15] Are y' all with me? Can you. Can we kind of enter, like, maybe we can't say we know what it's like for those Nazi Canadians to be ruling us right now, you know, making us buy more flip flops and rainbows and stuff, but we can look at the church and say, it seems like what you promised and what we're seeing, there's some distance there. We can say as individuals, God, I believe in you, but why is it so hard?
[00:19:46] So secondly, secondly, let's see this. God's love is demonstrated by his choice of his people.
[00:19:54] I would say that God starts out with a powerful appeal based on his love is not shocking. Amen. It's not shocking.
[00:20:03] If you're having problems in a relationship, what do you say, baby, I love you?
[00:20:10] And she might say, I don't see it.
[00:20:14] And so he goes, you know, A, B, c, easy as 1, 2, 3.
[00:20:19] That's what he does right here. He says, let's look at the facts.
[00:20:25] His answer, I would say, is very surprising, right? You might say, in order to demonstrate his love, God might have said, you know how the rain keeps falling? And you know how fruit keeps growing from trees? And you know how critters still taste good when you put them on a fire? And do you know how you have oxygen and no asteroid has bombed your planet? And you know, you know, you can list all these sustaining graces that you experience simply through creation. Wouldn't that be a fair list?
[00:21:00] But he doesn't. Did anybody, as we were reading it, notice what he does?
[00:21:05] He goes back to Genesis. He goes. He goes, hey, y' all know the story Esau and Jacob, right? They're twins. Esau's the older brother. He came out first, but I didn't give him the older brother trip privileges. I chose. I chose Jacob.
[00:21:19] And he's saying to him, like, out of all the peoples that I could have picked and formed from the very beginning of your existence as a people, I picked you.
[00:21:31] What?
[00:21:34] What? Now, I don't know if you've ever seen this movie, and I'm not sure if I. I should recommend it. Not because it has this horrible content. The subject is tough. I asked John this morning, had he seen it. The subject, the movie called Spotlight. It's based on a true story of when the Boston Globe newspaper broke the massive Roman Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals up in Boston somewhere around the time of 9, 11, about, you know, 20 some years ago. Books have been written about it now. They. They published in one year over 600 articles about this. They found over 90 priests systematically had been covered up, right? And they're. They're at the beginning of the story. And this isn't a. This isn't a. What do you call, a spoiler. It's not like, you know, this has already happened in history. I can't change a movie, okay? But he says, hey, we want to go up against the Catholic Church. And somebody's like, are you sure you want to do that? And they asked this newspaper, do you have the money to fight these guys? And they made the comment that is so telling in the movie. Says, the church thinks in centuries and we only think in years.
[00:22:44] Right? That's true. The Church thinks in centuries.
[00:22:48] What does God think in millennia?
[00:22:50] Eternities.
[00:22:53] And it's very hard when we're feeling lonely and isolated and cut off and that the love of God, the spirit of God is evaporating in our life. It's very hard to motivate me by saying, hey, remember that time back in the Garden of Eden?
[00:23:07] Yeah, I remember reading about it, but I wasn't there. God.
[00:23:12] But he goes back to the origin point of their being chosen because he wants them to understand their current point from their origin point.
[00:23:24] He says, look back. I want you to look back. Okay? I want you to think on Esau and Jacob. You asked me how I have loved you. Let me start at the beginning.
[00:23:35] As a matter of fact, Let me quote a couple verses from Genesis, chapter 25.
[00:23:39] The children struggled together within her. This is their mother, Rebecca. And she said, if it is thus.
[00:23:47] Or Rachel. Excuse me.
[00:23:49] It's Isaac's wife. I suddenly forgotten about that. What was her name, y'? All?
[00:23:54] Isaac. And it's Rebecca. Praise the Lord. The children struggled together within her. And she says, if it is thus, why is this happening to me?
[00:24:04] God has promised her a favor, and she's like, something is going on. And why is it like this? Do you see this origin story here? The question's embedded. God, you're doing something, but it doesn't feel like a very good thing.
[00:24:19] So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. Now, what's those last few words say?
[00:24:29] The older.
[00:24:33] So do you see what. What he says?
[00:24:36] What? He says through the prophet Malachi to the people. He says, hey, I love y'. All. I have loved you. I am loving you. They said, we don't feel it, man. You go, okay.
[00:24:47] Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, your ancestors, Esau and Jacob, you all come from Jacob.
[00:24:57] He was the second born, but I made him the first son.
[00:25:02] All this stuff is related to my choice.
[00:25:07] I don't know about y', all, but if I.
[00:25:10] If I were. If I were God and. And was omnipotent, I. I wouldn't have chosen either one of these guys.
[00:25:16] If you read the stories of Esau and Jacob, neither one of them were particular superstars, right?
[00:25:24] And so the choice is not based on their merit, but on God's choosing, God's sovereignty. And what he is saying to them in no uncertain terms is choosing is loving.
[00:25:36] And he. He. He puts it in the most stark terms. He says, you know, I chose Jacob. Therefore, you can see I love Jacob.
[00:25:43] I did not choose Esau. So by comparison to this love, it seems like, what?
[00:25:50] Hate.
[00:25:52] Let me try that again. I don't know if y' all picked up on that. I chose Jacob. And this choice is love. And so by comparison, by not choosing Esau, you could think of it as, whoa, now let's pause and say, what's this got to do with the church?
[00:26:10] If you were ever called into a place of repentance and faith, you are part of the chosen.
[00:26:19] Wow. That's pretty big, isn't it?
[00:26:22] And I want you to know something.
[00:26:24] This walking with God is a separator. Did y' all know that walking with God is a separator.
[00:26:30] It should separate us from our old self. Let the church say amen. It should separate us from the world. It should separate sheep from goats.
[00:26:38] Amen.
[00:26:41] It can be a hard kind of separation. Look at Luke, chapter 14, verse 26. If anyone comes to me and does not what say it.
[00:26:51] Hate his whole Whoo.
[00:26:57] Whoo.
[00:26:59] Is he saying to Hoken folks what he's saying is this choosing of God over and over again, over anyone, over everyone, over anything, over everything. This choosing, this responding to God over and over again. Choosing to love God by comparison will seem like hate to those who you don't choose.
[00:27:24] Now, it used to drive me crazy. Used to drive me crazy.
[00:27:30] I didn't grow up going to church. I began to walk with the Lord, started going to church, and never in my life had my family done anything on a cotton picking Sunday.
[00:27:41] Now they start having family gatherings on Sunday, right?
[00:27:45] Why? I have no idea other than to test my spirit.
[00:27:50] And my mouth always passed the test, but my heart always failed it. Because I say, now I'm going to church. Praise the Lord. Inside I'd be going, these godless pagans, why are they doing this to me?
[00:28:04] All right.
[00:28:07] And it would seem to some people in my family, like, you must not love us.
[00:28:14] Okay, if you're going to put it there, then I don't. If you're saying my choosing to have a life in alignment with God means I'm not choosing to have a life in alignment to you. If you're going to compare this choosing to walk with the Lord is love.
[00:28:28] I love Jesus.
[00:28:30] And if you're going to say that choosing feels like hate to you, we can label it that I'm preaching about in y'. All. Amen.
[00:28:42] I thought about it this week. I think I'm going to start bringing little Debbie cakes and I'm going to throw them to people who say Amen until it becomes Pavlovian.
[00:28:50] This is so important in New Testament discipleship that the apostle Paul brings it up in Romans chapter nine. I got to speed up. I will says this, and not only so, but also when Rebecca. Praise the Lord. I was right. Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad. In other words, their choice is not on their merits. Say Amen in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works of him who calls.
[00:29:19] Now, you can say you don't like the doctrine of election, but you're going to have to fight with the Bible. I'm just reading the Bible.
[00:29:28] Verse 12. She was told, the older will serve the younger. We just read that. Genesis 25, 23. Amen. Say amen as it is written, Jacob, have I loved. And Esau have I hated. You see, he just brought that. Genesis 25, Malachi, 1, 2, and 3. Right there. It just all came together.
[00:29:46] But wait, there's more.
[00:29:50] What shall we say then? In other words, what are we to gain from this? What are we to understand from this? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
[00:30:11] We're all.
[00:30:12] I'm gonna put some blanks. Y' all ready? And see if you can fill in the blanks. You ready? We are born blank in our blank.
[00:30:20] Dead in our sins and trespasses. Either one's a good answer.
[00:30:26] Okay, so all have blank blessings. Blank, blank, blank.
[00:30:33] Okay.
[00:30:35] I just suddenly felt like the rock right there.
[00:30:41] Welcome the 90s kids to the room.
[00:30:46] Okay, Darius, how many who do good?
[00:30:49] None.
[00:30:51] All have done what?
[00:30:54] Sinned, fallen, gone astray. And what have we fallen short of?
[00:31:00] Think about the story of Noah, right? Does the Bible say that Noah was a good dude first? Or does it say that the whole world was in miserable sin? Which one comes first?
[00:31:14] God looked at the whole world. The whole world was in miserable sin. And the Bible says. But Noah. I think Sarah just said it. Thank you, Sarah. Amen. But Noah found favor. All right? Could. Could a dead man go out looking for the favor of God? No. This means this favor was placed on him. All right? So why am I beating on this? Because a lot of times you won't feel loved. But has God been presented to your spirit and you come to a place of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ? Then he has loved you and is loving you, and he doesn't change his mind. Across generations, circumstances, or season, reasons.
[00:31:52] You are loved because he is loving you.
[00:31:56] And there's way more here. We preached through Romans a few years ago.
[00:32:01] Half the people left and half the people came.
[00:32:08] He gives an example in verse 17, which I didn't quote here. He says, listen, you want a negative example of this? I raised up Pharaoh to show y' all how this works.
[00:32:18] In other words, Pharaoh is just as bad as everybody else. I used a bad guy.
[00:32:24] I don't know. It's not remarkable to me that someone is chosen. It's remarkable to me that anyone is chosen.
[00:32:31] Does that make sense to y'? All?
[00:32:33] I see the time. I'm already frightened to death. Pray for me.
[00:32:38] Thirdly, quickly. There's so much more to be said here. Go to life together. Group. Argue about this stuff. Pray through it. Cry. Do some stuff.
[00:32:45] Third, God's love is demonstrated by his divine care for his people.
[00:32:51] Now, I walked up to Katie and Rachel on Friday morning, like, utterly freaked out, being dramatic, of course. I'm like, you better pray for me, because right now I want to explain all the history of the Nabataeans and the Idumeans. You better pray that I can somehow avoid this before I get there on Sunday night.
[00:33:09] Y' all didn't pray.
[00:33:14] Look back at verses three and four. You know, he. He tells them. He tells them there in verse three and four, he says, listen, Esau have hated. You Want some proof? I want you to look at his lineage. Okay? I want you to look at his lineage. What happened to him? I have laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says, we are shattered, but we will rebuild, I'm going to say that's what it says in Hebrew, Okay? What he is saying to them is God has demonstrated his love for his people by how he has protected them in the past.
[00:33:46] And what is he saying? He's saying, like, no matter. Y' all are no better than the. Than the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. You are no better as humans, right? But every time you fall away from me, every time you. You mess up, every time you sin, every time you wreck your nation, what do I do? I rebuild you. Every time their nation gets rebuilt, they rebuild it, and I tear it down again. And he's saying, like, this is the eternal trajectory that each one is on.
[00:34:14] I keep putting y' all back together and I keep breaking them down until ultimately we're only together. Let the church say Amen.
[00:34:24] And they are only cast down.
[00:34:27] That's the short history of that. And you can get into it, man. Cause it's so good. It's so good. The history.
[00:34:33] And it's true. The Edomites get built up over and over again. And man, left and right, people just. God uses other nations to whoop their hiney.
[00:34:42] I'm gonna go ahead and give y' all that person. County version.
[00:34:48] At one point, at one point, when the people of Israel were in Babylon, one of the Babylonian Psalms, Psalm 137, verse 7. They say this. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, lay it bare, lay it bare down to its foundations.
[00:35:05] Do you know, that's a real fancy way of saying, you remember how they treated us? Get them.
[00:35:11] Remember how they felt about us? Get them.
[00:35:14] It's, it's, it's an imprecatory prayer. And in that moment, they're saying, hey, God, you know, we want you to. We want you to deal with those ugly cousins of ours.
[00:35:25] God has demonstrated his love for his people by how he's protected them in the past. And there's a marked difference between evil nations. All equitably evil, all equitably evil. But one keeps getting forgiven and restored and renewed. And the other may be building, but they're building with sand.
[00:35:48] What would Jesus say about that?
[00:35:50] A house built on sand is taken out by storms.
[00:35:55] The other thing I would say here, God demonstrates his love by promising his continued care for them. I don't want you to miss that. In verse number four, it's a really comparative thing he says, basically, Edom can say, we're going to be all right. I'm telling you, they're not going to be all right. Okay? They can say they're going to be all right, but they're not going to be all right. I'm going to be angry with them forever. I'm going to judge them forever. Conversely, what is he saying?
[00:36:23] I am not going to judge you forever. I will judge you, but I'm not going to judge you forever. You will falter, you will fail, you are sinners. But I'm going to keep restoring and renewing and building you up. God demonstrates his love by promising his continued care for his people. One super quick side sermon.
[00:36:45] Did y' all know some nations are listed in the Bible all the way through the End Times? Did y' all know that some nations are listed? Did y' all know that? Amen.
[00:36:55] Can you name a nation that's not by name listed in the End Times?
[00:37:00] Say it out loud, Katie Bose. I saw your mouth.
[00:37:03] The United States.
[00:37:05] Okay, to think our national heritage, our national experiment is part of God's ultimate divine importance. Man, y' all trippin. Everybody on both sides of this political thing is straight tripping.
[00:37:22] The United States is not named as a major End Times player.
[00:37:28] At the same time, to think for one moment that God doesn't work in and through and amongst and with nations is biblically immature.
[00:37:38] Don't put too much stock in being an American, but don't dismiss what God does through nations.
[00:37:45] You know, that's what God is saying to him right now. Says like you. You guys are looking at the Edomites and you're thinking they're ascending and, And. And that you don't love us. He said, I'm trying to tell you I. I love you and I love you. And by comparison, about how I care for you, I hate the Edomites.
[00:38:03] Okay, can I put that another term?
[00:38:05] It's the church and everybody else. At the end of time, it is the redeemed of Christ who will be restored into the presence of God through eternity, and everybody else won't be.
[00:38:20] What is the ultimate nation? It is the kingdom of God under King Jesus.
[00:38:27] And what he said, I have loved y'. All. Said we ain't felt very loved. Okay, let's go back to the beginning. I chose you and I sustained you. Sometimes I chastise you. I also chastise your neighbor. Oh, ultimately, all you're going to get is my sustenance. And ultimately all they're going to get is my judgment.
[00:38:47] Ruh roh raggy.
[00:38:51] Now, lastly, and very quickly, God's judgment of the wicked will prompt praise from his people.
[00:39:00] Look at verse five. He says, your own eyes shall see this. And you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
[00:39:07] That's like. That's a fancy way of saying, like, God's working with the whole world. Amen. God is working with the whole world.
[00:39:12] God's judgment of the wicked will prompt praise from his people. Now, this is the point this week. Well, this is the second point. The first point is walking y' all through all the history of the Nabataeans, the Persians, Babylonians, the Idiomaans, so forth and so on. Aren't you glad you were rescued?
[00:39:32] Here's the second point where I cut out 500 slides.
[00:39:36] Okay? No, actually, I think it was like 32. I cut out 32 slides. Robert's telling me to go ahead. Robert, I've cut them out. There's no hope for you to see them.
[00:39:46] Listen, did you know the Bible is full of examples of praise? When God does something for his people to their good, When God does something to their enemies for their good.
[00:40:03] The Bible's. I mean, full of it. As a matter of fact, when we were preaching through the Book of the Revelation, some of the things I thought would shock y' all and make y' all come back and talk to me and say, I don't know about that preacher. It didn't. And some things I never thought of did. Like, there's one example in the book of the Revelation where it says God is going to cast down the wicked, and some of them will be your family members and you will praise God for it. That was the one that people smoked me over.
[00:40:29] I'm like, go read your Bible. Leave me alone.
[00:40:32] Wives, submit to your husbands. Go read that. I mean, just go read all these parts you don't like and talk to God.
[00:40:38] Because it's sort of tough to think that it's going to come down to sheep and goats and some people we dearly love currently are goats.
[00:40:47] It's easy when it's the Edomites and they've been snitching and betraying and carrying on. And you like, yeah, snitches get stitches, get on Jesus.
[00:40:57] It's easy. When you think about the people who are getting on your nerves in your life, you think, yeah, God, get them.
[00:41:03] But did you know the ultimate dividing point is not going to be based on who gets on your nerves and who blesses your little heart.
[00:41:11] It's going to be on who has.
[00:41:16] Who has had the call of God upon them and repented and believed in faith.
[00:41:22] And that's going to be the dividing line. I mean, and it's going to be so good to be one of the redeemed, that we're going to rejoice even when it's people we dearly loved in life, we're going to rejoice that justice of God has fallen on those who rejected the Messiah.
[00:41:41] It might be mind blowing, but that's the reality. So here it's easy.
[00:41:46] He's like, yeah, I loved y'. All. How'd you love us? Look how I took care of you. I've held you up, I built you up. I've accepted you back in over and over and over again. But I'm not gonna put up with them forever. Yes, Jesus, yes.
[00:41:59] Get them, Lord, get them. People I don't like.
[00:42:13] Ultimately, though, who is this judgment going to be against those that reject the Savior. Now, let me give you some quick application. There's so much more here. This is so rich because it calls so much of history past and history future into focus. But let me give you some application.
[00:42:31] Can I go back to the beginning?
[00:42:34] I don't know if you'll admit it as openly as I will, but I don't always feel loved.
[00:42:40] I don't always sense the love of God.
[00:42:43] You know, everybody called Care when she was young, they called her Care Bear. And so all of my family Has Care Bears designations.
[00:42:52] Mine is Grumpy Bear.
[00:42:55] You know, it's a little blue bear with a rain cloud on his belly, which Care. And I got matching Care Bear tattoos this weekend. We'll show you later.
[00:43:07] Also a lie. I just want to see her face, You know, I'm gonna tell you there are. There are many justified days where I don't. I don't feel lovable and wouldn't blame God or anybody for not loving me. I am kind of grumbly.
[00:43:24] I expected to hear some Amy ends on that.
[00:43:27] I am kind of grouchy.
[00:43:29] I am, you know, kind of. You know, I.
[00:43:34] I do have a perpetual rain cloud over my head, but I also like rain, so.
[00:43:41] And cold. Take that, all you summer people.
[00:43:46] But there are days that I feel like I've gone by the recipe and I just wonder where God is, You know, I was growing up, growing up. I had a great aunt. She would say, good girls get families, fast girls get dates.
[00:44:18] And I remember asking her one time, we were stringing tobacco. If you don't know what that means, it means preparing it to put it in the barn. And I say, I'd like to be a good fast boy. And she smacked me in my mouth.
[00:44:34] With her old yellow rubber glove on.
[00:44:39] I think sometimes God troubles us that his pace isn't ours.
[00:44:46] But don't ever mistake that. He loves you. He loves you in Christ Jesus. His timing is not your timing. You think in days, the church thinks in centuries. And God has all of eternity to fulfill all of his promises to you.
[00:45:02] How do you know whether God really loves you?
[00:45:06] Well, you were born dead in your trespasses and sins. If you have any notion at all that you can not only turn to the living God, but you can be known and forgiven by him by repenting of your sin and turning to Jesus Christ. He has loved you.
[00:45:20] He is loving you. He. He will love you with a loving love that always loves.
[00:45:31] If your feelings rule you, it will subvert your faith.
[00:45:37] If your faith rules you, it will encourage your feelings.
[00:45:44] Finally.
[00:45:45] Finally, I want to say a personal word to Ishroq.
[00:45:48] You know, we could edit a couple of things out and this could go out to any church, but this is to Isrock. I think God is calling us to Kingdom building right here. Seriously. And I think we got to wrestle with history and destiny. Some things are really small and simple. Like there used to be.
[00:46:04] There used to be grass on our parking lot.
[00:46:08] Now our congregation has moved to two gatherings, right?
[00:46:12] Where is God going with all this?
[00:46:14] I don't know, but I think he's loving us.
[00:46:18] I know churches that can't find a preacher. We have a bevy of qualified, loving expositors of God's word. I know churches that can't find one piano player.
[00:46:29] We got two whole music groups. And some people can do things and they're just sitting out there not doing them.
[00:46:39] I won't say any names, but I'm thinking them.
[00:46:45] And there is. There is. With this history and destiny, there is a question that should live right here on us. God, what are you doing? What are you doing to give us so many wonderful, blessed, gifted leaders and congregants yet? Yet you haven't given us one single rich person to let us build a megachurch and take everything over.
[00:47:12] He's doing something. Can we. Can we, like Israel, live under this blessing and miss out on the message? I think so. We better be listening.
[00:47:22] Also, there's a lifestyle that builds a legacy, and that's what Malachi is going to call Israel to. He's going like, hey, you know, God's doing something. And they're like, no.
[00:47:33] He's like, well, he is.
[00:47:35] So let me tell you what he's up to in a very cosmic way. And then I want you to align your lifestyle with the legacy he's going to build in spite of you.
[00:47:45] That should be said to ISRA right now.
[00:47:48] We don't have to totally understand all that God is doing to understand that our lifestyle as congregation will determine the legacy that we let God build through us.
[00:48:02] Real personal word here. I think the question is, how are we responding? A real personal word. Do you know, since we've split into the second gathering, I told you guys, a church hearing we were going to do it reached out to us. Since then, two more have.
[00:48:17] Two more.
[00:48:18] And one of them has said, we don't even need to talk. Come lead us, revitalize us now. I don't know. We could revitalize. That's a whole nother thing, right?
[00:48:28] Don't worry. We ain't made no promises to nobody. I just see God is stirring, right? He's stirring.
[00:48:36] So we may feel all the sponges in our busyness and our troubles, pulling at the living water, evaporating our hope and our joy and making us go, God, where are you? But God is working in cosmic ways, even in nations and in local churches, in families and in communities. And his. He's doing something. What should our response be? Align our lifestyle with the legacy that God has already said he's going to leave. What is he going to do. He's going to build his church until he comes back to get his church.
[00:49:15] Personally.
[00:49:17] Where are you today? You know, I know.
[00:49:19] Say, preacher, I really didn't like all that hated stuff you said somebody there. I was going, did you know my middle name was Esau?
[00:49:29] I didn't.
[00:49:31] Here's the thing. You ain't got to figure out predestination and election. You ain't got to figure that out.
[00:49:36] You know what you got to figure out? It's this simple.
[00:49:39] Do you think God's calling to you?
[00:49:41] Do you think God is dealing with you? Do you think God is pointing out to you his glory and. Or your sin, or your sin and or his glory? Do you. Do you feel the compelling work of God in your life? Well, no corpse gets up and plans his funeral. It is the living who visits the dead.
[00:49:59] You don't have to figure out all the theology. You know what you need to do. Say, yes, Lord, I repent. Lord, I turn to you in Christ Jesus, and guess what? Your theology is going to get a lot better. Longer you walk with him.
[00:50:13] Then you can return to election and predestination and wrestle with all the things the Bible does say.
[00:50:20] And we can discuss it ad infinitum until we're all infinitum.
[00:50:28] But it doesn't start with all that heady stuff. It starts with you and I responding to God.
[00:50:37] Where's your relationship with him today?
[00:50:41] Do you know him today? Don't turn him away. He can seem distant. He can.
[00:50:46] That don't mean he is. It could mean what I am.
[00:50:55] Do you know him today? Let's pray. God, thank you for the patience of this people.
[00:51:00] Bless us now as we move toward a close.
[00:51:03] Bless us, Holy Spirit. Bless us.
[00:51:06] Bless us with encouragement in your spirit. There are many of us who are just tired.
[00:51:13] This rat race, the pressure of life, this commercial system we live in, the thousands of choices that pull at our attention nonstop. The voices, the angst, the amount of people who don't like each other. In our country and our community, all this stuff just rips at us.
[00:51:34] And any of us can be like the whole nation of Israel and say, God, where are you, God?
[00:51:41] We're going by the recipe, but we're not getting the dish.
[00:51:48] Father, you have loved us. You do love us. You are loving us and will love us with an everlasting love.
[00:51:57] Lord, help us to connect to the truth.
[00:52:00] And may the truth rule our feelings.
[00:52:02] Speak to us now, Lord, in Jesus we pray. Amen. Let's stand.
