Velocity Belongs to God
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Velocity Belongs to God
Malachi 1:2-5
INTRODUCTION
Review Velocity from last week- (NASCAR versus Cannonball run)
ILL--Newton's 3 Laws of motion
1. an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force-- or- object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. (gravity, friction etc.) -- So an object at rest will remain at rest until application of an outside force.
2. The force of the object is determined by its mass and acceleration (assuming velocity)
3. When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.
What does that mean for us?
-You cannot save yourself. you will not have spiritual velocity without God touching you first.
-Your force (influence) is determined by whether or not you are moving from God's touch.
-God is supernaturally not affected by the 3rd law. He sends us in motion without losing his motion.
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob
3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”
4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ”
5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
How does God Provide Velocity in Our life?
4 Ways God Provides Velocity in Our Life
4 Ways God Provides Velocity in Our Life
1. He Provides Velocity Through Love (2)
1. He Provides Velocity Through Love (2)
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob
ahabti=love= the passionate desire to be intimately united with a person.
Here it refers to the love God showed to Israel by choosing them for an important purpose.
People Malachi is speaking to marveled that through the disobedience and judgment of their ancestors, he still loved them and had a plan for them.
This is the love God showed that turned to hesed love (covenant love)
The reason God blessed the nation was because he made a covenant with Abraham.
The love he showed Jacob is the love he has for all of mankind.
It was through Jacob that the 12 tribes would be born. It was through the tribe of Judah that Jesus was to be born.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jacob did not earn this love. He was a cheat.
We do not earn God's love yet he chose us.
We are all sinners.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
2. He Provides Velocity Through Election (2-3)
2. He Provides Velocity Through Election (2-3)
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob
3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”
The reason he made a covenant with them is because he loved Jacob and chose him for the covenant.
God chose Jacob over Esau to be the seed of Israel.
God chose the people of Israel for a special plan in his redemptive history.
Esau was not cursed because of God's plan. He was cursed when he refused to accept his place in God's plan.
God told Rebekah that Jacob would be the heir.
23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
Rebekah didn't trust God. She was always trying to force what God already promised.
Esau sold his birth-rite for a bowl of soup.
Jacob pretended to be Esau to get the blessing.
He chose that Jesus would be the way to salvation, not being a Jew.
Paul writes Romans 8-10 as a defense for Jesus being the only way to salvation, that being a Jew was not good enough.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
He predestined (election) those who foreknew. He predestined that Jesus would be the only way to salvation. The elect are those he foreknew would receive Jesus as only way.
Romans 9-10
10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—
12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.
32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
God determined that the way to salvation would be through Jesus, not the Law. This is the argument of Romans 9-10. Paul is helping Jews in Rome understand why Gentiles have received the blessing of salvation.
God chose Israel to be his instrument to bring salvation to all nations through the lineage of Abraham.
He is pointing out to Malachi's followers that God is faithful to His people.
He chose them over 1400 years earlier and he still loved them in the same way.
God choosing us gives us confidence.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Confidence brings Velocity
3. He Provides Velocity Through Judgment (3-4)
3. He Provides Velocity Through Judgment (3-4)
3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”
4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ”
Esau's descendents became the people of Edom.
God hated their wickedness and brought judgment to them.
All that was left for the people of Jerusalem in Malachi's day were ghost towns populated by desert creatures like Jackals.
God will put an end to His enemies.
"If God is for us who can be against us?"
Those not part of the elect will live in judgment.
Malachi connects God's treatment of Edomites to his divine rejection of Esau before they were born.
However, God's covenant did not mean that all of Jacob's descendants would be eternally saved and it did not mean all of Esau's descendants would be forever lost.
7 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
8 Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.
However, those who refuse to enter the assembly will be judged.
Discipline or wrath? (4)
4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ”
God disciplines those who are saved.
God shows wrath to those who are lost.
Discipline has a different purpose than judgment.
God gives us Velocity by judgment given to his enemies.
4. He Provides Velocity Through Testimony (5)
4. He Provides Velocity Through Testimony (5)
5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
The testimony of the saints will make God famous to the whole world.
Our witness is important to God because he did not save us for our good. He saved us for His own glory to be reflected to the world.
Jesus left us on this earth in order to bring testimony about what Jesus has done in our life.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
"Your own eyes shall see this..."
Being a witness is nothing more than telling others what God has done in your life.
If you are a Christian you have a testimony of what Christ has done for you.
Tell them your story.
Are you a witness to the greatness of God?
CONCLUSION
ILL-- An object at rest stays at rest until acted upon by a force.
Velocity begins with God.
Velocity begins with God.
-Working hard is not how you go forward in your life. - Only God can put you in motion.
-First you must be saved and have the Spirit in your life.
-Once he has changed you, then you will begin to move forward.