No One Is Too Far Gone for God // Romans 11:1-24

If you are new, I want you to know this. Today is a big day in our church. Yes, because we're doing baptisms at the end of the service, but because we have a vision here to launch campuses, plant churches, and send missionaries. And today we launch our Davy campus in Davy High. Can we give them a round of applause? (Applause) Listen, listen, listen, listen. Our campuses are not about our church getting bigger. It's about our church getting closer. Closer to the people who already love our church. See, we've got people in Davy and we have people in Lexington who they love our church, okay, but they love their community and they wanted to bring our church to their community. But it's also about getting our church closer to the people that they love. Guys, by the way, can we give one more round of applause to Ryan and the launch team. Pastor Ryan and his launch team. (Applause) Hey, this is our first time ever being in a school, which means those of you at Davy High, this is the first time you've been excited to go to school in a long time, right? And by the way, I would talk to Pastor Ryan, if anyone gets rowdy, we're putting you in detention. That's what we've decided to, yeah, I know it's a terrible dad, pastor good. Okay, listen, guys, this is an exciting day. Let me tell you this, by the way, if you're new at Davy or at Lexington or you're new here, let me tell you what to expect and what to do, right? Because you may not know this, but when I'm not preaching here every once in a while, I will show up, sometimes I'm preaching at a different church or I'll show up at a different church. And when you show up to the church you've never been to,

it's like stepping into a foreign country immediately, like, where's the kids ministry, where's the bathroom, all that kind of stuff, right? I want to tell you what to expect. When you come here, okay, expect us, we are going to open up the Bible and open up our lives. Okay, we're going to sing passionately like we mean it. And we're going to talk about Jesus like he's alive because he is. But let me tell you also not just what to expect, but what to do, okay? And there's just three things, okay? If you're new, this is what to do. The first is keep coming back, okay? You can't get to know anyone's church based on anyone's sermon, anyone's Sunday, anyone's service. You've got to probably come, let me make up a number. Five or six times, okay? To kind of get an idea of what a church is like. Secondly, can I just encourage you? This is good for Patterson, too, okay, everyone here, too. Just, and this will be a new idea for some of you. Come early. I know it's hard parking, okay. But if you will just come a little bit early and you will stay a little bit late, you will get to meet a ton of people. But finally, this weekend, we have our weekend-er, okay? So if you're new at Davy or Lexington or here at Patterson and you're like, I just want to, I know this is the church for me and I want to take my next step. The week-ender is our on-ramp and in-road into the life of our church. Let me say it this way, it's how we get two cities in you before you get in two cities. And so, guys, we've got like 80 people signed up already. We would love to have you. Think of it, okay, if you've got kids, this is a free date night.

We're going to watch your kids. We're going to serve them pizza. We're going to give you a great meal. And then we're going to give you Christian chicken in the morning. We're going to chip filet in the morning, okay? So you're going to have a great time, okay? With that said, let's pray. And then, guys, here's how we do things here. So in the preaching calendar, my God's grace. I'm usually two years ahead. So I know everything I'm preaching through 2028. That means that when we put down this year, 2026, and we put down this date, we didn't know we were going to be launching a campus in Davy, the day that we were going to be in Romans, chapter 11. And at first, I was like, uh-oh, you know. But actually, I think God has a specific word for us that's going to be encouragement to you today. Let's pray. Lord, would you get our mind and our hearts ready? Jesus, you said, let him who has ears here. And as we open up the word, would we open up our hearts to you? Would we have soft hearts? Would we embrace, as we've talked about here many times, a obedience-based discipleship, not a knowledge-based understanding of discipleship? Lord, it's not just about knowing information. It's about being transformed. And it's about living a life of surrender, of worship, and obedience. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, guys, we are professional quitters. Don't act like you're not, okay? We live in a give-up culture.

I mean, how many times have you signed up for the free trial, right, in case you don't want to do it? Or how many times have you done something because they had a 30-day money-back guarantee? Or how many times have you made sure, if you were going to subscribe, that there was an easy way for you to unsubscribe, right? We quit everything. In fact, Strava, that, you know, that app that, you know, it was for running and hiking and biking and all that kind of stuff. This is data-driven. They found out the number one day, quit their new year's resolution is this year it was the second Friday in January. That's really early. Some of you have a Peloton that is really a coat rack. I mean, right? Now, the thing is we quit jobs, we quit schools, right? You tried Doolingo and you quit that and that little green owl keeps telling you to come back, right? We don't just quit things, there's a darker side of us, we quit people. We have phrases for it now, ghosting, right? Some of you guys have been ghosted by a girl. It's okay. But it's basically when you reach out and there's no email, there's no text, they just disappear. There are problems in families, you're not going to believe this. But there is one study I read this week said that one in four families, sorry, one in four Americans is estranged from a family member. I'm not saying there are unhealthy relationships and you don't need boundaries, but it's become normal for therapists to encourage you to cut off people in your life as part of self-care. So here's what we're going to talk about today. Romans 11, here's the question, does God give up on people? Does God quit people? And Paul's going to basically say, absolutely not, we're going to get there in a minute. But let me just tell you, here's, so we just came out of a conference, the Heights conference, okay? It was incredible and our theme was, until now, if there's a theme for this sermon, it's not done. And I just want you to know, this is what Paul's going to spend a long time at. He's going to do it, it's going to be a little confusing because he's talking about Israel and the Jewish people, but here's his whole point. Don't ever say God's done with somebody. You're not the Holy Spirit. Do you not play J.V. Holy Spirit? God isn't done with you, right? Stop, here's the thing, stop writing eulogies for somebody God might be writing a story for. And stop having funerals for someone God might be ready to have a spiritual birthday for. And so we can never know, we don't know till somebody dies what the relationship with God

was like. And we don't know, right, the thief on the cross. Everyone didn't know his story, except for Jesus and the other guy on the cross. You never know what God's doing in people's lives. Let's pick up on Romans 11, verse 1. Here's what Paul says, I asked then, Paul likes to ask a lot of questions. Has God rejected or given up on or quit his people? This is the Jewish people, okay? And then he says, by no means are absolutely not, or as Southern Mama would say, not in my house, okay? For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. So Paul goes, look, my life, this is what Paul is saying. My life is a picture that God doesn't give up on his people, because Paul was the most Jewish man alive. If this is even an idea, he was super duper Jewish. So if you do this with your community group, okay? If you will read Philippians 3, Paul gives us his resume. He's like, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin, which we don't seem to really care about, but that was the royal tribe that King Saul, the first king, came from. Paul goes, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. Paul even brags. He goes, I was circumcised on the eighth day. We don't brag about that kind of stuff anymore, okay? But they bragged about that. And Paul says, I was actually a Pharisee, which means I was a professional religious Jew. In fact, Paul was so passionate about being Jewish that you may not know this story if you don't know the Bible very well. And if you don't know the Bible very well, we're really glad you're here. It's a great place on the Bible going. Paul was so passionate about his Jewish faith and so against the Christian faith that he persecuted the church to the point that we're told in Acts chapter 7, Paul oversaw the first Christian martyr, Stephen. But then God transforms and changes Paul's life. So here's what I'm trying to tell you. Your life should be a picture to the lost and dying world that God can save anybody. Now how does this work? So think about it this way. Paul's going, listen, every person, every Christian has a testimony. Let me explain the difference in testimony in a biography. A biography, and I love biographies. In fact, I love when a president is no longer a sitting president and then he takes time and he writes an autobiography because you kind of get it subjected, but you kind of get the inside the Oval Office what was happening. A biography is all about you. What you did, how you pulled yourself up, your family, whatever your decisions, a testimony is different than a biography. A biography is about you, a testimony is about God. In every Christian, every true Christian has a testimony. It's their life before Christ, their life meeting Christ, their life now with Christ. And here's what's great about being a part of a local church. Okay, whether it's at the Davy campus, the Lexington campus,

here at the Winston campus, in our church are all different types of people that God uses, onrighteous and self-righteous. And there are people, I mean, we have actually seen, so you think, let's talk about unrighteous. We have seen people come to faith in Christ out of the occult. We have seen people in deep addiction. You know, maybe they were a functional alcoholic. Maybe they were a porn addict. Maybe they were in some kind of serious drug use. We've seen people come to faith in Christ out of addiction. And guess what that encourages people? Man, some of you go, well, my brother's addicted. It's like, well, look, God worked in this person who's addicted in their life. Maybe God will work in your brother's life or your son's life. God can save the most unrighteous people. And then listen to this, because this is important in Winston-Salem and Lexington Navy. God can save the most self-righteous person. God can even save a homeschool mom. I mean, you know, it's like, do you think about the most, you know, such a good person, right? Maybe she's self-righteous. Maybe her entire life is wrapped up in being the perfect person and having the perfect kids. God can save the person who comes, who has perfect church attendance, but has not repented of anything in their entire life. And what's amazing is this is why, you know, we don't have, I wish we had time. If we had the time, we would tell everybody's baptism story, you know, but we're baptizing like 40 plus people today. But part of what you do when, you know, when we get to know a person who's getting baptized, is they, we actually hear their whole story. And it's, it's usually they've, well, it's always they've come out of self-righteousness or they've come out of unrighteousness, right? Those are the two ditches. There's an old southern proverb that basically says, for every mile of road, there are two ditches, two miles a ditch. And some people fall into being self-righteous and some people fall into being unrighteous. And I know we all look good, look around, whatever room you're in, we all look good. We're all self-righteous and unrighteous people who Jesus has saved. So Paul goes, that's the first thing I want you to know. Paul goes, the second thing I want you to know is when God makes commitments, God doesn't have an expiration date on his commitments. Look at verse two, he goes back to the word for new, which I'm not going to talk about in depth because we talked about it a couple weeks ago. God has not rejected his people who he foreknew. It's the language of love, okay? Basically like, God has, God loved you before you were born. God loved you, Christian, before you did anything good or bad. In fact, foreknew, think about it this way, it's not like a weather forecast,

but a wedding vow. Weather forecast is like, well, it looks like the way the storm's moving, this is what I think is going to happen in the future based on the past. That's what God does. A wedding vow is, I am making a commitment to you. I, basically, so in the Old Testament, there is this word has said, which basically means the covenantal love of God, which is stubborn. God is stubborn in his love toward his children. So Paul goes, you don't have to worry about that. And then Paul goes, but here's the problem. People often think they're all alone and think there are so few believers in the world. And so he gives us the story of Elijah. Look at verse three. In verse three, he says, there's this guy named Elijah. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? He's this big prophet in the Old Testament. How he appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. Let me give you the background for this story, because, you know, maybe we don't all know the story of Elijah, and that's fine. But I think it's actually perfect that we're talking about this after the heights, because Elijah had a spiritual high that led to an emotional low. I mean, that is the story of Elijah, and that is the 10. We talked about that last week. That is the temptation. After a spiritual high, four days at the heights conference, it's easy to have an emotional low. Well, Elijah had his own heights conference. You might have said it was a little bit better than ours, but I don't think so, okay? He goes up on Mount Carmel, right? And he's fighting against all the false prophets, and fire falls from heaven, and it's amazing, and it's like God wins. God shows up and shows off. But then Jezebel basically says, I want to kill Elijah, and all of a sudden he wasn't afraid of 450 false prophets, but he's afraid of this queen. And so he falls under a broom tree, and basically he prays what I just told you. He basically says, I'm all alone. Now, listen, I want you to know this. The devil only has one sermon. Okay, the only good thing that we can say about the devil is he's predictable. And here's the devil's sermon, and he's a good preacher. He has a bad message, but he's a good preacher, and a good preacher takes one point and drives it home. Okay? You're like, well, Kyle, you have like seven points. Well, you get what I'm saying. Okay? So, so, uh, and what, so here's what he does. Um, the devil's favorite sermon is you are all alone, and God is done with you. Have you ever, have you ever felt that? Have you ever said, um, comes to church without their spouse. I see everybody else here. They have their spouses. I wonder why I've got those

spouses that doesn't want to come to church. I'm the only one who has a prodigal and I don't get it because we all send our kids to the same homeschool co-op or Christian school that I thought was great. All my friends, I see their kids on Facebook and they seem to be married and walk with the Lord. I feel like I'm the only one who has this prodigal son or prodigal daughter. I'm the only one who still struggles with this sin. By the way, that's why DNA groups, by the way, which are groups of three to five men, three to five women are so important because it lets you have an environment in which you can be honest. I remember I've been in so many different, I've been around so many different fire pits and I don't know what this looks like with women as much but with men, you get guys around a fire pit late at night and all it takes is just one guy to open up. I mean, it's so powerful. All it takes is one guy to go, hey, you know, can I share a little bit about some difficulties in my marriage and then everybody's leaning in because around a fire pit of about 12 guys, about three guys have the same problem. And then someone else opens up about looking at something they shouldn't or feeling like they're drinking a little bit too much at night and someone else leans in and says, I thought I was the only one. Satan wants you to think that you're all alone and that whatever you've done, God has done with you. And he says, and God says, actually, he says it nicely to Elijah. He's like, Elijah, listen, you're wrong and you're not very good at math, basically. Because look at what he says. In verse four, he says this, "But what is God's reply to him? I've kept for myself." God did it. "7,000 men." So Elijah, you were off by 6,999. That's a lot. But look here, 1,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, this is what Paul's leaning into. This is what we're going to talk about for a few minutes. So too, at the present time, and I would say in also in 2026, in September of 2026, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. Okay, here's what I want you to know.

Paul goes, I want to encourage you. God always has a remnant. A remnant is a faithful few who believe in every place. Every county you go to, every school district you go to, every neighborhood you live in, every apartment complex you're a part of. Every school district that you send your kids to, whatever it is, it's like, guys, there are believers there. I can tell you what's happened to some of you. You took a new job, and I don't know, some big corporation here in the triad, and you know, you're a week or two into the job, and you think there's no Christians in this whole place? Then you pull into the parking lot one day and you see one of those beautiful little orange triangles on the back of a car. I used to praise the Lord, this is the believers in here. And you take a picture of license plate and ask Chatchu-BT and Chatchu-BT says, "I can't tell you who that is." Not that I've ever tried, but you know what I'm saying. So God has people in every place. God has people that we can't even see in every place. Do you know actually that they hit the, now again, I'm not a historian, and I know there's more to the story than this, but Winston Salem in part was started by a remnant of believers. Well, it started actually in Germany with these persecuted Christians, and they went and went and got to live with this godly man who took care of them and helped them with they were being persecuted. And a small group of those Christians moved to the woods of North Carolina and started old Salem. So in a very real way, but you can't tell even the story of our city apart from the power of a remnant. Here's what a remnant is. It's the minority before the majority comes. And every, think about it this way, there is no revivals apart from first having a remnant that's passionate, prayerful, evangelistic, hard-oriented, Bible-saturated people. Think about this. This is why I actually think this word is grateful where we are today because nothing gets started. No new works have got to get started apart from a remnant. It's like, you know, we're going to be planting three churches this year. We've got interest meetings after this service. You'll hear about that. And it's like, I don't know how many people are going to go with each one. We're going, we're staying in Winston with a team. We're going to Greenville, North Carolina. We're going to Charlotte. It's like five people, ten people, 20 people,

30 people 50. I don't know what's going to go with each team. But here's what I do know. It's just going to be a remnant. That's a fairly large remnant. In Lexington, we started with 75. Here when we planted this church in 2016, we started with 30 people. Who knows what God could do? In fact, Paul wants to go on and he goes, "Here's the power of a remnant." He says this, "But if it is by grace," so all this is by grace. But if it is by grace, and by the way, this is the clearest potential, the clearest verse in the New Testament on grace. I think it's the only verse in the New Testament that uses the word grace three times in a row. Look here. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Paul's always comparing and contrasting those two. And then, look, Paul goes this, "Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace." It's like, Paul just defined grace by grace, you know? So grace and works are two ingredients. You can't put them together. There are two operating systems that if you're running grace, you can't run works as being right with God. And if you're running works, it deletes grace. Grace is the goodness and the generosity of God toward people who do not deserve it and cannot earn it. And Paul goes, "There's so much grace." He said, "But why does an Israel experience this grace? It's because of their hardened hearts." Look at verse 7. What then Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking? The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.

We're going to talk about that in a second. As it was written, God gave them a spirit of super eyes that would not see, ears that would not hear, down to this very day. I want to talk about the hard heart again. Because a couple weeks ago, we talked about we heart in our hearts, okay? In the story of Moses and Pharaoh, it's Pharaoh heartens his heart before God ever does anything to harden the heart. And how would you know if you have a hard heart? I think you need to have a spiritual dashboard, right? In your car, even if you don't understand it and don't pay attention to it, you have a dashboard. Like, all right, the oil light, okay? The check engine light, okay? How much fuel do I have, okay? I hate to tell you this. This is a long time ago, but I ran out of gas, believe it or not, three times in my life. You know, I guess I always thought it gave you more grace. I was like, when it says 10 miles, it really means like 30 miles. It means 10 miles, I've learned, okay? You've got to pay, so you should have a spiritual dashboard. Here's a couple of questions. You might have a hard heart if the Bible is boring. Paul Tripp, author, speaker, he said he was going through a season in his life where he was reading the Bible and feeling nothing and he walked up to his wife one morning and said, would you please pray for me? I've been reading this for weeks and I feel nothing and I'm afraid of what's happening in my heart. You might have a hard heart if worship feels routine and optional and like you're going through the motions.

You might have a hard heart if your sin feels small to you. You might have a hard heart if mission seems like just a burden. We've got to watch the spiritual dashboard of our own hearts. You might have a hard heart if every time you're lovingly confronted, you get offended because the hard heart is a humble heart, the soft heart is a humble heart that says, I want to change. Well, Paul says Israel, they've got this spiritual insensitivity. In fact, we're told why in verse 9, and David says, let their table, which represents good things in life, right? That's what the table represents. It's where you eat. It's where you're with family. It's where you enjoy things. The table. Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. Okay, there's a lot there. He's quoting an Old Testament Psalm of David. Here's what I want to focus on. The table becomes a trap. How many people do you know? I mean, we could talk about Israel. He literally is saying, what's happened to Israel? Listen to this. What's happened to the Jewish people is they've become unbelievably successful and that's made them prideful. Is that not what happened? I mean, who are the hardest people to reach? Did Jesus not say it is harder for it is harder to get a camel to go through the eye of an eagle than a rich man to get to heaven?

It's like, there is for many people, let me tell you this, I'll tell you this for Christians. Persecution would be better for you spiritually than prosperity. Because if you were persecuted, you'd find out who you really are and what you really believe and if you're really real deal and it would probably push you into church community and it would probably, you know, make you a more prayerful person and it would probably make you search the scriptures, unfortunately, prosperity does not do the same thing for people. [BLANK_AUDIO] This whole generation of boomers who's leaving all of their kids millions and millions and millions of dollars to confirm them in their worldliness. There's just gonna be a whole generation. It's like, I have no needs. The reason that, you know, a lot of just, you know, it could be women too, but these arrogant business guys, because they're successful across one dimension of their life, they've learned how to make money and then they think they're okay. They're so arrogant and they look down on other people and they think, I've been successful in this life, so I'll be successful in the next life. I mean, they wouldn't say that out loud, but that's it. And Paul goes, guys, it is not what you think. It is sometimes the table is a trap. And sometimes success is a snare for people. But Paul says, look, he says, now about Israel. So I asked, did they stumble in order that they may fall? In other words, is this the end of Israel? 'Cause you can stumble and fall or you can stumble and not fall, but Paul's gonna go, they're stumbling, but they're not ultimately gonna fall.

That's why he says, so I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means, rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now, if they're dressed, follow this, if they're trespassed, if Israel rejecting Jesus means riches for the world, that's God's economy. And if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Okay, Paul goes, God is so awesome. And God works everything together for our good and his glory, so much so that even the Jewish people rejecting their Messiah is gonna throw open the doors for the gospel to go to the whole world. It's like, wow, that's what happens. So if you read the book of Acts, okay, here's what happened. Paul, who's like one of my favorite humans ever, when I get to heaven, it'll be a long line to meet him, but I'm gonna stand in it, okay? He's amazing. And Paul would be the easiest person to kidnap 'cause Paul did the same thing every day. You know, basically Paul got off his boat or got off his horse and he would always ask, where is the synagogue? And because he wanted to bring the gospel to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And so he would go into the synagogues and back then because they don't have podcasts, right? And there wasn't the internet.

They just gathered all the time because how else are you gonna hear Bible teaching? There's no books for you to buy and read. It's like you went to the synagogue to hear Bible teaching every day of your life. And so they would have all these guest figures. So Paul would show up and he's like, hey guys, I'm a Pharisee, a Pharisee, you know, and blah, blah, blah. And can I just explain to you? I've been reading the Old Testament, I wanna show you something I'm seeing. And so he'd read Isaiah 53 or these other passages and he'd preach Christ from the Old Testament and the Jewish people didn't like it. I mean, a few would believe, but then they would persecute him and they would kick him out. And then he would say, on a certain accounts, you can read this. And like, I think it's Acts 13 as a metaplexes. Paul goes, okay, because you've counted yourself on worthy of eternal life, how it would go to the Gentiles. And they'd freak out and flip out about that. So then he goes to the marketplace and he'd preach the gospel in a bunch of Gentiles and Greeks and barbarians would believe and then he'd gather them together. And so he'd have these churches full of all these different people,

but not that many Jewish people. Okay, a couple of principles about this. Every rejection in your life is a redirection. Do you understand that? Like this is such a helpful, this is not positive thinking. This is like God is sovereign, you know? And you thought you were chasing a paycheck, but God had a different plan kind of thing. And it's like, listen, here's what you need to realize. This is, let me apply it to the most specific meaning, which is what Paul's talking about, which is sharing your faith with other people. So it's 2007, I'm a brand new graduate. I went to Elon University, I graduated. I go to UNCG, University of North County Greensboro, UNCG. We used to call it, you never can graduate, okay? 'Cause we'd have people there for six, seven, eight years. Look, are you working on your PhD? No, my undergraduate, okay, okay. But anyway, so I'd go there. And I was a little overwhelmed because I was 23 years old. It was my first job in full-time ministry. And I went to Elon University, which had 5,000 students. And I show up at UNCG and there's 16,000, I think it was, maybe 20,000 undergraduates at UNCG. I mean, you know, at Elon, the dorms were three floors. You know, here they were nine floors. And I remember my mentor, my boss at the time, he said your job on the college campus is not so much to create spiritual interest

as much as it is to discover it. I'm telling you, that is a really freeing thing to realize. So at work in your neighborhood, wherever it is, Your job is not so much to try to create spiritual interest. You can't do that. I mean, you can ask a couple questions or whatever, but it's like, people are either going to be interested or they're not. They're going to either want to know about Jesus or they're not, they're either going to be convicted about their sin and they're not. And the key is we're not trying to, and it's, I know there's certain people in our families and we love them and we want to pray for them all the time. But I'm saying as you go out, you want to share the gospel with us, many people as possible. Here, I'll tell you another story. I was in India, okay? And we drove really far out, literally into the bush of India. And we get out and the missionary says to me and it's one of the guy that are with me. I'm thinking, I hope no one gets appendicitis out here. We're in the middle of nowhere. We are far, far, far, far away. And he says, hey, was we walking to this village, everybody that you will meet has never heard about Jesus Christ before and has never seen a white person, okay?

It's a lot of pressure. So we walk into this village and everything like that and we're going hut to hut and this missionary who goes before us, he's sharing the gospel with them. He'd meet them real quick. He'd get right to the gospel. Ask a couple of spiritual questions, get right to the gospel. And I'm kind of watching through an interpreter what's happening and then I'm realizing a lot of these people weren't interested. As soon as he found out, they weren't interested, he left. And I was like, hey man, you know, we did like fly to Mumbai and we did drive three hours out here and you told me that these people never heard of Jesus before and like, why are you giving them five minutes of your time and then if they're not in it, should you leave right away? And the verse came to my mind where Jesus talks about if they won't listen, wipe the dust off your feet. Here's what he said to me. He said, well, what I need to do is I need to discover spiritual interest in this village because I need to find out who's spiritually interested so I can lead that person to Christ 'cause they're gonna stay in this village and they'll eventually reach that person. Or another way to say it,

Henry Blackaby says, the job of the Christian is to discover where God is working and join him there. So he says, here's what we wanna do. Let me read the next verse, I'll show you this. He says in verse 13, now I'm speaking to the Gentiles. So Paul goes, I'm done talking about the Jewish people for a second, I'm gonna talk to you directly, these Gentile Christians. He says, now I'm speaking to you Gentiles and it's much then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, which was always, again, a surprising thing to me because Paul's so Jewish, but then God sends him to the Gentiles. Look at this, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. Can I just say this, Paul's heart should be your heart. Paul wanted to see people saved. And in fact, he says, I would like to save some of them. Now, we know, we just went through Romans eight and Romans nine, okay? We know God saves people, but by extension, Paul goes, I'd like to save some. Meaning, how does God save people? By bringing people into their lives who share the gospel with them and call them to respond. And now, why does Paul say I wanna save some? Why doesn't he say, I wanna save everyone? 'Cause he knows he can't save everyone. Here's what he wants to do.

And this is what I'd love, it'd be the heart of every person here. I wanna play my part. When you think about what God's doing in the world, when you think about the Holy Spirit moving, when you think about people coming to faith in Christ and baptism stories and the gospel advancing, don't you just, if you're a real Christian, don't you just go, what role do I get? Do you wanna watch baptisms? Do you wanna watch baptisms for the next 10 or 20 years you're here and never baptize somebody? Or do you wanna go, you know what, I wanna play my role. Starting with the people who are smaller than me in my house and how my last name, that's the first person you start to reach. Here's a question, who's God put in front of you? And what would it look like if everybody in here played the role? Well, look what Paul says we're supposed to do. This is where I really wanna focus on, look here. Now, I'm speaking to your Gentiles and as much then, as I'm an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order some of the people in the world and I magnify my ministry in order somehow, look at this, somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and save some of them. Paul goes, how do I save the Jewish people? He goes, I make 'em jealous. Now, that's what the verse says. Now, if you're like me, you're like, wait, my whole life,

all I was ever taught is jealousy's a bad thing. It's like, well, I guess there's an exception. 'Cause this is a jealousy at one level I want what you have. Now, there's sinful jealousy. Sinful jealousy makes you discontent with what God's given you and resent people who have something you don't have. And there's a lot of things, it's like we should never be, jealousy might be like anger. It's like most expressions of it are sinful, but there's a good form. Listen, we should be jealous for understanding. But can I just can we just be honest on a Sunday morning? I know it's hard to be honest in church But let's do it just for a second altogether get ready for some honesty on Sunday The problem with Christians is we are jealous of unbelievers Which is why you have to really watch how you raise your kids because you don't want your whole house to be We don't drink smoke and chew or hang with girls who do or something like that, you know, I'm saying Then your whole household is and we don't watch those movies and we don't do sleepovers and there's about 14 other things that we don't do All the fun things we don't do those things. That's what it means to be a Christian It means that we don't do a bunch of stuff And then you raise kids that are just jealous of the world the whole time and that's why by the way That's religion and that's why you always see kids I can almost like pick them out in college. I'm like, oh you grew up in a religious on why because you were acting so rebellious So We we cannot be jealous guys. You can't listen. You can't minister To somebody you're jealous of And nobody's gonna be nobody's gonna be jealous of a life you're embarrassed about Crit non-Christians according to what Paul said I didn't make this up should be jealous of us not what jealous of our How in shape we are no there's there's non-Christian influencers for that Jealous of how easy our life is no, there's there's people on social media to get people jealous of that Jealous so much. Why don't we make no no no you know actually?

It says first Peter says people should come up to you and ask you about the hope that you have This first Peter 315 says this if nobody has ever asked you about the hope that you have I can tell you why they've never asked you Because you're hoping in the same things they're hoping it So there's no questions that here people should ask they should be jealous of our peace that doesn't isn't connected to a portfolio They should be jealous of the unity in our marriages in our families because Christ is the center They should be jealous of the hope that we have for the future Guys the reason we I don't talk about this enough the reason we call this church to city's church Yes, it's because Winston Salem were two cities that came together But that's just one of the reasons the other reason is because the church is supposed to be a city within a city So the church when properly functioning Does everything different than the world we do sex marriage family finances? leadership forgiveness work ethic rest friendship everything differently and If we're doing it rightly and biblically, it's actually attractive to the world and people go you have something. I don't have And Paul goes that's the opportunity where you get to see somebody come to Christ Well, he goes on I'm gonna read this quickly But he he gets into and we'll talk more about this next week as we finish Romans 11 But in verse 15 he says it's for if there Israel's rejection Means the reconciliation of the world So if Israel saying I don't want nothing to do with Jesus ended up bringing the gospel to the whole world What will their acceptance mean so there seems to be a future acceptance? by a large amount of the Jewish people that they will repent and believe in Jesus and Their acceptance mean but life from the dead if the dough offered as first fruits as holy so is the whole lump and if the root is holy so are the branches and then Paul ends with an All-of-tree illustration like Jesus. He used like agrarian culture to explain things because Olives were like the main economy. It was the medicine. It was used in the temple. It was used for soap So he takes this illustration of an olive tree. Let me read what he says here. This is where we'll begin to end But if some of the branches were broken off, that's the Jewish people and you although a wild olive shoot and by the way That is not a compliment You a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree

Here's what he says do not be arrogant toward the branches Okay, first of all and you feel like do I even need to say this unfortunately you do need to say this in 2026 Paul is basically saying do not be arrogant and do not look down on Jewish people Which there's this strange rise of anti-Semitism. It's like which is Sinful wrong, but also just bad theology. It's like Jesus I hope this isn't new for any of you. Jesus was Jewish The entire Bible except for two books were written by Jewish people and Paul basically says this whole tree that we're connected to Is a tree that finds its root in a bunch of? he said, you're grafted in. He says, so twice he says, don't be arrogant. Look, do not be arrogant, verse 18, toward the branches. If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you, then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Well, that is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear, for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. He says, look, the greatest danger in the Christian life is pride. Like, you know, as you think about your marriage, as you think about any year of your life, I want you to think about this phrase, pride is my worst enemy, and humility is my best friend. I've seen a marriage, by the way, be able to work out with, it can't always work with one humble person, one proud person, but any marriage can be resolved with two humble people. Listen, humility, we have a wrong idea of humility. Humility, we think, means we don't tell you the good things about us. We think, or to say another way, we think, here's what it means to be prideful. You know, if I tell you, I got to raise at work, or if I tell you that my kid did this great thing, or if I tell you, you know, what we just think, or that I, you know, was a great athlete in college, whatever, whatever that we think, if I tell you something good about me, I'm being prideful. That's not what pride is. In the Bible, pride is defined primarily as haughty eyes, meaning pride is looking down on other people. And so a lot of people think that they're humble because they don't talk about themselves, which is not the definition of humility, because that same person will look down on a bunch of other people and think they're better than them, and they'll do that in their heart. And so Paul goes, guys, the key to making it long-term in the Christian faith is being humble. By the way, how can you stare up at the cross of Christ and look down on another person? Next time that you're thinking about being prideful, I want you just

to think about standing at the cross of Christ, you, a sinner, deserving hell, and by the grace of God saved, and you look up at Jesus and go, okay, how could I then start to look down on somebody else? Well, Paul warns us, he ends with the character of God. Look what he says here. He says, note the kindness and severity of God. He's like, don't try to just make God kind or severe. You can't do build a bear God. You know, I like to think of God as it's like God is kind and God is severe. Look what it says here. Note the kindness and the severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, but kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. The kindness and severity of God is complex. Let's just say that. God has many attributes, but Paul wanted to simplify it down to God's kindness and severity of God's judgment, okay? Think about it this way. How do we see the kindness and the severity of God? We see the kindness and the severity of God most clearly at the cross of Christ. See, the reason that God can even be kind to you, self-righteous person, you unrighteous person, the reason that God can be kind to you is because he was severe to Christ. And because the judgment of God fell on Christ, now kindness can be expressed to us in Christ. You know, but there's even a kindness God gives to the unbeliever. Do you know how it's defined? The number one way kindness is defined toward the unbeliever in the Bible is God's patience. It's unbelievable. God has a long wick, but a lot of people think because God is patient with me, he's tolerating my sin. No, no, God's patience is not God's tolerance. In fact, Paul ends in verses 23 and 24 with this reminder. Let me read it to you. Here's what he says, verse 23. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, this is great hopeful. You can put someone's name in there. And even my brother-in-law, you can write down, even my son, even my dad, whoever you want to put down, if they do not continue in their unbelief, there's hope. They will be grafted in. God loves to do reattachment surgery. For God has the power to graft them in again. For if you, verse 24, were cut off by what is nature, a wild olive tree, and grafted contrary to nature, and grace always is contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these the natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? You know what's interesting as I think about this illustration of trees and branches. Those of you who know the Bible might make you think of another illustration. When Jesus says, "I am the vine," you are the branches. And then he says, He says abide in me, which we don't want. It basically means get over here.

Stay close to me. Kevin Myers was here. He gave the first talk at the Heights Conference and I had him on the podcast. And on the podcast, he said to me, I was asking about a story. And he said, yeah, when I was 12 years old, my dad and my two older brothers left me. Left me and my mom. And I just said, hey, we can cut this part of the video if you want to, but can we just double click on that and talk about that? We spent most of the podcast talking about father wounds. And I asked him a question. I said, hey, I know a lot of guys that have father wounds in our church. And I said, how do you heal a father wound? And he said, you know what I'm gonna tell you is like not real popular, but I think it's true. He said, he said, father wounds never heal. He's like, I'm 65 years old and my father wound has never healed. He said, my dad's dead and my father wound hasn't healed. He says, here's what you do. He said, the only way for me to deal with my father wound is to be attached to the vine that is Jesus Christ. And he said, when I'm attached to the vine, it's like, I'm okay. When I'm not attached to the vine, he says, what I end up seeing in my life

is all of the manifestations of my father wound immediately. And so a minute, in a minute, here's what we're gonna do. I wanna call you forward at all of our campuses to go, I wanna get attached to the vine. Maybe you're attached, you guys, I just wanna be even closer, I wanna buy more. And here's the other thing we're gonna pray for. I wanna call you down to pray for your one, somebody who you go, you know what? Even they could be reattached. Even God could, even someone as rebellious as them or religious as them, as self-righteous as them, as unrighteous as them, God could do a great work. Because here's what I want you to know, we are designing this church, please know this. Everything we do here, we are designing this church to help partner with you to reach your one more, to reach the people that you love. And it starts by coming down to the altar, guys, listen. Last Sunday morning, we had so many people at the altar at the nine o'clock service that one of our staff members, Zach, who was trying to film the service, just try to get our 10th anniversary, he saw so many people down front that he put his camera down to go pray for people. So partly, you may need to come forward or you may need to, you may see somebody you know down here and go, "I need to get down and pray with him." And here's what I did learn from the story of how Zach and the camera.

Sometimes you needed to drop something or put something down to get down here. It might be pride, it might be insecurity, it might be fear of man, let's pray. Lord, across our campuses, we wanna respond, Lord. Coming to the altar is not how we end our service as much as how we begin a new week. This is the first day of a new week, and today as we end, we come to the altar, Lord. We come to the altar to recommit, Lord, we will be attached to the vine. We will not be arrogant, we will be humble. We will not be complacent, we will be hungry for you to work. And Lord, we come forward asking you to save some and to save our one Lord. We come forward saying, even now, if so and so does not continue in their unbelief, they can be grafted in. That's our great hope, Lord, would you do it for your glory and our good? Jesus, stand me free, amen. Please stand and come forward. (gentle music) (gentle music) You You