Because God loved the fathers he chose their descendants and personally brought them from Egypt by his great power
37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;
God's extended metaphor of Israel as an abandoned newborn he rescued, raised, covered in covenant, and adorned with beauty that spread among the nations
4 As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born.
6 “‘“When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’
7 I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare.
8 “‘“Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine.
9 “‘“Then washed I you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
10 I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sealskin shoes on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.
11 I decked you with ornaments. put bracelets on your hands, and a chain on your neck.
12 I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.
13 Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate.
14 Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh.
The angel's message that God's love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong, and the towns of Israel will overflow with prosperity
14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”
16 Therefore Yahweh says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’
17 “Proclaim further, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”
Paul's argument that God has not rejected Israel, that Gentiles are grafted into the olive tree, and that all Israel will be saved
1 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.”
4 But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
8 According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
9 David says, “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always.”
11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
15 For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
16 If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree;
18 don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.”
20 True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;
21 for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
22 See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
26 and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
27 This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”
28 Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.
32 For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.
God exulting over Israel, calming her fears with singing, when he comes to rescue her
17 Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
Referenced briefly in connection with a coming time of Jacob's trouble in the last days
1 “At that time,” says Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 Yahweh says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.’”
7 For Yahweh says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
11 For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.
15 Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
16 Yahweh says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh. “Your children will come again to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
21 “Set up road signs. Make guideposts. Set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel. Turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
23 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’
24 Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal.
28 It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yahweh.
29 “In those days they will say no more, “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says Yahweh.
33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:
36 “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they…
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brian opened this Sunday by walking Tribe fam through a set of Old Testament and New Testament passages that together trace God's long, unbroken commitment to Israel, the people, the land, and the city of Jerusalem. The message was framed as preparation for a coming series Brian is calling "twenty one days for Israel," and the whole morning was an invitation to let Scripture begin shaping how the congregation thinks and feels about Israel before that series begins. He gave it a title: Pack Your Bags.
What was said
Brian started by asking the congregation to think about what they are actually living for, and he was honest that for a long time his own picture of eternity was fuzzy, clouds and harps and not much more. Getting serious about what Scripture says about Jesus returning changed that, and he said the church is living for far more than most of them have yet realized. That frame sat underneath everything that followed.
He moved through a sequence of passages, treating them like items on a packing list, things to write down and chew on in the days ahead rather than to fully unpack right there in the room. The thread running through all of them was the same: God's attention toward Israel was not earned. The Ezekiel 16 passage made that plain. On the day Israel was born, no one wanted her, and God chose her anyway, spoke life over her, covered her, made a covenant with her. Brian kept coming back to the point that there was nothing in Israel herself that explained God's choice. That was the answer to his own question about why God singled out this particular people.
He spent time on the marriage language that several of the passages use, and he pushed the congregation not to skip past it. God did not reach for the image of a business contract or a team partnership. He reached for marriage, Brian said, because he was trying to communicate the deepest possible level of covenant commitment in terms people could feel, not just understand. And Brian flipped it: when we enter a marriage covenant, we are copying something God originated, not the other way around.
When the group read through Romans 11 together, passing the microphone around the room, Brian slowed down at several points. He addressed replacement theology directly, the teaching that the church has now become Israel and that God's covenant with the Jewish people has been transferred. He said plainly that holding that view requires ignoring or discarding an enormous amount of Scripture, and he pointed to Romans 11 itself as a chapter that makes God's ongoing commitment to Israel as a people unmistakably clear. Paul's argument, Brian noted, is that the grafting in of Gentiles was never meant to signal that the original branches were forgotten.
Brian read the line "and so all Israel will be saved" and connected it to other passages he referenced about a coming moment when Israel, surrounded and in its darkest hour, will recognize Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. He described that moment as the fulfillment of the marriage covenant language in Hosea, when God finally brings home the bride he never stopped loving.
He was candid that for many people in the room, Israel sits somewhere on the periphery. He did not treat that as a moral failure but as something that needed to be addressed before the series begins. His argument was simple: if you love Jesus, you will, over time, come to love what he loves. God's own words in Zechariah, that his passion for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong, make it hard to love God fully while remaining indifferent to what God says he cares about deeply.
The final stretch was practical. Brian told the congregation that the next two Sundays are a ramp. Joy will speak next week about fasting and self-denial, and the week after that Brian will invite people to decide what they will set aside to make room for the series. He framed it with a jar illustration, saying that for most people life is already full, and Israel will not fit unless something else is moved out first. The invitation was not to guilt but to reordering, and he said that when people align themselves with what God's heart is set on, they should expect God to do something in them that connects to every other part of their life, not just the Israel portion of it.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
Write down the passages Brian listed today, Genesis 22:18, Deuteronomy 4:37, Deuteronomy 10:15, Deuteronomy 32:9-11, Ezekiel 16:4-14, Hosea 2:19-20, Zechariah 1:14-17, and Romans 11, and sit with one of them each day this week.
Read Romans 11 all the way through on your own and ask the Lord to speak to you about his heart for Israel as you go.
Start thinking honestly about what you could remove from your schedule or abstain from to make room for the twenty-one days for Israel journey that is coming in a few weeks.
If you have a brother or sister who holds to replacement theology, invite them out for coffee or a beer and listen to where they are coming from before sharing what you are learning.
Ask the Lord to begin aligning your heart with what he says in his word about Israel, not telling yourself what to think, but genuinely inviting him to speak.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Brian described the weight that comes with being a people chosen by God to be a conduit of blessing to all nations. Where else in your own life have you felt the weight of a responsibility or calling that was bigger than you could carry on your own?
In Ezekiel 16, God's first words to an unwanted, abandoned Israel were simply 'live.' What does it mean to you that God's choice of Israel had nothing to do with their own merit or attractiveness?
El domingo, Brian compartió que Tribe está por comenzar una serie de tres semanas de preparación antes de un viaje de veintiún días enfocado en Israel. El punto de partida fue una pregunta sencilla: ¿por qué le importa Israel a Dios, y por qué debería importarnos a nosotros? Brian recorrió varios pasajes del Antiguo Testamento para mostrar que el amor de Dios por Israel no es un detalle secundario sino una de las corrientes más profundas de toda la Biblia. Ese amor se describe con el lenguaje más fuerte que existe, el del matrimonio, porque Dios quiere comunicar compromiso eterno, intimidad y pacto, no simplemente un acuerdo de negocios.
También se habló de la teología del reemplazo, la idea de que la iglesia ha tomado el lugar de Israel y que Dios ya no tiene planes para el pueblo judío. Brian señaló que Romanos 11 responde esa idea con claridad, mostrando que las ramas del olivo original fueron apartadas temporalmente para que los gentiles pudieran ser injertados, pero que Dios tiene tanto el poder como la intención de volver a injertarlas. La salvación de Israel no es un asunto cerrado sino una promesa todavía por cumplirse plenamente.
Como preparación práctica, la próxima semana Joy hablará sobre el ayuno como disciplina bíblica ligada a la comida, y la semana siguiente Brian invitará a la congregación a decidir qué dejar a un lado para hacer espacio real, en el corazón y en la agenda, para este camino de veintiún días centrado en Israel.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados
Génesis 22:18
Deuteronomio 4:37
Deuteronomio 10:15
Deuteronomio 32:9-11
Ezequiel 16:4-14
Oseas 2:19-20
Zacarías 1:14-17
Sofonías 3:17
Romanos 11 (capítulo completo leído en voz alta)
Read the full transcript11,479 words
Let's go order. Raise a hallelujah. Raise a hallelujah. Find me ready. This is for Christian too.
Raise a hallelujah. Find me ready. Let's you raise a hallelujah. Find me ready. Jesus, your beautiful little tag into Jesus, we love you.
Got It's right on that chair. And can we give that to Kat? Kat, do you mind being a microphone runner? Do you wanna test it real quick? Love you, Kat.
Everything she does is cute. Good morning, Bob. How I feel today. It's a pitch that dogs can look at. Good morning.
Let's stand together. All you faithful, faithful, faithful ones. Extra faithful ones. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we thank you for today.
Thank you for every heart in this room. When we come together and we worship you because you're worthy. You're worthy. Despite how we might feel today, we stand before you and we just exhale. We surrender again today.
Surrender our will. We surrender our plan. We just tell you we love you today. Renew us today. Renew our love.
Renew our faith today. As we lift praise in this place today to you. May it be pleasing to your ear this morning. King of kings, Lord of lords, we raise a hallelujah in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Let's lift our voices today. We raise a hallelujah. Just worship him today. Yes, Lord.
We just come before you. We tell you you are worthy. Worthy this morning. Before we even sing another note this morning, we just tell you thank you. Just take a minute and just right where you are, just from your heart this morning.
Just tell them thank you. Just let your mind just focus on him. We just be still before you, Lord. We remind ourselves why we're here today. Would you search our hearts today, search our lives, the secret places today?
Maybe some of us dragged ourselves in here today. There's lots of hurt and burdens, and, Lord, we just come before you today. We trade this burden, and we yoke ourselves with you and say your burden is easy. And when we yoke ourselves with you, we attach ourselves to the power available in you to defeat the enemy. So that's what we do today in our worship.
Find us ready, Lord. Search us today. Get out any impurities today, any repetitive sin, whatever that bondage is that would hold us back today, Lord. We wanna be free. That we would just be waiting, waiting in anticipation for you to meet with us today.
Just let them search your heart for a minute. We're not in a hurry. Maybe there's something bubbling up you need to repent of this morning. Because, Lord, you're coming back for your bride, your church. Ready for you.
Well, this was our heart's cry as we were digging into really first digging into the return of Jesus. And what are we really living for? What are we living for? You know, we used to I used to picture heaven was just like clouds and harps maybe. Would I get to play one?
I'm not sure. I knew I'd worship the Lord. That was clear and I'd be excited. But when we really started to dig in to the return of the Lord, oh, we're just we're living for so much more church. We're living for so much more now.
Let's just sing this as just a prayer. Find me ready. Find me ready. Ready for you. Find me ready.
Waiting for you all that day you return. Find me burning and ready for you. Find me ready now, Lord. Whether I see you come in the clouds or I see you face to face tomorrow. Find me ready, Lord.
Sing that again. That's what the Bible says that he's gonna look like. It says, I know that your eyes are like flames of fire. I know that your head is white as well. I know that your voice sounds like Just close your eyes.
Just sing that to him, Jesus. Lord, we just tell you we love you. Maybe the Lord is putting a picture, a word, maybe a scripture. He loves to come and speak to his people, and Kat has a microphone over there just so that we can hear you and so our livestream family can hear what the Lord is speaking, calling. So you just flag her down to stick your hand up if you have something.
Worship him with your body. That's what king David did through Jerusalem. Come holy spirit. Fill us to the point where we can't be self conscious. In your precious and holy name.
The first song that we sang, the words, hope is rising. And with those words, I got a picture. Seems kinda strange to me, but maybe not to some. But there was a group of people crowded in a place like this in the middle of summer with skis and ski boots on, and and they were squeezed almost to the point of having a panic attack. They felt restricted.
They felt bound. They felt there was no way to escape, no way to get out. And then Jesus appeared, and he knelt down before these people with the skis and the boots that were so tight and so crowded, couldn't even unbuckle their their ski boots. And Jesus looked up at them and said, may I help you? All you have to do is say yes.
Say yes to me, And I will unbuckle the boots, I'll take the skis, and I'll set them aside so that you can be free. I don't know if that is a picture or some words or that you can identify with, but if there is a connection, then Jesus is saying, say yes to me, and I will set you free. I'll show you the path to freedom. You don't know what it is. You don't know how to do it, but I will lead you.
I will guide you on the path to freedom. So thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus. We bless your name. Thank you for your faithfulness.
Amen.
Who else? Receive that word if that's for you. Ask the holy spirit what he wants to do in you. Just keep getting this moment this week pop up in my mind where this is not about me being awesome, but I was just we were had been in a fast this weekend. I was like, all I feel is numb, Lord.
I don't, you know, feel anything. I'm resting in prayer. Was the last day, and the this guy, Billy, came to bump our septic system. And I was just like, oh, I mean, I was gonna go to the gym, but I was like, just didn't have any energy. And he comes up and he said I said, hey.
I wanna watch how you do this. I've always wondered how do you get the lid out and what's it all what's hap what's all that what's all that situation? And he was like, well, you feeling energetic? And I was like, sure. He said, get a shovel.
So we we shoveled the septic lid out, and this overwhelming love for this man, like, washed over me. And he was crass and had all these great cuss lines. That I won't repeat in church, but he was cracking me up, and he just you know what? He just opened the door wide open, and he said, what what do y'all do here in Jackson? You know?
I said, well, we we pastor a church, and he's, what? He's, oh, my. Well, I'm sorry for my and and I we got to talking anyway. And I just remember at one point, I was just I was just weeping. And I just kept saying to him, it's just all about Jesus.
Like, you're making this so complicated because you was raised a certain way. And then he kept saying, you know, I worship the animals and I worship the mountains. That's what I worship. You know? And I said to him, said, you know, it's like going to an art gallery and seeing a beautiful Picasso painting and you're just worshiping, looking at how the canvas is made or the paint itself and never like going deeper and exploring like, is the artist who created this?
And, you know, nothing miraculous happened that went to at one point, I don't as I get older, like, I never used to, like, touching people. Brian used to, like, go, hug her. Hug her. Like, when we were, like, doing youth ministry. Like, she's crying, hug her.
And now it's like, I can't keep my hands off of people. Like and I've been doing this thing where I'm like, I go and I touch people's faces, like, random strangers, like, when I feel like the Lord has a word for me. So I went to he was sharing with me and sharing with me, and I just I just went was re reaching to touch his face, and he put a huge dip in, and it fell all over his chest. And I the love of the father was just I couldn't. I just I don't know.
Something when you empty yourself out either in worship or in disciplining your body or whatever, that is the byproduct of emptying yourself out is his love for people. Right? And I just felt like the Lord afterwards, I was like, what was that? Like, I just felt wrecked for this man and like and I just felt like the Lord just showed me a picture during worship that when you pick up your shovel and like come alongside somewhere, you pick up your shovel and worship, like there's an action to his love being poured out. Because I didn't feel like it, you know, and gosh, he just fills you up, he just gives that to you, but there's like an action step.
And then love for someone or love for the Lord in a way that you never thought you could love just comes over you because of him. Not because of us, but because of how empty we are. That's a weird thing to say. I'm sorry, but that's what happened. I just kept remembering that today and just Lord, we empty ourselves out today.
How can you fill us to overflowing if we're stuffed so jam full of the world or of other things or other thoughts or fear or busyness. How there's just there's things that have to be emptied out of us for that overflow to come. And it'll look like love and compassion for people, not out of our own strength. Lord, I pray for that sweet, awesome man, Billy. I pray that those seeds would go deep.
Lord, I pray for the seeds that everyone in this room has planted with people around them. We don't need to see the harvest, but we trust you and we believe you. Lord, we pray for all the seeds planted in our children that we've seen not seen yet bloom and see fruit yet. Lord, we just we just ask that you would just water, water, water those seeds. And lord, we pray for any seeds in hearts in this room that have been planted through worship.
Lord, we just say come and water.
I've got practical shovel for you guys. Mhmm. In this situation right now, I don't know if we're gonna keep worshiping or not, but I don't know. When but we were singing the first song. Well, before you guys came here, I said a good prayer as we were warming up or doing a sound check about walls coming down here today.
And as we were singing the first song, I saw us marching around Jericho sized walls. And if you guys are familiar with the story, the armies of God were sent out to worship around the walls of Jericho. And whether or not you have walls up today between you and the lord, if it's like imaginations of, well, if I give my heart to Jesus, then, I'm gonna have to, you know, stop cussing and I'm gonna have to stop doing this and stop doing that. I'm gonna have to clean myself up, and I don't know if I want that. But that's not what it's about.
It's about receiving the best love in the and going forth in that and walking through life in that and facing life's storms surrounded in love. And so today, I feel like the shovel that we've all been handed is worship. Coming alongside and really letting a rip. Worshiping the lord, turning your eyes to him, and telling him he's worthy will cause walls and other people even So, whether or not we continue today or in the future, just keep that in mind. You're not worshiping for yourself.
You're worshiping for your neighbor.
Lanisha, will you pray for us as we go from this kind of worship to the next, please, ma'am?
God, thank you for allowing us to be here today in your presence, Lord. God, thank you for your love that you pour out over us freely. God, I pray for all the hearts and minds in this room, Lord God, for us to come together under your love, under your forgiveness, and your grace, and your mercy, god. Holy Spirit, I pray that you just continue to pour out your wisdom. Your comfort over the hearts in this room.
Lord, we just pray for beautiful breakthrough for the people here in this room, lord god. For our worship to be a testament of our faith going before your throne. God, we thank you. We thank you. We praise you, lord.
I pray as we go into our next part of worship for our ears to be listening to the words that PP has for us and for our hearts to be transformed. We love you. We praise you. In Jesus name, amen.
Amen. Alright. Make a new friend. Say good morning.
Yeah. Who's that? What is it? I thought I no. I usually sit on, like, one with What?
I thought I sit on something different. Yeah.
Oh, I
got it. Yep. Thank you. Love you. Good luck.
I did think it was. Yeah. A. You get an A. Good morning.
Alright. I know a lot of church family People are hitting those sprinkles real hard. Good morning. Yep. Here we are.
Thank you. Here you are back in the bar. Might have thought, didn't I just leave this place? Yep. Maybe you did, but you're here.
Glad that you're here. Speaking of church in a bar, welcome to tribe. This a quick update. Several of y'all have have been asking like like, okay. So this is great.
How long are we gonna be here? The answer is that's a great question. I believe that we're gonna be here for the foreseeable future. If you remember several months ago, maybe we're on twelve weeks here at the Virginian, we decided to step out here because the place that we are meeting, the building that we own was a little smaller. We're looking for more room, trying to hear the voice and the leadership of the lord in where to go and what to do.
This place came available to to rent on a week to week basis. And we said, alright. Let's give it a few weeks trial, try to as we're learning to hear the voice of the lord in this particular area and his leadership and the peace and his leadership, but not only the the vision, but also provision. And so I just wanted to give you just a quick update. The the simple answer is our finances are holding out.
This is this is almost a $7,000 a month additional expense on our budget, but god is good, and we're we're holding out here. And so if you have felt in any way, like, I'm just kind of, like, holding my breath trying to, like like I don't know. Do I call this home or not? Are we just moving from one place to another? Well, the answer is we're kind of always moving from one place to another.
In that in that regard, we're a church on the move. We wanna be able to to be nimble and limber. And wherever he leads me, we will Follow. Follow. Whatever he feeds me, we will Follow.
Follow. Alright. You're ready for the mission field. I like that. I like that.
So I just wanna let you know, like, you can you can relax. Let's settle in here. This is where he has us for the foreseeable future. And as summer I'm sorry. I'm sorry to say it.
As summer starts to wind down, I know. I know. We're about to get ready to shift gears here in this in the larger community of Jackson Hole, shift gears for the fall. We get to see the leaves change. We get to see the summer tourists leave, and then come the fall tourists.
Then we we get to go, like, be quiet and, like, paint our faces and tromp around out in the woods and fill our freezers full of meat. And as we go into the fall, we're gonna be here. And what I would say is we'll probably be here at least until Christmas. What do you think? Okay.
The new girl who maybe has either maybe never have been here before is like, yeah, it sounds great. I'm I'm so glad that you're so enthusiastic. Alright. So the new girl is excited for us being here and the rest of us are too. Okay, guys.
I I wanna let you know a little bit about what's coming up today, the next couple of weeks, and the few weeks following. Today, I wanna invite I even though I just said, like, settle in and unpack your bags, unpack, but, like, have a backpack packed because today, we're gonna start getting ready to go on an adventure. Alright? So, like like, let's let's get it let's get excited about the adventure that we are about to go on because three weeks from now, we are going to make room in our hearts for the Lord to speak to us and impart his heart for the nation of Israel to us. And we are going to go on what I'm calling twenty one days for Israel journey where we are going to invite the Lord.
We're not gonna manufacture it. We're going to search God's word. We're gonna open up our hearts and invite him to pour his thoughts, his emotions, and his promises for the people, the land, and the city of the great king of Israel into our into our hearts. And we're going to, starting this week, take three weeks to get ready for that journey. So you got three weeks to pack your bags as we go on this adventure.
Today, I'm going to begin to show you in god's word several places that speak of and sort of capture god's heart for Israel. And you'll hear god refer to Israel as a he. You'll hear god refer to Israel as a she. You'll hear God refer to Israel as Jacob. You'll hear God refer to all of Israel as a city.
You'll hear God refer to the city as a whole nation. And if you've ever thought about, like, wait. Like, Like, why are we going? Like, what are we doing about Israel? Like, you just got this big face.
The whole idea is we're gonna take three weeks just to get you ready so that you don't have that face anymore whenever we talk about Israel. So with that with that in mind, here's what we're gonna do. We're going to begin looking at several different passages from god's word. And some of these is just a verse or two. Others are rather lengthy, and then we're gonna land the plane this morning with a a long passage from the book of Romans.
And you've I'm sure you've read it before. Perhaps you've read it with, depending on what sort of lenses, like glasses, you were looking at this passage in Romans from, but this is where we're gonna land. As we walk down the path today, if you're new to Tribe, I hope you know that this is a place where you can, well, maybe you don't know if you're new to Tribe, but if you're new to Tribe, I want you to know that this is a place where we have a conversation, and it's a dialogue and not just a monologue. Right? When we were meeting at the TMC, which is our our other building that we own and that we have a lot of meetings in, the space was really small.
And when there were, like, 40 or fifty fifty of us crammed into essentially a living room, Like, we were we're all in this together. And during that time, the lord's like, hey. Let's have this be a conversation, more of a dialogue and less of a monologue, and we wanna carry that same format here into this venue. So today, pyroses, if you have questions, connections, comments, I wanna hear from you. I wanna I I I want this to be a conversation, not just a sage on the stage, but the way that it works, just like you saw during worship, if you have something to contribute or if you, like, you need to call a time out whenever our family is watching a TV show or, like, a documentary or something, we always, like, have the ability, like, okay.
Time out. I call a pause, and then you have to stop the movie, and then we ask, like, the plot questions or, like, wait. Who is this guy again? Yeah. Whenever we watch movies with Corey Lack, he loves it.
He's like, no talking, no pausing because he he I mean, he's there in the movie, but, like, our family, we're talking and all all the time. And so I really want this to be more like our living room and less like Corey's living room in this particular moment. So so, like, I want you to ask questions. I want you to engage with the text. And if and if something is said that you're like, oh my gosh.
That reminds me of, then please, like, speak up, share it. A mic will come around to you so that all of our families that are watching on the livestream, they'll be able to participate as well. And, usually, on Sundays, without fail, I'll get a few texts from people that are watching the livestream, and they have things to contribute as well. With that in mind, if you have your bible with you this morning, would you click on Genesis chapter 22?
Yep.
This is the title of this morning's conversation is pack your bags. Pack your bags. We're gonna start by looking at Genesis chapter 22 verse 18. And if you think of today's message like a packing list, write down these verses as we read them so that in the coming days and weeks, you can circle back around and unpack them for yourself. You can chew on them, meditate on them.
The first place we're going is Genesis chapter 22 verse 18. Some of these passages, I'll have you read. Some of them, I'll just crank them out. Alright? So listen to this.
God is speaking, and he says in verse 18, and through your descendants, all of the nations of the earth will be blessed. All because you have obeyed me. All the nations will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me. Have you ever thought of one person or one people group to be a conduit through which god reveals himself and blesses all of the nations of the earth? Can you imagine the the the blessing?
But not only that, but the responsibility and the crushing weight and load of carrying the covenant of God. And if you've ever set foot in the country of Israel, you feel the weight whether the people of Israel are conscious of that or not. There is a tremendous weight that comes with that statement from the lord that rests on the people and the land. The the the weight on which any covenant or assignment rests, whether it's the Old Testament prophets, the land, the people, for those who carry, his anointing today, there is a weight that apart from the grace of God, crushes those on whom it rests. Just look at all of the Old Testament prophets.
There's a weight there. Genesis twenty two eighteen, we just read that. I want to move expediently through these so that we can get to later passages that we're gonna spend more time on. Alright? The next one is Deuteronomy chapter four.
So turn ahead in your bible to Deuteronomy chapter four, and I'm gonna read one verse there to you from Deuteronomy chapter four verse 37. Deuteronomy chapter four verse 37. Perhaps the best that you can do is write these down so that you can come back later and unpack them and read them and chew on them. Deuteronomy chapter four verse 37. Because he loved your fathers, therefore, he chose their descendants after them, and he personally brought you from Egypt by his great power.
There is an endurance to the words of god that carry on throughout the generations. Have you ever made have you ever made a promise to have you ever made a promise to your kids? And in in some ways, the promise that you've made, it was really more if we could just be honest as parents here, it was really more of a ploy to get them to, like, behave in that moment. No. No.
No. There are no there are no good parents here that have ever done that. And then later afterwards, after you said in the heat of that moment, like, by this time, if you're good, you know, I'll give you such and such. And, like, they can't remember to brush their teeth. You have to tell them that every time.
They can't remember to, like like, take out the trash on a weekly basis. You have to remind them of that. But if you make some sort of, like, really quip of a promise of a reward in the moment for their compliance of behavior as soon as they're done, how is it they can remember that? Remember, dad, you said you're like, that's right. I did.
Do know that god never forgets a single promise that he's ever made that lasts for generations. And in this verse yeah. Are you gonna help me with this thing for a little
You're struggling. I'm feeling
I do need that help.
It's because this is too long. Bear with me.
Thank you, baby.
Welcome, baby.
Thank you, Mimi. Well, that's so much better. Listen to what god is saying. Because he loved your fathers, therefore, chose their descendants after them, and he personally brought you from Egypt by his great power. Even generations of Israel that had walked away from him, and they had forgotten his promise.
Have you ever and I'm sure it's never happened to any parents in here that you remembered that thing that you promised, but by the time it was, like, time to deliver, they were already, like, conked out, and you just, like, got to put him to bed, you know, and you didn't actually have to buy him that pony. Like, they forgot. God never forgets. I wanna continue on with several more of these passages. Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 15.
Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them, and he chose their descendants after them even you above all peoples as it is today. Now we're gonna ask this question. Well, what was it about Israel that god that that got god's attention in the first place? Oh, there's a beautiful answer for that. We're gonna we're gonna look at it in a moment.
Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses nine through 11. For the people of Israel belong to who does the word say? Who? The lord. Jacob.
Now he's referring to an entire group of people by one name, Jacob, is his special possession. He found them in a desert land, in an empty howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them, and he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes. And then it goes on to talk about an eagle that spreads its wings out over and hovers over them. This fall, the in one of the seven major feasts that god has appointed, the fall feast is that of Sukkot where people are invited to spend time out of doors.
We did this last year as a tribe family, and you make, like, a little shelter, like a a it's called a sukkah, and you sit out under it as we remove ourselves from the the comfort and the ease of the life that we normally live. We go out and live in tents, and we rough it. And the idea is that under this sukkah, God spreads his canopy, his protection so that we're reminded of his great hand of provision in our lives. And in a similar way, throughout the history of Israel, yes, including all that you think of and know of of the history of Israel, god, because he is a promise keeper, has spread his wings out over these people. What is it about these people that God has selected?
We gotta keep going before we answer spend too much time on that question. Ezekiel chapter 16, because we're gonna come back to this. This is a passage that's worth us all turning to, and let's take a few moments, and we'll pass the mic around the room. And I'd like us to, you know, read a verse or two and then hand the mic off, but turn to Ezekiel chapter 16. And it's okay if you're having a hard time finding like, where is that book of Ezekiel?
Just go right to the front to the table of contents. Look it up. You'll find it. And if you have it on your phone, that's almost like cheating because you can just look it up. Ezekiel chapter 16, and we're gonna start reading in verse four, and we're gonna go all the way to 14.
So whoever has that, would you just grab the the mic? The mic is is right there. Maybe Kat's gonna start because you got the mic. Verses four through 14.
Okay. Four and sixteen. Right? Yeah.
On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Jeez.
Okay. Pause right there. Remember the question that we asked a moment ago. Why is it that god has chosen Israel? What did they do?
Did they sit at the front of the class? Did they look beautiful? Was it and that very first the first sentence of that verse answers that question. God is saying, listen to what God says. But that first sentence is the answer.
On the day that you were born, what?
No one cared about you.
No one cared about you. Why? Well, it gets better.
Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth. No one had the slightest interest in you. No one pited? Pitied? Oh, pitied.
Excuse me. I'm sorry, guys. No one pitied or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die. But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood.
And as you as you lay there, I said, live. And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field.
Okay. Quick
pause. Now, there's gonna be there's gonna be some, mature imagery that that comes up here in a moment, and don't get don't get bogged down with with the the literalness of the imagery, but it's important to deeply understand what is conveyed in this passage. Here's what we've seen so far. Israel, as a people, as a nation, was overlooked, abandoned, unwanted, and had zero attributes in of itself that were of any desire. But within the the nation that the nations had rejected, god saw something.
He as he was walking by, he saw that this nation, this group of people persecuted, rejected, curious, odd, nothing comely about them. He's caught caught his attention, and his first words were live. Let's keep going.
And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel. Your breasts became full and your body grew and your body hair grew, but you were still naked. And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows.
I made a covenant with you.
It's important to understand the meaning behind the imagery. So here we see two things. Number one, the endurance of his commitment. Unlike the story that the parable that Jesus tells of the good Samaritan where the good Samaritan sees somebody else that was laying in their own blood, beat up, rejected, unwanted. The good Samaritan loads him on his donkey, puts him at an inn, and then the good Samaritan goes on his way.
Hey, when the guy is patched up, next time I'm back through here, if he, if there's any more expenses, let me know. I'll pay for it, but the good Samaritan goes on his way. But what's different in this imagery that is supposed to touch our heart is that God has a continual eye, and he is concerned about the growth, the well-being, and the development of this child that he sees great beauty in. He's this is this is ongoing, not just one and done, but ongoing, and there is intentionality behind his commitment. He's up to something.
He's up to something. And when it says that he saw that she was ready for love, he takes his robe off. You can think of Boaz and Ruth, the kinsman redeemer, and he he covers her. Again, we see this idea of like a sukkah being wrapped around. In this story, it's a it's a young girl, but it's also indicative of symbolic of an entire nation that he enfolds and surrounds and wraps in his arms of love because he is looking for a deep covenant relationship.
You wanna keep going or you wanna hand it off?
Got one more sentence, and then Lanisha's gonna take it over. I made a covenant with you, says the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.
I washed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and annoyed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and provided you with fine leather sandals. I also ripe you wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. I adored you with jewelry, putting bracelets on your wrist and a necklace around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ear, and a beautiful crown on your head.
So you're adored with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became extremely beautiful and obtained royalty. Your frame spread among the nations because of your beauty. For it was perfect through my splendor, which I had bestowed on you.
This is the declaration of the Lord God. His
demonstration of lavish affection sent ripples throughout all the nations of the earth. What is that about? Oh, there's just so much to unpack in our hearts even just around that statement alone. That her beauty, as a result of his tender affection and care, Like, again, just just picture this surrounding spread throughout the nations of the earth. Let's keep reading.
Let's keep reading. How close are we to verse 14? We got a few verses left.
I think Lanisha got it.
Oh, there we got it. Okay. We got it. Alright. Okay.
Let's turn again to another place. Hosea chapter two. And while you're turning to Hosea chapter two, let me just check-in with you. Thoughts, questions, connections. What do you have?
Chris Bates, here it comes.
So with that imagery, I instantly think of Abram and that being the foundation of Israel and trying to draw the the connection between the founding of Israel with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Mhmm.
I got the order right. And what if if there were some direct parallels to that or if that was the imagery was more important than the actual historical foundation of Abraham.
Ask your question again
little Was bit that drawing parallels to Abraham's story Okay. With God?
We do let me see if I'm I understand your question correctly. We don't have any backstory on the man, Abram, other than the fact that God called his dad out of, like, modern day Iraq and said, come to a place that I'm going to show you. His dad made it part of the way and then settled. He didn't make it into what we would think of or know of as the promised land. So god's like, alright.
Let me check-in with your son and then he called Abram who's going to be Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and I'll bring you to a land that I'm going to show you. But we don't know the story of Abram as a child.
Okay.
That's not being heard in the room. That's just you.
So so this isn't directly referring to Jacob's story or Abraham's story. It's more of the the artistic version of god's lavish favor towards Israel.
If we wanted to stretch the hyperlink, what's coming to my mind is the story of Hagar, and help me fill in some bible names. So Abram tried to fulfill the promise that god made to Abram by getting with Sarah Sarai's maid servant, Hagar, bore a child, but then Sarah became pregnant and, like like, the maidservant and her child were chased off into the wilderness. Hagar set the baby down. I'm I'm looking to my smart bible people, Ishmael. Like, I'm just gonna, like like, abandon the child, but then an angel comes and provides for Ishmael and Hagar.
So if you wanted to stretch the hyperlink, maybe you could draw some parallels, but I don't believe it's intended to be a direct link. Bob has
his hand up with a question
or a thought. Okay. Okay. We're gonna go. There we go.
We're gonna go all the way back to Genesis.
There's a direct connect. Alright. There's no hyperlink here.
Okay.
God was talking to Abraham, the quote from Genesis. He's talking to Abraham. Yes. In Genesis.
Yes. Okay. We got it. Yes. God is speaking to Abram to become Abraham.
So good. Now, oh, listen listen to this. Said by so we were looking at Ezekiel. Now we're in Hosea, a different Old Testament prophet. Listen to Hosea chapter two, where you can you can see it up here.
This is one of my favorite passages, verse nineteen and twenty. I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord. I hinted at this, but let me ask you a question. Why in the previous passage and in this passage does God use language of marriage?
Why is he using language of marriage? What's he getting at? What are your thoughts? Say it. Intimacy.
Yep. What? Covenant. Yes. You're yes.
Exactly right. What else? What else might you think? Intimacy, covenant, affection, love, and endurance. So he could have said teammate.
He could have said partner. He could have said business partner. He could have said contractor, contractee. But God is trying to communicate the depth of devotion and affection by using words and language that we would have some type of understanding with. And God is thinking about in trying to communicate his commitment to Israel, he's thinking, what is the strongest level of bond and connection and commitment that humans can form on the earth?
It's not a contract. It's not an agreement. It's not a teamwork or a partnership. I got it. It's Taxes bound forever.
We're gonna enter into this. And with interest rates this high, you know it's love. There's no higher bond a man can form upon the earth than to take for himself a wife. It should be no wonder then that Jesus used that language when describing himself to his lover. He's talking he's using the language of marriage because it's something that we are either familiar with because we have been married, are married, or will be married someday.
He's using this kind of language so that we can connect up not just an intellectual level, but in ever deepening levels of understanding. He's like, he's trying to he's trying to think not that he has to, like, wring his hands and, oh, but he's like, oh, I've got a beautiful image of what my love and devotion for Israel is like. I'll use the language of marriage and consummation of marriage. And in fact, whenever I do a a wedding, I flip the script after talking about it like this and saying, really, he's not using a a metaphor that that we created, but we enter into a marriage covenant that is supposed to reflect what he has done with us and with Israel. Right?
It's not him trying to copy us. In marriage, we are copying him in faithfulness, in fidelity, and long lasting, and endurance. And even when you don't like him, you're still married to him because you love them. That's the covenant of marriage, and that's why he's using this language. Hosea chapter two nineteen and twenty.
I will make you my wife forever. And I love how look at the burden of responsibility. Does it rely on the wife, the bride, or is it on the person saying the words, the covenant maker, God the father? I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. And I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.
Quick question. Has this verse been fulfilled in its fullest yet? No. Not yet. There's more to unfold in the great story arc of God's redemptive plan for Israel and for us.
When Jesus returns and he sets foot in a great bridal procession and ends on the Mount Of Olives, and he looks over at the city of Jerusalem. And right now, when you when you stand on the Mount Of Olives, it is crowded and kinda smoggy and, like, there's this this dull roar of tour bus engines, and you look across to the Eastern Gate that's that's been blocked off and and bricked up. And in front of that wall, there's a a huge cemetery where Muslims have generations after generation of Muslims have buried their loved ones there because they think no good respecting Jew would ever set foot on a Muslim grave, but they know that when Jesus returns, he's gonna go in through the Eastern Eastern Gate. And so through under Muslim occupation of Jerusalem a long time ago, Salahadin was like, board up the Eastern Gate. If we break it off, he can't come through as if that's gonna stop him.
And then we'll start burying all of our Muslims there as if that's gonna stop him. But he's Jesus is coming back for a bride because he has on his mind all of these verses. I will make you my wife forever. Let's go to another place. Zechariah.
Zechariah chapter one. Let's look at verse 14 through 17. Would somebody turn there and please read that? Again, think of this, the verses that we're reading, like a packing list. So, like, if you're gonna go if we're gonna go climb the Grand together and you've never been up the Grand, I'm gonna give you a packing list.
Bring this. Bring this. Don't bring that. It's it's too heavy. Or if you wanna carry it, that's up to you.
But here's your packing list. Think of these verses like a packing list for our journey. You write these down. You can come back and chew on them and chew on them and meditate on them as we're beginning to get a picture for God's heart for Israel. Zechariah chapter one verses 14 through 17.
If you start walking with that mic, some somebody that you walk past will say, okay. Fine. Our look at that. Like, Jeff. Okay.
Then the angel said to me, shout this message for all to hear. This is what the lord of heaven's army says. My love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong, but I am very angry with the other nations that are now enjoying peace and security. I was only a little angry with my people, but the nations inflicted harm on them far beyond my intentions. Therefore, this is what the Lord says.
I have returned to show mercy to Jerusalem. My temple will be rebuilt, says the lord of heaven's armies, and measurements will be taken for the reconstruction of Jerusalem. Say this also, this is what the lord of heaven's army says, the towns of Israel will again overflow with prosperity and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem as his own.
I love verse fourteen and seventeen. My passion for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong. You don't need to raise your hand, but if Jesus is the leader of your life, you've invited him into your heart, asked him to forgive your sin, and in the best way you you know how, you've committed your whole life to following him, you love him because he laid down his life for you. The the reasonable thing for you to do is to lay down your life for him. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me.
That's why we spent forty one minutes in worship this morning pouring out our affections towards him. I love you. Part of loving him is loving what he loves and hating what he hates. And if I were to be really honest with you, probably most people in the church in the West are like, I love Jesus. I love God.
Israel? Okay. Cool. Okay. And it's it's on the periphery.
It's on the sidelines. And there would even be some doctrines in entire denominations that says, Israel, they had their chance. Yes, they were like what we read earlier, a little naked blade bloody baby on the side of the road that nobody wanted and Israel and god picked her up and loved her and pronounced his covenant vows, sir, but Israel rejected god. Therefore, god has rejected Israel and now, we are Israel. We're gonna go to Romans 11.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. But there would be some who would who would if they had to be true to their the theology that they have bought into would need to carve out huge portions of the New Testament and Old Testament and just toss it into the bin if they think that they have now, as Christians, replaced Israel. Danger.
Danger. Look at this verse verse 14. My passion for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong. It only makes sense that we would develop a heart for and a love for what he loves. When our daughter was little, you know, she did gymnastics for a little while, but she's got, like like, hamstrings about as limber as piano wires, and they're like, oh, she got my flexibility when all the kids are doing their tumbling, and she's like, like the tin man.
But, boy, she had a proclivity towards soccer, and she played soccer and was excited about soccer. And the more she got into soccer because we love our daughter, the more we got into soccer. You love soccer? Wait. Great.
We love soccer. And in in it's such a pitiful comparison to to what God says, but God loves Israel. He says it so clearly right here. My passion for the people, the geographical land, the dirt, the dirt in the Middle East, the land with its territories and boundaries and the city of Jerusalem, the single most contested piece of geography in the history of the world. He is passionate about those.
And for us to love God in a more full way, we must educate and invite the Lord to speak to our hearts and just invite him. I'm not gonna tell you what to say or to think or or or how to treat Israel. But when you get into his word and invite him to speak to you about Israel, you will hear the echo of verse 14. I'm passionate. My love is strong for Israel.
Then he goes on to says that at times, because he is committed to, like it says in Hebrews, the Lord disciplines those he loves. There has been chastisement executed by God on the nation of Israel, and he used other nations as his instrument of discipline, but they took it too far, and God's like, mm-mm. You will answer for taking my use of you as instruments of discipline to and correction to bring Israel back to me, you took it too far, and you will pay. And then in verse 17, he says, this is what the lord of heaven's armies says. The towns of Israel's will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem as his own.
Alright. I need to I need to call a quick, like, time out and consult the the one of the coaches and other teammates. Right now, it's 11:30, and I'm just now getting into my notes of, like, here's a it's only one page, guys. It's only one page of notes. Joy's cringing already.
But in my notes, I was like, hey. We're gonna take time and read Romans 11. Y'all wanna read Romans 11? Alright. Okay.
Alright. Fine. Let's go. Romans 11. Now you said it.
Romans 11. So here's we definitely wanna hand off the mic because Paul is speaking, and he goes back and forth between Israel, the people of the covenant, and us Gentiles. And he describes a native. He uses several different metaphors. Look for them.
He use and and one of the predominant metaphors that he uses is that of of being a horticulturist. He talks about a native olive tree and how some branches of the tree were broken off so that wild olive shoots, that's us, could be grafted in. But because other branches were removed to make room for us, what does that have to do with what what happens to the old branches? Some denominations and people would think that they would be forever forgotten, discarded, but but Romans 11 speaks a very clear picture of God's heart for Israel in the New Testament and how we fit into this. Let's read it, and I'll promise I'll try to call as few pauses as possible.
I ask then, did God reject his people? By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Don't you know what scripture says in the passage about Elijah?
How he appealed to God against Israel. Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me. And what was God's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
So, too, at that present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And, if by grace, then it cannot be based on works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. Mhmm.
So that that passage is beautiful. Think about that baby that nobody wanted. Hyperlink. Let's keep going.
What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly, they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear to this very day. And David says, may their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever.
Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring?
Oh, what a beautiful place. How much more will the nations of the earth be blessed when as a whole, a people, the Bible says they'll look on the one whom they have pierced, and they will weep bitterly as one weeps for an only son who has been lost. And when the nation of Israel welcomes Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, boom. Shock waves will reverberate around the earth again. Let's keep going.
I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have. So I might save some of them for since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful.
Pause a moment so that people can go back and underline that last sentence.
Verse 15.
Fitting. Okay.
I'll start again. For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It'll be life for those who were dead. And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be too.
17.
I don't have one.
I'll keep going. But some of these branches from Abraham's tree, some of the people of Israel have been broken off. And you Gentiles who were branches from a wild olive tree have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special olive tree. But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off.
That's worth a moment to pause and to underline that verse as well. Don't you be thinking for a second that God temporarily, not abandoning or rejecting or or even forgetting about Israel, but his attention being turned to Gentiles for a moment means that we are something more than we're than we are.
You are a branch, not just or sorry, not the root.
Let's pass it on.
Have a question. Okay.
So how can people that believe in replacement theology, how can they go there when it says right here, Joy Red, it's a
So let me let me answer your question by a quick sentence or two of education really quickly. What I just mentioned about thinking that we are now Israel, and Israel has been discarded. That's what would be considered replacement theology. That's what you're asking in that that question. How can somebody who believes or has been taught replacement theology read Romans 11?
They probably would look at the here well, here's what happens. They cherry pick verses out of Romans 11 and other places to say, see? Israel had their chance. We are Israel. But they are intentionally going la la la la la to the the abundance, the preponderance of of scriptural evidence that clearly state god's everlasting, unfailing, never ending, relentless commitment towards Israel, the people, the land, and the city of the great king.
And so it is a it is a bit baffling. But I would encourage you, like, when you come across a brother or sister who holds that, engage with them. Take them out for a beer or a cup of coffee and and and and listen where they're they're coming from, and then see how the Lord would would lead you. That's part that's part of indirectly why we're doing this series. Maybe it is to to counter replacement theology.
And so I'm glad that you brought that up. We're doing really good. Let's keep going.
So this is a very simple statement. It's very clear. You do not, in my translation, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
That is well said.
I I think it gets better. Well, you may say, those branches were broken off to make room for me. Yes. But remember, those branches were broken off because they didn't believe in Christ. And you are there because you do believe.
So, don't think highly of yourself but fear what could happen or if God did not spare the original branches, he won't spare you either. Nope. Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you will also be cut off.
And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again. For God has the power to graft them back into the tree. You by nature were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.
Farmer. I have a sense right now in this moment that as we're reading Romans chapter 11 together corporately, maybe it's just in my heart, but I think the spirit of God is like, already I just sense it right now. He is moving in the hearts of the people as you as you read these words together or if you're reading them out loud. Something something special is happening. Maybe it's just my heart.
Maybe your heart too. Lord, touch our hearts. Touch our hearts. Let's be reverent as we continue to read. I think we're in
20 Verse 25 says, I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourself. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full member of the Gentiles come to Christ, and so all Israel will be saved.
Woah. Great verse, additional verse to underline, and so all Israel will be saved. In Zephaniah chapter three verse 17, he says that I will exalt over them when he comes to rescue and ransom abandoned and forgotten Israel. There's in Jeremiah 31, it speaks of a time of Jacob's trouble where what we have seen historically less than a hundred years ago at the Holocaust as 6,000,000 Jews were murdered across the face of Europe, it will look like child's play compared to what the Bible says will unfold in the last days at the hand of the Antichrist. And and Israel in the world's darkest moment, a savior will will arrive.
He will split the sky, come riding on the clouds of heaven with a loud trumpet blast, and he will swoop down, not for us little, you know, nickel tossing, tithing, pew sitting, good, nice Christians. He's coming back for his bride, Israel. We just get to be in on it. When he returns for his bride, Israel, and Zephaniah three seventeen says that he will exalt over her. He will calm all of his fears with all of her fears with singing.
He will wipe away her tears. He will bandage her wounds. And once again, she will be out in the wilderness with maybe literally tens of thousands of refugees having fled the city of Jerusalem in the battle for Israel and the siege of Jerusalem, and there there could be tens of thousands of Jews, Israelis out in the wilderness of Jordan and in and around Petra. Jesus will arrive, and and as they as he bandages up their wounds and reveals himself to them, they will see the Messiah, Jesus from Nazareth, as they weep and mourn because they realized they were the ones who crucified him. He will wipe away their tears.
He will bandage her wounds, and it says, and all Israel will be saved. We're getting close to the end of chapter 11.
As the scripture says, the only the one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them that I will take away their sins.
Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the good news, and this benefits you Gentiles, yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Praise the Lord. Once you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. He was merciful to you instead.
Now, they are the rebels and God's mercy has come to you so that they too will share in God's mercy. For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone. God Shut up. Okay. Oh.
That's an interesting sentence. Go ahead. For God has imprisoned I just have to read it again. For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone.
Think of it this way. Instead of I'm going to lock you up in the jail of disobedience, think of God putting man, all of us. He sets us down, and then he and then he sets a big hula hoop around us, sets it on the ground, and says to step out of this hula. I'm trying to help you. Okay.
Sets the hula hoop down and says, here's the boundary of having a right relationship with me. If you step out of the boundary of the hula hoop, you cross the boundary, you've broken right standing with me. He didn't put the hula hoop of the law down so that we could take pride in staying within the hula hoop, look like what a great person I am. I'm following all the rules and staying in the bounds. He put it because he knew us in his foreknowledge.
He put the hula hoop down knowing the very first thing we would do is what? Step out of the hula hoop so that he could then show us there's no way in our own right standing, in our own morality that we could stay within the bounds of the hula hoop of a right relationship with them. But the law was given so that when we broke it, God could say, the law has been broken. Relationship has been torn apart. But in his great mercy, He has provided a way for the law to be fulfilled and for right relationship with him to be reestablished.
And guess what the nationality was of the person that bridged that gap? He's Jewish. How great are god's riches and wisdom and knowledge? How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways. For who can know the lord's thoughts and who knows enough to give him advice and who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back.
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. Oh, and then Paul, like, he's like, I I I don't even know where to go from here. All glory to him forever. Amen. So you might be thinking, okay.
I'm I'm maybe beginning to see, and I feel like the spirit of God is doing something in in our hearts even right now. But I also understand the tension that you may be feeling or what you could be wrestling with. Cool. Developing a heart for Israel. Pack my bags.
Okay. Got it. How does that help me in my marriage Monday morning? And if you think of your life like this jar here, and in this jar, it's full of all kinds of things. Your to do list, your values, your priorities, relationships, how you spend your work time, how you spend your your your free time.
And and right now, most of us, it's for all of us, really, it's full to the top. Now here the preacher man is standing up here saying, alright, guys. Let's add one thing. Let let let's add Israel in there. And I understand if it feels like Israel just doesn't fit.
That's why I'm giving us this ramp up before we even start this series of twenty one days for Israel because there's coming a time so we have this week, which we're winding down. Next week, Joy is gonna speak to us about something I'm gonna touch on in just a moment. And then the the next week is going to be an invitation to you to do something I'm gonna show you. If Israel doesn't fit, you might need to remove some things, let go of some things in your schedule, in your life, abstain from some things so that Israel then has plenty of room in your life and in your heart. I'm not saying that whatever these things are are are are not important to you.
They may be very important to you. But next week, Joy is going to talk about an ancient practice called fasting. Some people some people, when they think of fasting, you think of, like, oh, Fasting from food or fasting I'm gonna fast from social media. Joy is gonna hold our feet to the fire of scripture that talk about fasting being specifically only related to food. But that other things could be considered either abstinence or what I would like to say of as denying yourself.
So next week, Joy's gonna talk about denying ourselves. The week after that, I'm going to invite you to make a decision of what you would deny to make room in your life so that for the subsequent three weeks, there will be room for Israel in your heart and in your life. I'm inviting you to rearrange your priorities for Israel. Steve Strube, and we're we're trying to find a time, in Steve's busy schedule for him to come and share with us about Israel as well. So, hopefully, there's there's room in in his schedule for him to come and share.
We'll just take a couple of other priorities out. Well, then you can come back and spend two weeks undoing all that I mess up. The toilet is more clogged after Brian tried to fix it. I got four tools stuck down in there. But when you reorganize your priorities and value to make room for Israel, something happens in your heart as you get aligned with him that whatever could be going on in your life that seemingly may be completely unrelated to Israel.
Watch what God does in your heart because when you discover God's great love
