God Does What???

Welcome/Prayer/ Intro

Good Morning Church! How is everyone doing this morning? This is the first week we will be in the “You Pick” Series where you get to pick the passages and topics I preach on and we study! If you havent already please get your suggestions to me ASAP.

Note: for today’s Message you might want to pull out a notebook or pen and paper so you can write things down. This will be a different kind of message and you will want to write stuff down as we go along.

Would you pray with me? Holy Spirit come open our eyes this morning to the text we will be studying may we be enlightened by your written word God and Transformed by the living Word that is Jesus. Amen.

Intro: How many of you have questions about today’s passage raise your hand?

What do we do when we come across passages like these?

Read 14-18 (slide), Do we really know what Paul is saying about God here?

sounds like God is a puppet master controlling us. Sounds like God just does what he wants with us.

that just doesnt sit right does it?

This morning we are going to learn how to go deeper with these difficult passages, We are going to learn how to question and wrestle with the Word

You might be thinking Joe, Paul tells us in the next several verses not to question God. No he says “Who are you to talk back to God?”

Paul is saying, its not for us to judge God’s actions, but if we are to truly know God we must try to understand what he says and does. So we are going to step by step study and explore vs 17 and 18 in this passage.

Essential Question: What does Romans 9:17-18 say about God’s character?

Is God Just a puppet Master?

what does it mean God harden’s someones heart?

Transition: We are going to learn by asking questions this morning. As we go through these questions I want you to write them down so we can use them when we come across other difficult passages.

Bible Study Questions:

What is going on in the bigger story/section/ passage?

What we Know: Paul is writing to Christains in Rome, with specific issues and struggles. We also know most of the Jews in the congregation are well versed in the OT as they had to study it from a young age

What has happened before this: Paul has just written that nothing can seperate us from God’s love. We have assurance of God’s Love.

In the Passage: Paul is fleshing out Israel’s role in God’s plan and How they have been used for God’s purposes. We have had examples of How God’s children were formed through patriarchs.

Even though we might have been taught this: the passage is not referring to salvation rather, How God uses people or purpose.

We will see this come to light as we look at Pharaoh later.

Anything else going on that we should think about?

Are we all on the same page here? Questions?

What specific details can we glean from this passage?

Start by looking for more clues in the text.

God does show mercy and compassion- not a dictator- the bible speaks of his love more than 500 times

vs 16 tells us that God’s mercy is not dependent on Merit- do we see that?

Is this passage, idea, or phrase in any other part of the Bible?

Use Cross Reference in your bible

Pick up a concordance

You can even use Google if you have to.

Point is: find connections and connect the dots.

There are multiple references in this passage, but I want to focus on God and Pharaoh

I found that this verse is actually a quote form exodus 9. (Once you find these you have to flip to them and find do the same thing!)

What can we learn from other passages and sources?

Lets go there and see what it says: Exodus 9:16 (Slide)

God is using Pharaoh for a larger plan- Do we know what that plan is?

Purpose is covered, but what about this heart hardening part? We have to look around in the story for that!

Normally, we would have to spend some time digging around for this, but I did the work for you.

Blood: Pharaoh’s heart “became hard” (7:22)

Frogs: Pharaoh “hardened his own heart” (8:15)

Gnats: Pharaoh’s heart “was hard” (8:19)

Flies: “Pharaoh hardened his own heart” (8:32)

Livestock die: Pharaoh’s heart “was hard” (9:7)

Boils: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (9:12)

Hail: Pharaoh “hardened his own heart” (9:34)

Locusts: God announces that he has “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (10:1,10:20)

Darkness: God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (10:27)

Death of the firstborn: God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (11:10)

I think what we can learn from this is its not as simple as God did this to Pharaoh. I think we see that Pharaoh hardened his own first.

What is this saying about how God handles humans and their sin/stubbornness? - we have to look up other passages too! - I Think God is allowing what Pharaoh was already doing to himself to continue.

We see God do this at the flood- In Genesis 6: the world is spiraling fast. This causes him grief, not anger! Read Gen 6:5 (Slide). God sees the evil and sends the flood, but its more of a pulling back then a sending forth. we see this in Ch 7:11-12 (Slide). The waters that God seperate and held back in creation, he was now releasing.

Paul Writes that God does the same thing in Roman’s 1, over and over it says “God gave them over”.

What we can glean from this, is that God has a certain way of dealing with us. Its like God removes his presence from the situation.

its like turning out a light- When you remove a light from a room you dont add more darkness, but the darkness covers when the light is.

Another way to think about this is: Imagine you are in a boat on a river, the boat is on the edge of a waterfall. God’s hand is an anchor holding you from heading down stream, but if you deliberately reject him, whats going to happen when he lates go?

Any questions on what we just went through?

Even though we reject him, he still uses us, we cant mess up his plan.

God still used Pharaoh to set his people free and proclaim his name.

But a-lot of people ask, What about the Red Sea? “Didnt God kill Pharaoh in the read sea”?

Well, lets see how this plays out! Turn to Exodus 14-

Summary of what happens- Flee, Pharaoh goes after, God pillar of cloud/fire to seperate. Pharaoh’s army is right behind them, God moves inbetween.

Pillar is essentially a big stop sign. If you defy me, you know what happens? its kinda like the boat thing, but God says, he there is a big waterfall right there.

Pharaoh ignores the stop sign and charges in anyway! literally chooses his own destruction!

God did not want Pharaoh to die, we know in 1 Tim 2:4- “God wants everyone to be saved” - that means pharaoh too!

Even though Pharaoh died, and didnt listen, God still used Pharaoh.

Last Question: How does what we have studied help us understand this difficult passage/God better?

What we learned:

God wants us to understand him

God is not an arbitrary puppet master, but works with purpose- God uses everyone for his plan!

God does show mercy and compassion far more than we see wrath and anger.

Often when God “harden’s hearts”, He is letting what we have already started continue.

We almost always cause our own destruction, through our sin.

Anything else we have learned about verses 17-18 or God’s character?

We have learned to dig into and wrestle with God’s word!

What do we do with this?

We just went through Pharaoh, your homework is to do the same thing with the references to Jacob and Esau.

Write down questions you have about it!

Cross References you will need: Mal 1:2-3, Gen 25:23, Whole Story: Genesis 25:19-34

What is going on in the bigger story/section/ passage?

Where specific details can we glean from this passage?

What can we learn from other passages and sources?

How does what we have studied help us understand this difficult passage/God better?

Benediction: The More we understand God, the more we look like Him.

4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.