It's a Love-Hate Relationship
From the Beginning • Sermon • Submitted
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· 20 viewsIsn't it amazing to know that God knows everything. This is also the reason we take issue with God sometimes. If he knows everything that will happen why does he allow certain things? And what is the deal with predestination? These are questions that Pastor Bill tackels in Genesis 25:19-34.
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Introduction:
Isn’t it wonderful to serve a mighty God. A God of love, compassion, mercy and grace.
A God that is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), Sovereign (in Control).
It’s these very things that cause us to wonder what God is doing sometimes.
Do you every feel like a rat in a maze. Should I go this way or that way. Do I take a left or a right. Have I gone down that path before. Is this the way out or just another dead end.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could see the whole maze of your life. You could see all the twists and turns. You would know if you should go right or go left. Do I marry this guy or say no to the date? Do I buy this house or just be patient and rent?
There is only master of the maze. Only one that can see your path from beginning to the end. There is only one that knows the choices you should make and the choices you will make. It is all laid out in front of him and that is our God.
The blessing for us is that God wants to be your guide through the maze. He is constantly speaking to us telling us to take a left and not a right. He is giving us the direction we need in a path that is unclear to us because we don’t have the view that he has.
But we question God or we ignore God just to find out that we hit another dead end and have to backtrack.
This morning I want to talk to you about this age old question of how God directs our life.
Do we really have any choices to make or does God make all the choices for us.
Let’s continue our Story in with Isaac and Rebekah and find out.
There are some that would say
19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Genesis 25:19-
God has predestined the path, you just have to trust Him.
God has predestined the path, you just have to trust Him.
God is not limited by our human abilities to form the path.
God can make a way where there is no way.
God has predestined a path to and through Jesus
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3
22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 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.”
Genesis 25:22
God can handle your present because he knows your future.
God can handle your present because he knows your future.
God doesn’t have to remove choice to be Sovereign.
Reformed theology or Calvinism would say that you have no choice in your salvation or life for that matter because God’s sovereignty makes those choices for you.
The problem with this line of thinking is that if God makes the choice only according to his will, then He has revealed his will that all would come to repentance and be saved ().
All would be saved and there would be no hell for human beings.
God’s character of love and justice are compromised by predesignating some to hell.
God is not limited to the choices of man. (Limitless, the movie)
God is the master of the maze. He has run all the scenarios and mapped all the choices.
Not only does God know which direction you will choose but has already made provision for that choice.
The two brothers are two Nations of people
Esau is the nation of Edom.
8 So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)
Jacob is Israel.
28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Gen
God doesn’t only see the two boys but the nations they will become.
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.”
Rom 9:
God predestined the path that would bring about Jesus.
Because God is all knowing he knows every choice you will ever choose. All of time is history to God. (Terminator, the movie)
God saw Abraham as a great nation that would bless the world.
God saw Jacob as Israel His chosen people.
God saw Esau as Edom that would strive against Israel.
19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” 20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. 21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.
Numbers 20:19-
You would never experience God’s grace without God’s mercy.
You would never experience God’s grace without God’s mercy.
Roman 9:14
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
Romans 9:
Because of our sin we are all worthy of death.
God’s mercies are new every morning on the righteous and the wicked because he withholds his judgement.
God’s mercy allows you to experience God’s grace.
Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.
God’s grace is the death of Jesus as a substitute for our death.
God’s grace forgives those who repent and come to him.
God has predestined a path through Christ by which you can be saved.
God has predestined a path through Christ by which you can be saved.
He knows the choice you will make.
He has even made provision for your choice right or wrong. But you still have to choose.
The maze is a whole lot easier when God is guiding you and it leads right to Him.