Romans Chapter 9:1-3

So we're just we're supposed to love our neighbor and of course, you know, it was interesting when Jesus said you're supposed to love your neighbor You know what? They asked who's my neighbor? Let's narrow this down a little bit They're thinking okay got my left down my right. I think I handle that and then that's when Jesus told parable the Good Samaritan And you need to understand that Jewish people hated Samaritan people welcome to cross the bridge with David McGee One of the hardest commandments in Scripture is probably the one that says we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us Find out why this is important and how it is a blessing to you and to them as pastor David continues in Romans 9 With his teaching soft hearts.

Here's David McGee So we're starting Romans chapter 9 before I start let me go ahead and tell you this Yes, sometimes when I'm teaching a section of Scripture, I'm like, oh, you know somebody These folks will be convicted by this passage or these folks will be convicted by that passage And you know, of course, we're always trying to get convicted for somebody else, right? We're sitting there We go. Oh godly. This is this is for my wife. Are you listening, honey? You know and fire several CDs so she doesn't miss it But you know, are you you hear a message that's really meant for you and you're like, oh, I so wish my neighbor was here he so needs to hear this and But this one today This one's for you.

This one's for you. This is a message that if you're breathing and You're sensitive open to the Holy Spirit You're gonna be convicted today and it's not my intent to condemn you but to perhaps to stir you up Encourage you to what the Lord wants you to do. And so Romans chapter 9 verse 1 says I tell the truth in Christ.

I am NOT lying my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart You know when we got to the end of Romans 8 or the whole chapter of Romans 8 We took a lot of time in there and we started out with no condemnation We ended up with no separation and in the middle we found out that everything works together for our good That if we're called it works to our good according to God's purpose We close that chapter and now all of a sudden it's like continual grief First glance you go. Well, that's a kind of the opposite and but let's understand Christianity is filled with opposites if you will opposites like if you want to find your life you got to give it away if you try to hold it all hold on to it, you're gonna lose it a lightness and a joy in your soul understanding there's no separation and now this Continual grief in your heart towards those that don't know there's certain things That mark a mature Christian when I say a mature Christian I'm not talking about somebody that's necessarily been saved five years ten years fifteen years twenty years a Chronological number I'm talking about somebody that's really grown in the Lord and and is really following the Lord And there's several things that just mark a mature Christian. One of them is is a love for God's Word and They're probably in the Bible Most days if not all enjoy spending time with the Lord in prayer enjoy spending time with God's people It's a mark of a mature Christian that has made the decision to be in fellowship and to be committed Tithing is the mark of a mature Christian now Am I saying that automatically by giving 10% that makes you a mature Christian? No, but I am saying that if you don't times there's no way you are a mature Christian That's the clear teaching of Scripture supports all these things.

And so now we have another unique mark of A mature Christian. What is it a burden for the lost a burden for the lost You cannot say I am a mature Christian and not care if people hear about Jesus or not There's no way if you think of yourself today in here or you're listening the TV or radio or whatever And you think of yourself as a mature Christian, but you don't have a burden for the lost friend Let me break it to you as kindly as I can You're not a mature Christian Because with this understanding what Jesus did for you is what he wants to do for others now. I understand it It's a progression, you know the moment you come to Jesus.

It's it's not about anybody else It's just about you and him. As a matter of fact, you have to really forget about everybody else to come to him Don't you because it's at some point, you know, we have the altar calls here I give the invitation and at that point you can't be thinking about what the person to your left or to your right is thinking Or the person behind you or the person in front of you you gonna be like, you know I gotta go down there. I gotta ask God to forgive me of my sins either for the first time or coming back to him So it's not about other people at that point Come to God you ask him. You don't ask him to forgive your neighbor sins.

Do you know? You ask him to forgive yours, but the moment that divine transaction is finished Everything changes done it Because you begin to look around at people and you see them differently. I Remember just being as a baby Christian being blown away going to the mall and and it was like I'd never seen people before Because all of a sudden it wasn't just a crowd of people it was I was looking at their eyes I was it was almost like I was looking into their soul in the sense of oh They they look like they know the Lord. They don't look like they know the Lord Why because this natural progression of Receiving my forgiveness and then wanting other people to receive their forgiveness and where you are on that scale tells a lot about where You are with the Lord where you would you know one to ten or whatever would rank your burden Tells a lot about how closely you're following Jesus.

Obviously. Jesus was burdened for the lost life lesson here as followers of Jesus should care and be willing to Sacrifice for those that do not know Jesus as their Savior in 1962 the Supreme Court outlawed prayer and Bible reading in our schools since this decision. We have seen violent crime increase STDs triple unwed pregnancies quadruple and our divorce rates have skyrocketed While the outlook for our country may seem bleak pastor and author David McGee believes there is hope for our nation Recently David shared that vision of hope in the nationally televised special Lord give us America This passionate presentation features David's insights on America's godly heritage and how the church can play a crucial role in bringing our nation back to God The Lord give us America DVD is now available to you for a gift of any amount to cross the bridge ministries This special DVD is our way of saying thank you for helping us reach our nation with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ Call today with your gift to cross the bridge and we'll send Lord give us America to you right away The number to call is eight seven seven four five eight fifty five. Oh eight.

That's eight seven seven four five eight fifty five Oh, wait, you can also find us online at cross the bridge.com. Did you know one of the keys to spiritual growth is to Daily be in the Word of God. I want to help you to do that You see I send out an email every day with a scripture passage a life lesson a directed prayer and some encouraging thoughts All you need to do is go to cross the bridge.com and sign up for our absolutely free Evotional and also you'll receive prayer support You let us know if you have a prayer need and you'll get specially discounted offers God in his word Promises that his word always produces fruit always So let's get started go to cross the bridge.com and sign up for our devotional. You'll be glad you did Now let's return to our study Romans chapter 9 verse 3 for I could wish that I myself were a cursed from Christ for my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh a cursed from Christ Paul here is saying I am willing to be lost. I am willing to be eternally Separated from God if that would accomplish them coming to the Lord Friend that's convicting That is just flat-out convicting imagine if I said okay. Hey in order to reach the lost Um, I don't know what your favorite restaurant is but in order to reach the lost you can't go to your favorite restaurant anymore Some would be like hmm.

Can I get back to you on it? What if I said you got to give up your favorite food in order to reach the lost Somebody go man not sure Paul says the very thing that is most precious to me the very reason I live and have my being I'm willing to give that up if Somehow I can reach other people is That the compassion and the love that we as followers of Jesus are known for Sadly it's not Now that's that's that's not real convicting. Let me make a little more convicting. Is that your passion for the lost? Do you feel I would share but it would be socially a little a little awkward if I if I shared at this moment with this person See some of us have fallen into this tramp. Well, there's some that are called to evangelism Yep, there are Those that are called to Christianity Are those that are called to evangelism so you can't say well I'm now there is a gifting or an office or whatever or an empowerment for an evangelist to have a special gifting kind of a You know minimum effort maximum impact sort of thing and and God has gifted me in this way But that doesn't mean if you're not gifted in the exact same way that now, okay, you don't have to tell anybody And why do we do this? Why don't we tell people about Jesus as most people say well, it's to see them get saved No, it's a great answer. But unfortunately, it's the wrong one Follow me with this if you think you're supposed to tell people about Jesus in order for them to get saved What happens the first time you tell somebody and they don't get saved?

You go. Well, that didn't that didn't work like it was supposed to And then you do it again and they don't get saved. You're like, well, I did Let's not be very good at this and then you do it again and you're going I'm just not gifted as an evangelist I just won't do this anymore. Some of you have followed that path You need to understand you don't share with people about Jesus in order for them to get saved You share with them because Jesus told you to go and tell and so the moment you open your mouth your Heavenly Father is looking down smiling You are successful when you open your mouth. It's God's responsibility Whether they come to him or not. It's our responsibility to tell Well Paul's talking here that about the Jewish people and So obviously things have always gone really well with him and the Jewish people right?

That's a Things just always go swimmingly. Is that what it is? And so he because they've been so good to him and not what it is friend Let's clarify written Romans written during the book of Acts what happens everywhere Paul goes either a revival or a riot and sometimes both and he ends up in jail beaten up accused By who by the Jewish leaders The people he here is sharing. He's got a burden for as if we weren't convicted enough already with the realization that these are the people that given him such a hard time and not only a hard time acts 2312 says this and When it was day some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath So that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul Now I've made some people mad before I've probably made more people mad since the churches started and I ever had in my life, but I Don't think they've ever banded together saying they weren't gonna eat until they killed me Now they may have had some meetings. I didn't know about but I you know, I'm just going out on a limb here and And Paul is still saying these are the guys I have a heart for to reach you still cared about them Which brings us into you know, our emotional development towards other people if you will because man with Christians Jesus told us how we're supposed to do this and how we're supposed to care for other people and Boy do we need his help because in this Thing we call it first John. It's not John. It's not the gospel of John It's later on in the Bible's first John. It says that if we say that we love God But we don't love people If we say that we love God, we haven't seen God, but but we don't love people and we have seen people We don't love God. The matter of fact, it's a little stronger that says we're a liar So we're just we're supposed to love our neighbor and of course, you know It was interesting when Jesus said you're supposed to love your neighbor. You know what they asked. Who's my neighbor?

Let's narrow this down a little bit. So thinking okay guy on my left guy on my right I think I handle that and then that's when Jesus told parable the Good Samaritan And you need to understand that Jewish people hated Samaritan people Stages if you will of emotional development first of all not loving or hating people that love you That's not good. That's not healthy.

That's abnormal. That's abnormal in the church Christians That's abnormal in the world secular humanism That's not good when you hate people that love you and then perhaps as you grow you reach out You're being indifferent or uncaring the people that love you sadly enough. Some of us have done both of those And then we hit what we considered to be the high holy ground of Christianity We love people that love you and then we go I'm doing pretty good Right. I'm loving people that love me.

Hallelujah. I mean, I'm even loving some people in the church. I really don't like Is it really hard to love people that love you? pretty easy, isn't it and You know as you're an adult guess what in the in loving people that love you there's a if you will if I can break It down to this crude of a thing. There's a transaction going on In other words, somebody's loving you and you know that they love you why because there's some type of giving care something where you know They love you and then in return you give this love and this caring back And so there's this exchange of love and a big warm fuzzy Everything was a great till Jesus came along What Jesus tells she said, you know what? Even the tax collectors do that Tax collectors were like way low on on the pole guys So matter of fact, you know, which gospel records that gospel Matthew What Matthew do before he was a follower of Jesus?

He was tax collector Jesus says you can't take joy in that just loving people that love you but but but I love people who are difficult sometimes What they burn you muffin the coffee coat. I mean, what do you mean? They're difficult. I Mean gang, yeah, you know, you guys are awesome. You guys Are easy to love for me? For the most part and and so hopefully I'm easy to love for the most part with you I mean there's times when I say something and you probably sit there and go.

I wish you hadn't said that Maybe this is one of those days. I don't know But Jesus said go beyond this Loving people that don't care are indifferent about you Do you love them? Because we're supposed to People that don't care about you people that don't return phone calls people that don't return emails Do you love them? And yet it goes deeper than it loving people that don't like or even hate you That's hard to do But friend if you walk through this life very long you're gonna have an opportunity to do that if you're in ministry If you're following Jesus, you're gonna have an opportunity to do that to love people that Don't like you or even Hate you But here's the cop-out sometimes so well somebody is antagonistic to Christianity So I'm gonna hate them in the name of God because God doesn't know enough to be offended God never said go hate people on my behalf He said love your enemies pray for them to persecute you When somebody gets in your face and they say I don't like your Jesus you love them When they say they think that the Bible is a bunch of hogwash you love them See because Love is something that's really hard to defend against in it When you love them as the Lord loved us loving those that hate us That's difficult. It's hard, but that's what we're called to do and Paul is struggling with us These people are accusing him. They're wanting to put him to death They're accusing the blasphemy and all these things and he's loving them to the point He's saying you know what if if if you would come to Jesus from me being separated from Jesus, I would do it this heart Obviously we see in Paul We also see it in Jesus, but we see it in some other humans in the Bible. We see it in Moses in Moses Have you ever seen the Ten Commandments you've seen the thing or read the book of Exodus, you know Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to get the law He's up there and he receives the Ten Commandments and he's on his way back down and Joshua says it sounds like there's like war In the camp and Moses says and it's not war. It's a party Now Moses had left Aaron in charge. It was his first gig as assisting pastor Moses goes up to the mountain and God has to say Mo buddy Mo, you need to get down there because things aren't going well. So he goes back down and there It's as bad as a church service could get I guess I don't know I mean they're dancing naked drinking and they got the golden calf there things are not going well And I love in the midst of that because we're told in the book of Exodus We're told that you know All the people brought gold and Aaron hammered it together and built them a golden calf But Aaron and Moses were brothers I don't know if you knew that but Moses gets down and he goes Aaron What are you doing and Aaron gives it's really kind of a comedic answer. He goes we threw the gold in a fire and out came a calf And why did he build the calf because the people ask him to is the first world's first seeker sensitive service I guess but so He does all this and and Moses is angry Understandably angry, but after he gets over his initial anger What was his response?

basically a lot like Paul's Exodus 32 verse 30 says now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the People you've committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord perhaps I can make atonement for your sin Then Moses returned to the Lord and said all these people have committed a great sin have made for themselves a god of gold Yet now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray blot me out of your book, which you have written You're still at the book of life That his name was written in He was willing to have his name blotted out of the book of life that those Who had messed up so much? Could be forgiven What's your heart towards people that don't know God maybe you're Antagonistic maybe make fun of Christians. Maybe make fun of Jesus Years ago a song of the pastor and he went off about Madonna this is a few years ago, you know talking about how loose and immoral and I Mean things that it really took a rocket sign just to figure out But you know, he's saying all these things and he's going on and on and on and I'm And I just was struck by thought so ask him I said, you know, have you ever prayed for Madonna I Said what I said, we were prayed for We may have ever prayed for Well, I mean apparently very sensitive to what she's doing wrong and stuff. And so I'm just wondering if you prayed for it Well, he didn't like the question And I could tell he was convicted. He said no See we Christians we love to talk about the people who aren't getting it Why because it makes us feel better, but are we praying about them these people near our prayers? Wow, because prayer leads to love and love leads to prayer That's just an equation that that it prayer leads to love and love leads to prayer You start praying for somebody you start you're gonna start loving them Why should I do that because friend if you start to harden your heart towards unbelievers, you're going down a path You don't want to end up on You will harden your heart and pretty soon instead of looking at somebody that doesn't know Jesus you'll just religiously feel superior and look down your nose at them and Then you might as well put the sign on your chest that says Pharisee because you're done. I Don't want to do that.

I Don't want this fellowship to do it and when you pray for somebody you keep your hearts off not just towards them You just keep your hearts off period And think of the person right now that you are having the worst time with the most difficult time and maybe they're just a Gentile pagan heathen dog Are you praying for them? I Warned you for we started this was gonna be a convicting. I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm trying to stir you up Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know Right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now Dear Jesus. I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven and I believe you were raised from the dead That I could have a new life And I've done wrong things.

I have sinned and I'm sorry Please forgive me of all those things Please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name Amen Friend if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible you've been forgiven you've been born again So congratulations friend, you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make God bless you If you've prayed this prayer with pastor David receiving Jesus Christ for the first time or rededicating your life to the Lord Please call and let us know we want to send you our exclusive first steps package for free This package will help you grow in your new life Receive your first steps package by calling eight seven seven four five eight fifty five. Oh eight That's eight seven seven four five eight fifty five. Oh eight or visit us online at cross the bridge calm When you call let our call team representative know where you heard about our broadcast The Apostle Paul laid the foundation for the New Testament Church and yet few of us in the church today Really understand the events and places that shaped this remarkable man But now pastor and Bible teacher David McGee has created the footsteps of Paul tour through the heart of the ancient world You'll be a part of a breathtaking three-day tour of the famous Greek islands Also during the tour David McGee will be opening the Bible to teach on Mars Hill the very place in Athens Paul taught about the unknown God We'll go up to the Acropolis and visit the Parthenon Also, we'll visit Patmos the place where John wrote the book of Revelation We'll continue to Ephesus in Turkey sharing the history Stories and reality of these historic places that changed the future of the church Plus be a part of an actual television production as we film parts of the tour for our national TV program cross the bridge The footsteps of Paul tour with pastor and Bible teacher David McGee Combine your vacation with an in-depth experience in the reality of God's Word For more information visit cross the bridge.com or call us at eight seven seven four five eight fifty five.

Oh wait That's eight seven seven four five eight fifty five. Oh wait Contact us today because space is limited and this tour will fill up fast Friend do you have a heart for the lost? I invite you to send us the first names of your lost loved ones and we will have hundreds of people praying for them Just go to cross the bridge com and click on the prayer button and you'll enter their name And if you put your name and email address in there I'll send you free resources to equip you to pray and teach you how to reach your lost loved ones, please don't wait This is so important. So please again go to cross the bridge.com and click on the prayer button and send us the first names of lost loved ones We'll send you some free information and together we can partner to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world the whole book For the whole world one of the most important parts of growing in Christ is being in fellowship at a local church But what happens on those times you're sick or traveling? simply log on to cross the bridge comm and click the live stream button and you'll instantly be streaming from David McGee's home church the Bridge catch every life lesson and scripture reference as you take part in hearing the Word of God from anywhere in the world Pastor David McGee teaches live online Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern time Watch this week and cross the bridge.com Cross the bridge with David McGee is a ministry dedicated to sharing the whole Bible with the whole world If you've been blessed by cross the bridge consider financially supporting this ministry Your gift will be used to reach more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ while also supplying resources to new believers To give simply call eight seven seven four five eight fifty five. Oh eight or visit us online at cross the bridge comm and click On the donate button once there you can choose to give a one-time gift or become a bridge builder monthly supporter Also while visiting cross the bridge comm make sure to sign up for Pastor David's free email devotional as well as browse through our Many online resources. Thanks for listening to cross the bridge with David McGee Join us again next time and invite your family and friends to listen as together we cross the bridge