We are wrapping up a series we've been in for the last month and a half or so. And this may have my favorite series title we've ever had. It's the title has been Wait What? That's been the title of the series. Wait what? And the reason I think it's my favorite series title is because I spent a month and a half trying to think of what the title for this series should be, and I couldn't think of one. And every time I would read the scripture that we're studying, my brain would just be completely and totally in this like, what in the world is this even about? What are we gonna talk about? What am I gonna do? And so I just decided, you know what, let's lean into that and call this series Wait What? Because we've been exploring a very, very difficult section of scripture. I have a thing that I'll say this pretty often. There's observation and there's revelation. You know, all of us have the ability to observe things about God. And when we observe things about God, that's good. But there are other things that we just need God to reveal to us. We'll never know these things unless He reveals them to us. It's kind of like a marriage. I've been married for 16 years, and I've observed a lot of things about my wife, and I'm often wrong in my observations. And there are moments where I look at her, even though we've been together for almost 20 years now, and I'm like, you're just gonna have to tell me what is going on. Because I don't know. I can't figure it out. I need her to reveal to me the mystery of her thoughts. Well, God is so complex. He's amazing, he's incredible. Our relationship with God is very simple. But God Himself is not, he's not simple, he's God. And the truth is, we have to have more than observation. We have to be able to understand things that God reveals to us through Scripture. And that's why we open up the Bible and we study it. That's why we go through his word and we don't skip the hard parts. And so we started going through Romans a while back. And if you're familiar with Romans, it's it's a very comprehensive explanation of who Jesus is and what he's done and what it means for us to live in relationship with him. It was written by a man named Paul, who was a Jewish man, a very celebrated religious Jewish man who gave his life to Jesus in a crazy situation and became really the most successful missionary of all time. He traveled to all kinds of places and spread the news about Jesus to people who had never worshiped the God that we worship. And he wrote Romans to a group of people who lived in Rome. He didn't know any of them, he had never met any of them. He hoped to visit them one day, but probably because he didn't know them, he just has to assume they, I don't know what they know. Like maybe I'll just pretend like they don't know anything. And he lays out for them in this incredibly, incredibly nuanced and complex way, but but amazing for us because we can really sink our teeth into it who Jesus really is, what does it mean to follow him? And Romans has some classics. I've called them tattoo verses. There's lots of people who have uh tattoos of verses from Romans. Romans chapter 8 would be a great example. There's a lot of Romans chapter 8 tattoo verses, not so many Romans chapters 9 through 11 tattoo verses, like pretty much none. And that's what we've been in for the last little while, as we've studied this whole wait, wait, what? Because in this section of scripture, Paul is saying things that you have to sort of stop and just go, what? I don't know if I like that. I kind of wish you hadn't said that. I don't want to wrestle with that. I mean, sometimes we we have those those things in our relationship with God where maybe we read something in scripture, we read something in the Bible, maybe it's the Old Testament, maybe New Testament doesn't matter, and we don't really like it. It makes us think things, it makes us uneasy, and we'd rather just ignore it, but we can't. Because if we do that, we sabotage our growth. We have to have a faith that's been thought through. We have to have a faith that can stand up to some scrutiny because whether you've experienced this or not, depending on your life or maybe your age, there will be people who will challenge your faith. There will be people who will who will challenge the authority of Scripture. Of course, that happens all the time. Most people don't hold it to be an authority at all. And there will be people who even go so far, especially those of you who are young, to convince you that you're a fool for believing God's word. But look, it's it stood the test of time for a reason. Entire empires have risen and fallen in the span of time that scripture has remained steady and true. And so when we get to hard stuff, we don't skip it, we don't ignore it, we sink our teeth into it, we wrestle with it because that's how we grow. And I just want to say I'm grateful for you guys. I am grateful that I get to be part of a church where not only do we get to do the fun stuff, we get to have a lot of woo moments as a church. Right? We get to do big stuff, we get to serve the community, we get to celebrate, we get to have fun together, but I'm grateful that when I get to this stuff, as I'm studying scripture and preparing for what we're gonna learn together, and I get to this hard stuff, I don't have to go, ooh, they're not gonna, they're not gonna like that, Lord. Like I gotta, how can we get through this as fast as possible? Now I have a confidence that this is a place where we genuinely want to grow. And even if you're new in your relationship with Jesus or you're just starting out, just remember, no matter how complicated what we're studying is, you have been created by God with the capacity to understand Him as much as is humanly possible. And granted, there is a ceiling on how much humans can understand God, but whatever that ceiling is, he's created you with the capacity to get there. So we don't have to be intimidated by this stuff at all. Now, today we are going to cover uh the largest single chunk of scripture that I have ever covered in one message. And if you're looking at the time, I just want you to know we're gonna be great. It's gonna be good. We're gonna get through this. It's not gonna be, I don't think it's gonna be one of my longer messages, which isn't really saying much, but it's gonna be good. And and maybe we're covering this huge section because I had poor planning skills and we're at the end of the year almost and we've got to get through it. I don't know, maybe. It's possible. But it's where we're at. And so let's jump in. Actually, this this section, it's it's it's long, but it has the same heart. It has the same central driving point that it's trying to communicate. Okay, so here in just a second, we're gonna open up Romans chapter 10. We're gonna go through halfway, chapter 10, all the way through chapter 11. I'll breathe every few seconds, but I want to give you some context first so you know where we're at in case you're just joining us. Uh, Paul is writing in this section about the nation of Israel, the people of Israel. Because what's happened at the time of this writing is very interesting. Up to this point in history, the God that we worship has almost exclusively been worshipped by a very small group of people. He's been an ethnic God, and it's been a very closed, small group of people. And the God of the Jewish people to the ancient people wasn't that interesting. I mean, you have the Egyptians, they have these gods, and and they have huge statues and murals, and you know, the gods of the Egyptians all have like an animal's head and a person's body, but it makes for interesting art. And then you've got the Roman and the Greek gods, which are very similar, and and I mean there's all kinds of statues and depictions of them, you know, there's Zeus, and he holds lightning bolts. Like he holds lightning bolts. That's cool. That makes for, like, if you're an artist and you get commissioned to paint Zeus, you're like a sweet, what an old guy throwing a lightning bolt. That's fun. But if an artist had been commissioned to depict God, the God of the Jewish people, they would have been like, I don't know. Because he's not a God who anyone had ever seen. This invisible God, and there's only one of them. You know, all the other big nations, the powerful nations, they had so they had more gods than you could count. They had gods for everything. And the Israelites worship this one invisible God. It just, no, thank you. He's almost exclusively been worshipped by this small ethnic group of people, but at the time of Paul's writing, because of Jesus and his death and his resurrection and the undeniable miracles that are taking place, the floodgates have opened, and now people of all ethnicities, groups, rich, poor, men, women, it doesn't matter, they're putting their faith in Jesus, to the point where almost as many, if not more, non-Jewish people are putting their faith in the Jewish Messiah than the Jewish people of Paul's day. And that leads to some interesting questions, like, why is that happening? I mean, you would think that the Jewish people of Paul's day should have been like the first in line. They should have all accepted Jesus if he was really their Messiah. What gives? And does this mean that God has abandoned the people he made all these promises to? These are the kind of questions that Paul is trying to answer in chapters 9 through 11. And so that brings us to the middle of Romans chapter 10. Are you guys ready for this, by the way? Y'all good? Okay, because again, I don't know how this is going to go. This is a lot, and uh, at the very least, you can say, I was there the day it all fell apart. Romans 10, verse 14. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they've never heard about him, and how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say how beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news. But not everyone welcomes the good news. For Isaiah the prophet said, Lord, who has believed our message? So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the good news about Christ. But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have. The message has gone throughout the earth and the words to all the world. But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did. For even in the time of Moses, God said, I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation. I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles. And by the way, any of us who are non-Jewish, that's us. We're the foolish Gentiles. Yeah. All right. And later, Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me. But regarding Israel, God said, All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious. I asked then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you realize what the scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said, Lord, they have killed your prophets, they've torn down your altars. I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. And do you remember God's reply? He said, No, I have 7,000 others who have never bowed down to Baal. It is the same today. For a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God's grace, his undeserved kindness in choosing them. And since it is through God's kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God's grace would not be what it really is, free and undeserved. So this is the situation. Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have, the ones God has chosen, but the hearts of the rest were hardened. As the scriptures say, God has put them in a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and he's closed their ears so they do not hear. Likewise, David said, Let their bountiful table become a snare, a trap that makes them think all is well, let their blessings cause them to stumble and let them get what they deserve. Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see, and let their backs be bent forever. Did God's people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not. They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. Now, if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God's offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it. I'm saying all of this especially to you, Gentiles. God has appointed me to be the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this. For I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you have, so that 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. It will 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 if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be too. But some of these branches from Abraham's tree, some of the people of Israel, have been broken off. And you Gentiles who are branches from a wild olive tree have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God promised to 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. You're just a branch, not the root. 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're there because you do believe. So don't think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the original branches, He won't spare you either. Notice how God is both kind and severe. He's 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'll be grafted in again, and 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. I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ. So all of Israel will be saved. As the scriptures say, 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. Once you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. And now they're 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. Oh, 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? Who knows enough to give him advice? I've tried that before. 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. All glory to him forever. Amen. Alright. Y'all got it? We're good. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day. I'm gonna show you. Um I don't know if I should fake praying, but no, there's a lot there. And look, we could talk about this for days and hours and years, and and there's more pages that have been written to try to explain all of this than we could even think of. Obviously, it's very nuanced, it's very complicated, but as I as I read through this, there's this one central thought that I believe Paul is trying his best to communicate to the people he's writing to, and to us by extension. Because the Bible wasn't written to us, right? He didn't write this to us, but he did write it for us. So, what what's the connection, what's the takeaway for us? And I think it's a very simple but really important thought. It's to make sure, those of us who follow Jesus, and I recognize that not all of us have made that decision, but if you have, make sure that you have an open and well-guarded heart. If you've given your life to Jesus, make sure that you have an open and well-guarded heart. In many ways, what Paul is writing about the people of his day is a cautionary tale. And all of us, if we wanted to, we could all serve as cautionary tales for something. I'm sure every one of us could stand up and say, hey, I am a cautionary tale when it comes to X, Y, or Z. Give you an example. Uh, a couple years ago we moved. I love our new house. I adore it, it's great, I'm grateful for it. Um but when it when we moved, Megan was much more excited about the idea of moving than I was. We'd had a couple more kids, and so the house we were in before, we we got we had two kids, now we have four, and we were kind of figuring out our family, and we started realizing, oh, you know, I don't know if this is gonna work for us, maybe we should you know find something else. But I was sort of like open to the idea of moving a little bit, but I didn't really want to do it. Because I am uh, see, I'm 38, and my family has lived in 22 houses since I was born, my parents have, and so we moved a lot. Now, not all of that was while I was living with them, like 10 or so were, but we moved a lot, so I kind of have like, I'm good. But here's here's what happened. This is the cautionary tale. Megan was talking about, so I said this to my wife. I said, Why don't you just look and see what's available? Thinking, well, that will like, you know, she'll just do that. And no, if you say that to your wife, you're moving. I'm just telling you guys, if you ever say to your wife, if if she types in Z-I-L-L-O-W onto her computer, go ahead and buy boxes. Just be like, are you were you on Zillow? All right, I'm gonna go to Home Depot, I'm gonna buy some boxes because clearly we're moving. That's a cautionary tale. Don't say that if you don't want to move, because if you say, why don't you see what's out there? There's stuff out there. She's gonna find it, and you're gonna move. Cautionary tale. All of us could serve as cautionary tales for something. Well, Paul is saying that the people of his day, they were this cautionary tale. Because his people should have been the ones that saw Jesus coming from a mile away, and they should have wholeheartedly embraced him, but they didn't. Why? Because they did not have open and well-guarded hearts. Paul begins this section in Romans 10, 16, by saying, But not everyone welcomes the good news, for Isaiah the prophet said, Lord, who has believed our message? So faith comes from hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ. But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have. The message has gone throughout the earth and the words to all the world. But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did. For even in the time of Moses, God said, I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation, I'll provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles. And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me. But regarding Israel, God said, All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious. What Paul is saying is, he's basically answering a hypothetical question. Well, maybe they just didn't get it. You know, hey, did they really hear the message? And he's like, Yes, they did. But they rejected it. I think it's so important for us to realize, those of us who are Jesus followers, we always associate, you know, Jesus and the miracles he did and the teachings. If we were there, if we had been there, clearly we would have been like the first in line. Believing in him, following him. Obviously, like, come on, like, we all would have like raise your hand. All of us, yeah, I would have been one of the I would never have been one of the ones who's like, I don't know about him. But that was that was the norm. Because he broke all the the molds, he broke all the expectations. You know, always think about the Pharisees who were the religious leaders, they were like the hyper-conservative religious leaders of their day, and then there were the the Sadducees who were more liberal, but they had a lot of political clout and power, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees couldn't agree on anything. But they all agreed on killing Jesus. I mean, Jesus was different than people expected him to be. And and most of the people, they rejected him, but you look at it, you're like, how? Like he's healing people, he's doing, he's doing miracles. I mean, how many how many miracles does a guy have to do before you're like, I think he might be more than a man? But a hard heart is a powerful thing. Now, we talked about this several weeks ago, this idea of a hard heart, and sometimes we read that and we're like, man, that just seems like God just one day is like, your heart's hard, and boom, your heart's hard. Hard, hard, hard, soft, hard. Like, that's not how it works. God doesn't wake up in the morning and be like, you know what? Who am I gonna harden today? When things harden, they they simply solidify in the state that they're in. And so what Paul is saying is that the people of his day, they couldn't claim ignorance. They couldn't just say, I didn't know. Because God had been talking to him about this for like a thousand years. Prophecies and promises and scriptures and prophets coming and saying, hey, this is what's gonna happen, this is how it's gonna go down. And so they couldn't claim ignorance. Sometimes there's an ignorance that's excusable. Right? There's an ignorance that that, hey, there's that makes sense. You can't hold that person accountable for that. Here's an example. Uh, when I was 10, 11 years old, my little brother and I were driving with one of my parents, I will not say which one it was. This is an anonymous story. And so um, this parent of mine, either my mother or father, I will not say, had a habit back then that they have clearly, I'm sure, completely grown out of, as all of us I'm sure have, of when someone was driving around them that was not driving in an optimal way, words would come out of this parent's mouth that were not, they were choice words. Again, I know none of us struggle with this. This is clearly something all. Of us have mastered, right? But I mean, like, it would get pretty pretty intense in the car. So one day we're driving, and and this person cuts off my my dad or my mom. Maybe. And uh and my little brother in the backseat, three years old, just goes, you blip blip blip blip blip. And then he has this huge smile on his face, and he looks at my mom, or my dad, and says, I'm helping you drive. Like, and it was awesome. It was like the it was one, I'll never forget that moment. It was one of the coolest moments ever. Because it like he said horrible things, but he was three and it was it was fine. Like it was it was there was an excusable ignorance to what he was doing, right? Now, today he's like 31, 32 years old. If he walked up to someone and said the exact same phrase, different story. He knows better than to talk to people like that. But at the time it was an excusable ignorance. What Paul is saying about the people of his day is that their ignorance to Jesus was not excusable. You know, it's one thing to have God speak to you and you just not get it. I've I've had that happen, many of us have. I think there'll be lots of times where maybe one day we're in front of heaven, like, hey, God was like, I was trying to tell you this, and you're like, I know, I just I'm dumb. I just didn't I didn't understand. But it's another thing to stick your finger in your ears and just ignore it. And that's what Paul is saying that the people of Israel have done over and over again at this time. That they had just ignored, ignored, ignored. And if you live with your fingers in your ears, one day they might get stuck like that. If you reject God over and over and over, and if you ignore him over and over and over, that can solidify. And so when something hardens, it simply stays in the state that it's in. And Paul's saying that for a season, God just said, okay, I'll you've chosen this, I'll let you be that way. And so many of them missed it. And it's a cautionary tale for us to not stick our fingers in our ears and allow our hearts to become to become harder. Now, here's the good news. Let's say you're here and you're like, oh man, I've done that. Let's say you're like, oh man, there's things that I I know God has been telling me, and I have just consistently, constantly ignored him, ignored him. I guess my heart maybe it's hard. Should you be afraid? Never forget God's heart. Ezekiel 36, 26. He says, I will give you a new heart. And I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart, and I will give you a tender, responsive heart. God forgives anyone of anything. And if you ever have a moment where you're like, you know what, I have I've put my fingers in my ears and they've stuck that way. Would you realize it? Remember the heart of God. Humble yourself and just say, Lord, take out my stony stubborn heart and give me a tender response. Because even Paul who wrote this was one of those who rejected Jesus. In fact, Paul, before becoming a Jesus follower, was the most zealous persecutor of the Jesus followers that there was in all of Israel. You could not have found someone who had a harder heart toward Jesus than Paul. And he becomes the greatest missionary, the greatest mouthpiece for Jesus that the world had ever seen at that time. And since so don't ever forget that God is willing to soften a hard heart, but ask for it. Pray for that. And if you have one, if you're like, look, I'm not perfect, none of us are, but I know that my heart is soft toward God. How do I keep it that way? I want to give you a single word. It's the word open. It's a really meaningful word to me. In fact, I had lunch with a gentleman just a few days ago, and he used that word talking about what God is doing in his life, and I was like, man, I'm glad you said that, because that that's that's a word that's on my heart a lot, open. One of my favorite scriptures, Revelation chapter 3, verse 20. Jesus says, Look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends. Now, if you know the context of this, Jesus has just finished saying some really intense things to this group of people that he's talking to. This is uh this if you're familiar with the phrase of Jesus saying, I will spew you out of my mouth. That's the same section. So he says that, like he's given some warnings. And then he says, But look, I stand at the door and knock. And if you will open the door, I'll come in and we will share a meal together as friends. It's moments like that where you see the heart of God. What does he desire? He desires to be with you, to live in relationship with you. To share a meal together, to have that friendship. And he says, I'm knocking, just open. If you want to maintain a soft heart, you have to just keep your heart open to God. Really, just be open. I always picture it like a house. And all of us maybe have had that moment, or at least many of us have, most of us, where you felt God knocking in some way at some point in time, and so you opened and you let him in. But when I let people into my home, I don't give them free reign. You know, there's there's certain rooms that I just don't want them in. It's like you can come in, here's the living room, here's the kitchen, there's the the guest restroom, you know. But if they were like, hey, could I use your restroom? I'd be like, no, why would you ask that? That's very bizarre. Leave my home. Like that's what I would say, right? Or like, you know, like there's there's certain rooms, like we have kids, we have four kids. Just imagine the devastation behind some of the doors in our house. You might come over and be like, oh, this is nice, like you have no idea. Do not do not go upstairs. Just don't even do it. I don't even go upstairs, right? Well, see, it's very easy for us with Jesus to open the front door and let him in. And then sort of say, Hey Jesus, I'm so glad you're here. I'm glad you're in my life. You know, hang out, make yourself at home. But but Jesus, you don't want to stay in the living room. Eventually he's gonna be like, hey, what's over there? And you're like, ah, mmm. I'd rather you not go in there. That door's closed. What is that? That's my relationship. I don't kind of that's sort of my Jesus. Look, I'm telling you, I've been meaning to work on that room. I I'm getting around to it. I just I would rather you let me kind of fix it up a little bit first, and then I will open that and let you hang out. It's just in bad shape. But Jesus is like, no, I kind of want to go in there. I want to I want to work on it, I want to help restore it, I want to transform it. Jesus wants He wants all of you. Guys, hear that. He wants all of you. He doesn't want part of you, some of you. He wants all of you. Why? Because he loves all of you. Jesus loves more about you than you love about yourself. And he wants everything to be open to him. And you can trust him with everything. And I have found in my life that the best safeguard for me to have a soft heart is to have an open heart, to have an open life, to just say to Jesus, look, it's all yours. It's all open to you. There's no nothing is off limits. There's no access that I will deny to you, because he's a guy who knocks at the door, he doesn't kick it in, doesn't force his way in, he knocks. And so if you will consistently have a mentality of openness with God where you just pray, maybe on a regular basis, Lord, if there's any part of my life that I've shut off to, it's open. What do you want to talk about? What do you want to work on? And when he picks the thing that you would rather ignore, just be like, ugh, are you sure? And then trust him. Because he's not it's not like he's gonna walk into those parts of your life and be like, ugh, this is worse than I've never seen anything like this. Okay? You are not the most messed up person that Jesus has fallen in love with. Okay, I promise you that. He's seen a lot of baggage, he's seen a lot of stuff, and it's not gonna surprise him. Just be open with him. That that safeguards a soft heart. Now, if your your heart is open, and worship team, you guys can go ahead and make your way back. If your heart is open, you gotta guard it.

Right?

If your heart there we go, that's a warning. If your heart is open, you have to you have to guard it. If your heart is soft, it's it's vulnerable. I think that actually surprises a lot of people when they give their lives to Jesus. My wife was talking with this about me the other day, just how how often we get surprised when we give our lives to Jesus, or maybe when we kind of go further with him than we have, that things affect us that didn't used to. Like all of a sudden there's just things like that bothers me, and it never used to bother me. Why does it bother me? It's because you have a soft heart. It's because like you're you're feeling some of the things that God feels. And so things might hurt you and break your heart that used to you would just be like, whatever. That's why I cry during all of the ESPN specials when they show those like stories of the little kids and they're playing. I'm just like, I'm gonna cry now at that stuff. You know, I don't cry much, but that stuff makes me cry. But like your heart's soft, it gets it's easily affected. And if you have something that's soft, if you have a door that's wide open, right, you've got to guard it. And that's a big part of what Paul is saying here, and that's a big thing for all of us to keep in mind. That when we give our lives to Jesus, we have to be guarded. Against what you might say. Well, we have an enemy. Let's just let's own that. We have an enemy, his name's Satan. That's what he's called, anyway. And he's real. And some people like, I don't like to believe in that. My filters are really simple. I'm a Jesus follower, so whatever Jesus says, that's what matters most to me. Jesus clearly believed in Satan. Talked about him, talked to him. So if Jesus believed it, I'll believe it. And the cool thing about recognizing that we have an enemy is then when those days happen in your life where it feels like something is against you, great news. You're not crazy. Something is against you. But he's nothing compared to who's for you. So you have to have a guarded heart because you'll be attacked. Point of emphasis. Yes, you will. You have to have a guarded heart. Alright, who put you all up to this? We've had we've had a phone with an alarm, we've had a whatever that was, and uh, Joel back here. What's going on? I'm just teasing y'all. This is fun. If you're new to his hands, by the way, we take God really seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously at all. I love it. But you have to have a heart that's guarded against pride. That's a big part of what Paul said. That whole thing about the branches being you know grafted in, and and the people he was writing to were part Jewish and also non-Jewish, and clearly there was some mentality that was developing, and this has actually unfortunately been something that's developed sometimes in Christianity of looking like down on the Jewish people who rejected Jesus. Like we wouldn't. It's like looking down on Adam and Eve, as if we were in the garden, we would have done better. We wouldn't. And Paul's like, hey, look, don't get cocky. Don't think highly of yourselves. Don't for a minute forget that what has brought you to Jesus has been grace. You didn't earn it, you didn't deserve it, you didn't win it. It was won for you, it was given to you. So just have a heart of gratitude and don't for a moment receive that and then look at anyone else and look down on them. For a moment. Because look, we're just like grafted in. That's not a fan, that's not like an exciting thing. What are you? I'm a I'm a grafted in tree branch. Wow. No, I guess, but there's a humility there. It's a humility of recognizing that God has put me in a place with him that I don't really, I guess, I don't belong in the sense that I haven't earned it. I belong because he says I belong, but not because I have any merit to claim it for myself. But man, I've seen people, I've even seen people who lived pretty crazy lives, give their lives to Jesus, but within a few years become really judgmental toward people who struggle with the very same things they used to struggle with. And I'll be like, didn't you used to do that? And they're like, Yeah, but I'm like, well, no, like then you should have the softest heart for them. That's why, like, how many of you used to wait tables at some point in your life? You were you were a waiter, a waitress? Like, how many of you give good tips because you remember how hard it was? Yeah, right? You don't like wait tables and and then be like, I give terrible tips now, because I would have done better. Like, that's if you do that, stop. Uh but but that's pride, right? Pride can develop, and we can even sometimes begin judging people for doing the very things that we used to do or still do. And so we have to guard our hearts against pride, and that that's that's with humility. We have to guard our hearts against religion. This kind of spirit of believing that you know it's all about these rules that we follow and these things that we do, and it's our adherence to this that that gives us our right standing with God. Like, I'm glad y'all are here today, but it's not your church attendance that matters in God's heart. Like it matters in the sense that it's good for you, you should. But it's like one of the weirdest experiences for me in my role is when I bump into people like at the store. And uh I always panicked, by the way. I don't know what to do. I'm like a kid who sees his teacher outside of class, or maybe the reverse of that, I'm the teacher who sees, I don't know. But I'm always like, hey, and uh, and they'll and if people ever go, hey, we have look, we haven't been there in a couple weeks, and I was like, You're fine. Sometimes I'll joke and be like, I know. I know. And you should be getting a letter soon in the mail from me. Okay, but the church is not the IRS. We're not. We have to guard against this idea of religion where it's like, oh, I am valuable to God because I do this, this, this, and this. If you do all the right things, great, keep it up. It's good for you, it honors God, it pleases him, but it is not, it is not what gives you right standing with him. What gives you right standing with him is grace, undeserved. He loves you. He loves you, he just loves you, and he you may have a hard time figuring out why. That's okay, he loves you. And so receive that and let that bring you to a place of humility. You have a soft heart and open heart to God, but you are guarding it against pride, against an enemy, against religion, and against judgment. You guard it hard against judgment. There is not a person on this earth that I can look at and point to and say, Look, God, I'm better than them. Paul actually said, I am the chief among sinners. That's Paul. He wrote most of the New Testament. And he said, I'm the worst. And it wasn't a figure of speech, it wasn't like Paul was saying that. No, Paul, stop. He's like, No, he believed that. I actually heard a theologian, a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer, say that if you can't bring yourself to the point where you can say, I am the chief of all sinners, it means somewhere deep down inside, you still believe that you're good enough. That somewhere deep down inside there's part of you that's like, yeah, but I mean I'm not that. I'm not like that guy. I read that when I was in college, that challenges me to this day. That attitude, it guards your heart against judgment, religion, and pride. And the whole point of what Paul is saying here, I believe, is really simple. He's saying, hey, be blown away by the place that God has put you in. I mean, real quick, as we wrap up, how many of you would say, I belong to Jesus? If you just raise your hand, if you're a Jesus following, you belong to Jesus? How awesome is that? That you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, the God of the universe? Like, do you know who he is? Do you know who he is? Like, I was talking to a guy named Dennis this morning, and we both really enjoyed the show The Chosen, and we've been watching it, and I told him, I was like, I have a problem. Is that every time, if you've seen it, maybe you understand, every time Jesus is on screen, I start to cry. Every time. And that's not even the real Jesus, that's just a guy with a beard and kind of long hair. It's just a guy. Like, do you, guys, do you realize what we would do if Jesus himself was in this room? I mean, we would, it would be a variety of expressions. Some of us would be screaming like Beatles fans. Some of us would be on the floor like we couldn't even bring ourselves to stand up. Most of us would cry. If you ever relate, like he is God and he loves you, and he calls you his brother, and you've been made a co-heir, scripture says, with him. Adopted into his face, it's all it's awesome. And none of us have deserved it at all. And so, what Paul is saying is that if you recognize who you are, don't think for a minute that you've earned it. Recognize that this is grace given, that you're a grafted in branch, be thankful for that and stay open, have a soft heart to God, never stop being open to what God wants to do for you or say to you. And because your heart is soft and open, guard it. Learn the lesson, read the cautionary tale. Because if they rejected Jesus, knowing all that they knew, I have to recognize that I have the capacity to do the same. And so I have an open but well-guarded heart. Guarded against pride, guarded against religion, against judgment, and against the enemy that's coming at me. In church, in the world that we live in right now, we cannot let our hearts grow cold and hard, but we also can't let him be open to everyone and everything. If we are people who have soft hearts to God, but well-guarded hearts toward all the things around us, we will be the people God's called us to be. That's simply the truth. But we have to be that. And Paul implores us to be that. I love the way that Paul finished Romans chapter 11. You guys don't have to bring it back up because I didn't tell you this. He finishes by saying, For who can know the Lord's thoughts? He said, How oh, 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? Who knows enough to give him advice? Who's given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power as an intended for his glory. All glory to him forever. Amen. Paul finishes this whole wait what section by basically saying, like, also, yeah, who knows? I mean, how in the world could we even begin to get our heads into the mind space of God? But the things that we've covered, it's wonderful, it's amazing, it's complicated, it's nuanced. And following God is like that. That's why we wrestle with God. We're wrestlers. Always. But who can know his ways? Who can understand his thoughts? No one. But we seek him. We love him, we open our hearts to him, and we guard our hearts against pretty much everything else. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. Thank you, Lord, for all the things you've done for us, all the blessings that you've given to us. Lord, we pray that we would be people who are filled with joy and wonder that we're just in awe of what you've done for us, of the grace that you've showed us and the place that you've put us in. We have a right relationship with you, and we were so far from that, it wasn't even funny. And then you came and did everything for us, and all we have to do is believe and accept. It's too good to be true sometimes, Jesus. It just is. So, Lord, help us be a church, help us be a group of people, a family that commits ourselves to learning the lessons that we're meant to learn, Lord, from paying attention to the cautionary tale that Paul laid out for us in the book of Romans, to make sure that we don't become people who plug our ears, and we don't become people who close our hearts, deciding that we've got it all figured out and we know best. But we would be people who are constantly listening to you, that we'd be people who have a constantly open heart, that every door of our hearts is open to you, that you are given full access, full reign everywhere, every day. And in the meantime, Lord, as our hearts are open to you, we are we are standing watch. We are sober-minded, we are guarded against all the lies, discouragements, attacks, and even, Lord, the pride and all of those things that can so easily well up within us, Lord, help us have open but well-guarded hearts. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.