The People Of God | The Story Is Not Over

Have you quietly decided that part of your story is over? Have you given up on a relationship, your faith, or hope for the future? Do you wonder if Jesus is still at work when life feels broken?

The good news of Jesus is that God is still writing stories of redemption. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, God shows again and again that he brings life out of places that seem beyond repair. The gospel gives us a foundation that holds steady even when our circumstances do not. If you have wondered whether you are too far gone or whether God has finished with you, this message reminds us that his grace is greater than our despair and his faithfulness reaches farther than we can see.

Romans 11 points to a God who grafts people into his family through grace and continues his work with patience, mercy, and love. Whether you have followed Jesus for many years, are returning after a long season away, or are still asking honest questions about faith, you are invited to hold fast to Christ. The story may include hardship and unanswered questions, yet God has not put down the pen. He is still at work, and because of Jesus there is real hope for every chapter still to come.

Scripture: Romans 11:15 to 24

“If their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Romans 11:15

“You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” Romans 11:18

Belong at First Pres by taking the first step: join us for worship on Sundays in person. https://firstprescos.org/belong

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the First Predeter Sermon Podcast, where each week we dive into scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives. God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater. No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here, and we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus. Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Well, good morning, good morning. Good to see you guys. You know, when I was in middle school, my parents got a Dodge grand caravan. They had a TV that folded down in the middle, and that was a pretty big deal. I thought maybe we were the wealthiest family in America. It just seemed amazing. And we would drive around the Chicago area frequently. We had fat family scattered throughout. And so I felt like every other weekend we're driving at least an hour somewhere just to go visit with family. And and so that TV, I mean, three kids kicking around in the back, that TV was a big deal. That was really important. And there was just one problem with it. It's that, I don't know if you know, but the average Hollywood movie, kind of around the 60 to 70 minute mark. That's that's really the highlight, the climax of the movie. That's the high point. And so what would happen is you would drive and then and then the car would shut off, and and the movie would stop right at really what was the most impactful part, and we were left hanging, right? At the dramatic, the intense scene. Imagine this with me, okay? The Nazis have the Ark of the Covenant. Indiana Jones is tied to a post. The Third Reich has unlimited power. They are ready to rule. The Death Star, operational, Alderon is dust. It's the Death Star pointing at the rebel base about to obliterate everything. It seems like the dark side has won. How about this? George Bailey. George Bailey. He's standing at the bridge. The building in loan is kaput. There's a warrant out for his arrest. There's all sorts of problems. He's ready to jump. And then suddenly the car shuts off, the screen goes blank, and you hear, okay, kids, time to go see grandma. Like, no, no, no. You never want to walk out of a movie too early, right? Never want to walk out of a movie too early. But we actually do this in our lives. We do this in our lives in some ways. Often we look at our lives and we say, that's it. That's it. This thing is just too far gone. Maybe it's a friendship or something with your child, maybe something in your faith or a relationship or something in your career. And I have no doubt that there is an area of your life that you've said, well, that's really as far as this story is going to go. There's a place where you've kind of quietly rolled the credits. There's a place where you've decided that God's done with this before God has said, I'm done. And that's a temptation. That was a mistake that the Roman Christians were tempted to make about Israel. And they saw that most of the Jews had rejected Jesus and they assumed that's it. That's it for them. Okay, that's it. God's moving on. But Paul offers a different perspective. Paul is confident that God is taking this long view when it comes to his saving and reconciling work. There's good news for us today in this as well. Now there's a lot in this passage, there are a lot of threads to pull at in Romans 11. You will recall last week Pastor Tim had his theological bingo card for us, and so he checked off a lot of that for us. But today the thread we're gonna pull at, the thread we're gonna pull is this idea that the story is not over. The story is not over for God's chosen people, for God's people. And in this passage, we see three things that reassure us of God's faithfulness and God's continued work in our world. We're gonna see a pattern, we're gonna see proof, and then we're gonna see a promise. And so, first, a pattern. There's an invitation in this passage to remember what God has done. The passage opens with Paul admitting that, yes, the he hopes that his ministry to the non-Jews, to the Gentiles was will inspire his Jewish brothers and sisters to turn to Jesus. And then in verse 15, he writes, If their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be? But life from the dead. Life from the dead. Paul is actually opening up an invitation for his readers to remember what God has already done. Paul is calling us back to think about Joseph rotting away in a prison cell until God plucks him out of that cell and lifts him up so that he's second in command in Egypt. Paul is inviting us to think about Moses, who bumped up against the sea, leading the people out of captivity, and there's an army bearing down. And then God splits the sea and makes a way. And out of a dead end, out of certain death, there is a path to life. There is life. Paul's inviting us to think about Jesus calling to Lazarus in a tomb. And Jesus' disciples say, No, Lord, he's been in there too long, he's gonna stink. And then Jesus calls and says, Lazarus, come. And there's life from death. This is the pattern of the whole course of scriptures, of the gospel. There's death and then life, there's a cross and then there's an empty tomb. The door that looked sealed completely shut on Friday is burst open on Sunday. God is known for taking dead ends and turning them into doorways. It's one of his signature moves. He does it over and over again. So Paul acknowledges, yes, Israel has rejected Jesus for the most part, but but he hopes for, he looks forward to this time in which the Jewish people are going to embrace the Messiah and experience the resurrection life that is found in Jesus. Israel's story and our stories rely on this pattern of death to life that we see again, over and over again throughout the scriptures. And so that's a pattern. That's a pattern that reassures us that God is faithful, that God is living and active, he works in our lives. And then, second, we get proof of his work. So verses 17 and 18 say if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the other from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: you do not support the root, but the root supports you. The olive tree was a familiar sight in the ancient Mediterranean world. People knew that olive trees were resilient, that unless you really destroyed one, dug one up, that they would live on and on and on. There's actually an olive tree in Greece today that is believed to be about two or three thousand years old, and it's still producing fruit. And so Paul pulls this image and says, here's this olive tree illustration, and he's alluding to the tenacity of God's people, the enduring presence of God's chosen people. And then the other thing about olive trees, that would have been common knowledge, is that you could graft branches from one tree into another. See, a gardener can take a shoot of one olive tree and bring it into a different tree. And you could do this for different reasons. One might be to take a properly cultivated and fruitful olive branch and then bring it into what's a strong root but not producing any fruit. And so pull that over here, and now you have a new tree that's ready to produce good fruit. You could take one from a tree and graft it into another tree that seemed to exhibit natural resistance to disease or pests, and that way have a richer crop. Here's a again, modern example, one of the methods for grafting in. And so that's the image that Paul's playing with, that Paul's going back and forth with in these verses. He says that you Roman Christians, you Roman Christians, you are like a wild olive branch. You were you were never supposed to be anywhere near this tree. But look, look what God has done. He has grafted you into his people, not because you earned a spot, not because you were a better branch. You were wild and untamed, but he's turned you into something that is beautiful and is bearing fruit. Jesus has entered your life. The Holy Spirit is working in your life, and now you're bearing fruit. But remember that you have been grafted into God's family, into God's story through grace. Paul is telling the Roman church that they are living proof of how God moves people from death to life. Paul does the same thing. He writes similarly to the Gentile church in Ephesus. Ephesians chapter 2, kind of skipping through it, says, As for you, you non-Jewish believers, you Gentile believers, you were dead in your transgressions and sin. But because of his great love for us, God, who's rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. In Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near. You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people, members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Paul is telling the non-Jewish Christians in Ephesus the same thing that he's telling the Roman Christians, that they were once dead, like dead branches. They were once unincorporated, like a nationless vagabond. They were once a pile of scattered stones strewn about. But now God has given new life. God has grafted them into the tree. God has made them citizens of his kingdom. He's made them members of his family. God is pulling all these loose stones together and building a home, a house that is built on the foundation of Christ Jesus. And so the church in Ephesus, the church in Rome, they're both proof, they're both evidence of God's faithful work in this world. And we fast forward to today. Many of us, many of us have been raised in the faith. Many of us really feel like we've always been attached to this tree. We've always been part of God's story. And there's times where we were blew in the wind a little bit, but you know, we we've always been part of the tree. And then there are other others of us here today that remember what it's like, remember what it was like to be grafted in. We remember what it felt like to be a wild shoot. Are there any wild shoots out here today? You're sitting next to a wild shoot. You remember that's what it was like for the gardener to get a hold of me, for the gardener to graft me into his story. I remember. And some of us say we're just not sure. We're not sure you can trust the gardener. You're not sure there is a gardener. So keep asking questions, keep exploring. We'd love to walk with you here as a church in that journey. But let's not miss this. We're not grafted into a generic idea. We're not grafted into a nice philosophy about second chances or the power of positive thinking. We are grafted into Christ and his saving power. And so if you are in Christ, you are part of the proof of God's faithfulness and work. Amen? Okay. Now I know that I said there are three P's we're going to walk through, but there's there's kind of a fourth hidden one in the background. And it's Paul is writing to the Roman church in part because of a problem. There's a little bit of a problem that he needs to address. You know, on our minivan trips around Chicago, it was actually safer to watch TV shows on DVD. You were a lot more likely to finish an episode of I Love Lucy than a full movie, okay? And after watching a lot of old TV episodes, I started to notice tropes, notice these situations that would show up in multiple shows. And there's this TV trope that we've all surely seen. It's when two siblings, two coworkers, two roommates, whatever, they somehow get into an argument, they start going back and forth, and eventually come to a place of saying something like, There's not enough room here for the both of us. And then they get chalked, they get tape, and they just tape right down the middle of a room, right down the middle of an office. You've seen this, right? Yes? This is my side, that's your side. That's it. And that's a bit of what's going on behind Paul's letter. As he's writing, there's this issue that Paul is making it very clear to the Gentile Christians hey, you can't tape off God's kingdom. Okay? He didn't give you permission to tape off his kingdom. Paul writes in verse 20, do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God, sternness to those who fell in kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. Gentile Christians, they've they've given up on the Jews. But Paul speaks against arrogance and pride. He reminds them God has been at work through the Jewish people. He's been at work through his people since the beginning. And you Romans, you're you're only coming into God's family through God's kindness and mercy. It is by grace that God has included you at all. It's a good thing we don't struggle with this at all anymore today as the church, right? Christians aren't trying to tape off parts of God's kingdom and keep other people over there and us over here. Paul's warning here is as much for the Roman church as it is for us that it's this warning that's meant to subdue the pride of the flesh. It's sobering counsel intended to induce a perspective shift and repentance. It's not intended to shake the confidence in salvation of somebody who has genuine faith. This is medicine against pride. And we were wise to heed Paul's warning along with the Roman Christians. So we've talked about a pattern of God moving from death to life. We see that the church, that we are proof of God's saving work, and that should move us to humility, not pride. And then we're left with at the end of our passage a promise. Verses 23 and 4 say, and if they, if the Jews do not persist in unbelief, they'll be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? Paul's turning his attention back to the natural branches, the Jews who have rejected Jesus. And he says that God can graft them back in if they turn from unbelief to the same faith that grafted us in. And grafting the natural branches is actually going to be a lot easier than grafting in you wild shoots, all you wild branches. There's this kind of, again, stern reprimand in Paul's tone. Martin Luther, the reformer, he likened this to the story again of Joseph in Genesis. You know, the sons of Jacob representing Israel rejected Joseph, representing Jesus, and sold him into slavery. And then years later, Jesus is Joseph is elevated to this leadership role in Egypt, and his brothers kind of coming to him in an unexpected and saving way as he has food to give them during a famine. And Luther hypothesized, Luther writing is saying, likewise, it'll happen that the Jews who expelled Christ to the Gentiles where he now reigns, they'll come to him savingly in the end. That's Luther's hope, mirroring Paul. God is still at work. No one is too far gone to be grafted back in. No verdict is final except God's. Paul is insistent that God is still writing his redemption story. And friends, God is still writing our stories. Again, I know there are places in our lives that we've decided the story is finished, but Paul doesn't really give us that opportunity. He doesn't give us permission to roll the credits early. One benefit of getting older is that we can look in the rearview mirror of our lives and we can see how God has been at work writing chapters and leading us through, right? About 15 years ago, my sister Kristen was in a horrible motor motorcycle accident. That should have been the end of her story. And that first night we didn't know if she would survive. We I flew home from Colorado to Chicago and was praying that I'd be able to say goodbye before it was too late. And it seemed like that really was gonna be the final scene. There would be an active ventilator in a hallway full of family, not really sure what to say or what to pray for. Seemed like that could be that could be the whole story. You could roll credits there. But that wasn't the end. She survived that first night, and then the nights after, and and the next hurdles on the horizon were questions like what is the impact of this traumatic brain injury going to be? Is she gonna be able to walk again given the injuries that she sustained? But the credits didn't roll at those points either. Kristen did walk again. She eventually walked down the aisle and married the man that she was in the accident with. She eventually walked back in and out of the hospital as each of my three nephews were born. In many weeks, she at her church walks up onto a platform like this and gets to lead her church in worship and proclaim good news that there's a God who has been walking and holding her all along the way. The 15 years have not been easy. There's been a lot of pain and doctors' appointments and surgeries, but it is clear that God has miraculously been at work writing each page of her story. And our whole family, we know what it feels like to be pretty certain of the ending of a story and then to be wrong in the best possible way. Dear ones, if you are still breathing, God is not finished with you. And I need to give us a warning because I don't want to send us out with the wrong promise in our pocket today. We need to think one more time about my minivan. There's movies that actually it'd feel pretty okay to let the credits roll before the end of the movie. A lot of movies where the ending is not exactly what we hoped it would be. Million Dollar Baby, the Green Mile, Perfect Storm, the Mist. We want to see the boxer win the fight. We want to see the storm, the ship come through the storm and make it back to the dock. We want to see old yeller avoid rabies and needing to be put down. But that's not how it works out. We need to make sure, we need to make sure that we're clear that life is not automatically up and to the right when we invite Jesus to take charge of our lives. Some of us have we picked up this kind of prosperity gospel, this sense that, well, if I just, if I just trust God, if I just get my theology right, pray with sincerity, then everything is going to be be upward. Everything is going to be great. Health and wealth will abound. But that's not what Paul gives us in his passage. That's not really what we see in Scripture. So even if we join our life with Jesus, struggles still continue. This is part of living in a broken, sin-ridden world. Sin still tempts us. Marriages still fall apart. Disease still claims the lives of people that we love. Being grafted into the root doesn't mean that the branch never gets stripped by a hailstone. Doesn't mean that the branch is never going to get bruised. Doesn't mean that it's not going to lose a season of fruit. It means that the branch will continue, as Paul writes, to share in the nourishing sap of the root. And so I'm not promising that everything is going to work out exactly the way that you want it to in life. I can't give you that. No one can give you that up here. But we can echo the promise that in the face of struggle, in the face of frustration, God isn't finished. And God isn't finished is a different promise than it'll all work out in the end how you want it to. It's this promise that whatever page you're on, whatever chapter you're in in your story, you can be sure that God has not put the pen down, that he's still writing the story. One of our first prose values is hold fast and we call one another to stay founded on scripture and centered on Christ, who holds us steady. And that's the invitation today. Holding fast, it's not gripping a particular ending of the story so tight that our knuckles turn white. Holding fast is staying tethered to Jesus while He writes the ending of the story. God has already done this in the hardest of ways. In Christ, God took a dead end and turned it into a doorway. The empty tomb is evidence, is proof of what God wants to do with you, what God wants to do in your life. So let us not walk out of the movie too early. We're gonna close in prayer. And I invite you to think about one of these places in your life where you've rolled the credits. You know what that is, you know what that looks like. Fill that blank in in your mind and let's bring that to the Lord in prayer now. God our Father, you are good, and your mercy endures forever. We acknowledge these places in our lives that that we need you. Lord, these places where we've given up hope, but but where you are still active in writing the story. Lord, too often we have tried to write the endings ourselves. And so as we come to you now, Lord, receive these situations, receive these places in our lives where there is hurt and brokenness and pain. Lord, do your work. Make us aware of your presence, make us aware of your hand in our lives, make us aware of how you are leading us through each one of these chapters. It's in Christ's name that we pray.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Amen. Hearing God's word is just the beginning. What connected with you? What challenged you today? Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply. Whatever it is, don't leave it for later. Act on it today. We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus. And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got. Connect with us by visiting firstpresdos.org. Hey, if today's message encouraged you, take a moment and subscribe so you never miss an episode and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together. See you next time.