The Privilege of Our Calling

Thank you, Mr. Feahrck. It doesn't seem very long ago we were gathered for Passover and then the Holy Day, I was going to say the Spring Holy Day. The day is London bread. We still have another Spring Holy Day coming up, depending on how you classify it. But, as I was preparing this, I was thinking back where we had the King Prom last week, which was a lovely facility, is where we in Columbus gathered for Passover. Whenever I come there, it always strikes me as what a special thing it is, how special we are. The attendance tends to be a little bit higher. I've looked at that because you see some of the people that are just too infirm, perhaps they've been ill and they can't come to services every week. In Columbus, there's a couple older ladies sometimes coming in with walkers or wheelchairs. It's like they're going to be there. We're part of a relatively small group.

Whole cities around us, right here, we're a fairly small group. Cambridge has thousands of people out there doing their ordinary business. They don't realize that this is a special time and that we're here for a very special purpose. We're engaging in something that hasn't come to their attention. We might ask the question, well, why? On this sermon, I want to address the why somewhat, but I want to focus on, in some ways, a more basic question, that of what. What is it that has us here and the others aren't here? One short way to say it is we're here because of a miracle. You're here because you were called by the ruler of the universe to be here. If you like titles, and I was informed last time I spoke in Columbus, I said, you know, I'm new in the ministry, feel free to give me advice, and a lady came up and said, I like titles. The title of this sermon is the Privilege of our Calling. I want to turn to a couple of scriptures to establish an important point right off. So, if you will, we'll turn to Matthew 9 and begin in verse 11. Unlike last time, I didn't print the scriptures in my notes, so I'll go slow enough for it all to get here. Matthew 9, verse 11. This is once again Jesus Christ is having a confrontation with the Pharisees. They were always trying to trap him, challenging him about his teachings and such. So, in verse 11, this is partly through it, the Pharisees, when they saw this, they said, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? They were thinking he shouldn't have done that. And Jesus heard it, so rather than let the disciples answer, he answered them himself, and he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Okay, just there we could stop to say, well, the world is sick, in a way, with sin. I remember Mr. Armstrong used to use that phrase, it's a sin-sick world. And then Jesus continued, he said, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Now I went through a lot of important things there, but I want to focus in on that one word, Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Christianity is a calling. It's not something we necessarily chose. Now, I got to clarify in some ways, though, because she said, I came to call sinners to repentance, well, who is in the sinner? Romans 3, 23 tells us everyone has been and fallen short of the glory of God. So, some other religious groups presume that everyone is being called, and we've got to get that message out. So, is everyone being called to Christianity then? Well, let's turn to another scripture. This is going to be key. We want to look at this a couple times. 1 Corinthians 1 will begin in verse 26. Still establishing one of my main points here.

And, of course, well, I was going to say this is one of my favorite scriptures. It's perhaps more like the song that's based on it. I've always really liked it a lot. 1 Corinthians 1, 26, For you see your calling, once again a calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many knowable, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the shame in the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame those that are mighty.

Now, that's interesting. Once again, it's a calling, and it's not... there must be a selection if not many of the wise or the mighty are called, and we are. And you think of how many people are in the world. It's about six billion, I think, the approximation of the latest count, and it's hard for me to wrap my numbers in my head around that, except to realize that what now the U.S. national debt is probably a billion, billion times more than that.

That's scary in the thought of it. But out of that, say, six billion people in the world, there's only about one and a half billion that would even call themselves Christian. And I'm not saying that they really understand in their call, but they at least associate the name, and they would consider themselves Christian. Think of all those who aren't. In China, there's more than a billion people now in that one country, many of whom have never even heard the name Christian, or Jesus Christ.

India is up to a billion now. Mostly Hindus, some Muslims, some, perhaps, some other religions, a small number of Christianity. I'm not sure if Africa is up to a billion now, if you can take the whole continent, but it's millions and millions. So, apparently, all these people, they weren't called, even though they're all sinners. We know everyone in the world is called.

So, we're different. We are called. And that's why I'm focusing on it. It's a privilege. It's a special thing. So, what then exactly is that calling? Well, I did some little bit of the research. I love my strongest importance, because it has that lexicon in the back. The Greek word for calling that was in 1st Corinthians 1, 26 is kleetos. You could spell it, you know, they spell it in Greek, which I don't know the letters, but kleetos is strong as number 2822.

And it means invited. I think in a sermon a few weeks ago, Mr. Hargrove discussed that a bit, how the calling is an invitation. And matter of fact, that word is based on the root word in the Greek of kleo. If you want to spell eo, and that basically is the verb form to invite. Kleo is to invite. So, God has invited us. You know, and if not many wise are invited, not many noble, not many mighty, there's a selection process. And, you know, God chooses them and not others.

Maybe I'm beating this into the ground, but you want to get into that. Let's see some of that in action. Let's turn to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, I'm going to begin in verse 15. We'll see a case of Jesus Christ personally extending that invitation to some people and not to others. And always think about this particular incident.

We know Mark is a more abbreviated version of the four Gospels and some of the others, so he condenses some things that others, you know, give more elaboration. But I wanted this version because it brings it all together. Matter of fact, I said 15.

Let's begin in verse 14. This is the beginning of Christ's ministry. And after John, that's John the Baptist, was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Very important thing. And he said, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. We repent and believe the gospel. And so now we see, imagine it's a fine sunny day, sort of like outside, perhaps in the spring.

And he's walking along the seashore. He's walking by the Sea of Galilee. He sees Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting the net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. He extended an invitation at that time to them. You know, he didn't say, I invite you, but he said, follow me, meaning come and be my disciple. You're not going to fish for fish anymore. You're going to fish for men.

And apparently they came with him, and he went a little farther. He went a little farther from there, and he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in the boat and ending their nets. They'd been fishing. They're working on the nets. And immediately he called them, once again, the calling, the invitation, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and they went after him.

Now, I don't know if this thought crossed your mind, but as I was working on this, after looking at 1 Corinthians 1, 26, and then this, I said, well, not many mighty archers and not many noble, but it seems that a lot of professional fishermen are called. I'm glad someone else thought that was amusing. But then again, I thought, well, even here there's some selection. In my mind, when I first read this, I imagine that it's a deserted beach sorted, and there's James and John, or Peter Andrew first, and come with me. And then, so now the three of them are walking, and you see Zebedee, or James and John. But it probably wasn't exactly like that. At the right time, the bank might be full of fishermen. We know Zebedee was not called.

In my, I've often thought, well, not only Zebedee wasn't called, but he was there with the hired servants. They weren't called. So there was a selection process. Four men out of, we don't know how many, were there dozens of fishermen there on the shore? Perhaps hundreds, if you've walked far enough. But Jesus Christ chose those four, and had particular reasons for doing so.

I was going to say, in my mind, I've often read that account, and I thought, I wonder, I always figured Zebedee was watching his voice, and, those crazy idiots, you know, what are they doing? You know, who's this Jesus? You know, I always thought that he figured they were crazy, but I wondered, do you think he or the servants might have said, oh, I didn't get to go be a fisher of men. You know, maybe they wish they had to call him, and we're probably not going to know until we can ask them, but it's an interesting thought. But we do know some were called and some were not.

And I think we know why. Let's turn to the Scripture in John that explained that John 644.

As I mentioned, Jesus personally extended the invitation, but of course, he doesn't ask alone, and for all we, we have every reason to think he doesn't even make the decisions, or at least not by himself. Now I'm sure they can, Jesus and the Father can talk these matters over.

But John 644, and I think this is one of the first Scriptures I've had memorized, says, No one can come to me, this is Jesus saying, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. So the Father does a drawing. He pulls someone in so that they can accept that invitation. There's some important facts to consider, though. Verse 65 says almost the same thing. If you look across the page there, and he said, Therefore I have come to you, therefore I have said to you, that no one can come to me unless it's been granted by my Father. Now this explains why we're a small number here, and the rest of Cambridge is out there doing their own thing. It wasn't granted to the them by the Father.

Not everyone is invited. Now I do want to focus on the privilege, but before we go into that more, it's important to consider an important thing about an invitation. And like I said, the words for calling could equally be interpreted invitation. Not everyone who's ever invited accepts an invitation. That's not a big surprise, but let's look at the next verse here, John 666. I didn't think about the three sixes together, but I don't think that's an illoman. But after Jesus has been teaching, and this was a particularly tough section. If you read all of John's six, this is where he's talking about, my flesh is food indeed, my blood is drink, and you know he's speaking symbolically, but some of these people are saying he wants us to eat him. That's, you know, so in verse 66 it says, from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

Apparently they were his disciples. They'd been walking with him. They'd been invited, but then they decided, no, this isn't for me. They went back. Perhaps there were some that they had the calling, and they just, no, I'm not interested, you know, decline the invitation. And that's where I want to point that out, and I think that had something, well, an invitation, a calling, it's not the same as a subpoena or a warrant.

You know, the court says to them, if they want you, they'll send a marshal out with a warrant or a subpoena that says, you're going to come down to the courthouse right now, and you don't have a choice. When the father draws us, he sends an invitation, we have a choice. Sometimes invitations are refused or they're declined. And a lot of you probably have had this experience. I think in my own family, you know, I grew up with a small family. My parents were divorced when I was very young, and it was my mother and my sister and I. And my grandmother was the first one to come into the church.

She was listening to Mr. Armstrong on the radio, and then she wrote for literature, and she became interested in learning. She began teaching my sister and I and my mother, and so soon we all thought that we were being called. And there was a time, some of you who have been around long enough might remember, the church didn't always teach that the children of church members are automatically called. We grew into that, but if you want to make a note, I wasn't going to turn there.

Acts 2 verses 38 and 39, near the conclusion of Peter's great Pentecost Day sermon, you know, the people asked him, what should we do? He said, repent and be baptized. As many of you, he said, for the calling is the promise, he said, is you and your children.

We, as a church, began realizing, okay, God likes to work with families. So he calls often a family at a time. And the reason I'm telling you this, my grandmother was called, my mother was called, and my sister and I had that calling. But my sister's not here with us today. I love my sister. She's a wonderful person, a good person. But she attended church as a teenager, and she seemed interested. But I remember a particular incident.

I don't remember all the details because I was younger than her. I think she was 17. And her and my mom, you know, how 17 year olds can be. Well, I don't want to say bad things about our teens here, but they were having a disagreement about something I think it was about, what she was going to wear to church.

And mom thought it was inappropriate. And she, and as some, they went back and forth. And at one point, my mom said, well, what are you even going for? And my sister said, I'm only going because you make me go. And that was telling. And from that moment on, mom said, okay, I'm not going to make you go. You're nearly a legal adult. You're old enough to make this decision. I don't want you to, and she didn't know all of these words, but her conclusion was, I don't want you to go to church because I make you go.

You know, if she had heard me speak the sermon, she'd write it that I want you to accept the invitation yourself. And so, you know, my sister doesn't attend church. She's not, she's not hostile towards it. She respect me. And when she heard that I was being hired in the church, she said, that's good. You know, I think you've always wanted to do that kind of thing. You've had training, you know, she, she's approved of it. But because she didn't really accept the invitation for herself, her mind went off in a different way. And I think a lot of you probably have similar stories you could tell or you know people who do.

You know, I think it's fortunate for me, I wasn't better than her. But at some point, I saw the invitation to me. I decided I wanted to come because I wanted to be there, and not because someone was making me go. But it wasn't because I was a better person. I wanted to, and all of you know me know that. Well, you don't know my sister, but believe me, I'm not a better person. But I'm better off, much better off for what I've, for having accepted that invitation. Because if you get that invitation and you decline it, there, there will be consequences. You know, my sister has a good life, she's, you know, enjoyed things.

But people who have the invitation and turn it down, they're missing out on some special things. Let's look at a parable that does explain it. Matthew 22. Matthew chapter 22 will begin in the first verse. Because this story is going to help me make this point and serve as a good segue into the following point. Okay? So we'll begin in Matthew 22 in verse 1.

Jesus answered, He spoke to them again by parables. Now, parable is a story, not necessarily a, it's a story to make a point and teach a lesson, not an actual, a true account. He said, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son. So the kingdom of heaven is like this king having a marriage for his son. And he sent out his servants to call those who were invited. So we have the same Greek word, sent out, go send the invitation, invite these people.

You know, invited to the wedding, but they were not willing to come. They were going to pass on that invitation. So again, he sent out another servant saying, well, tell those who were invited, see, you know, look here, I prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatted calf are killed, things are ready, come to the wedding. I like that sometimes God will give you more than one chance to accept that invitation. It's not, you know, it's funny, I almost automatically say plain truth. Like you saw one in the doctor's office, if you didn't say that, you didn't say, oh, I've got to get baptized. Sorry, you got to wait, you know, for a thousand years. You know, sometimes he'll give you another chance. He'll be patient. But we continue in verse five, after the second opportunity, they made light of it. They went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business.

And then they went even further. And you know, sometimes people have an opportunity to accept the truth and they become hostile to it. The rest seized his servants and treated them spitefully and killed them. Now, when the king heard about this, he was furious, rightfully so. So he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their cities. I said sometimes there's some pretty serious consequences to declining an invitation. Now, that doesn't mean if you get invited to a wedding, you always have to go. I don't think that that's not the lesson Christ was making here. Because the parable continues. Then he said to his servants, well, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those who initially had the calling weren't ready, wouldn't accept it, so others are going to be called. So those servants went out into the highways. They gathered together, all of them they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was filled with guests. So people did respond to the invitation. But the king came in to see the guests. They saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. And he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without wedding garments? And the man was speechless. And so the king told the servants, find him up hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, Jesus there was hinting at something a different direction that isn't the point of my sermon, but saying that notice the man who was bound had not declined the invitation. He had accepted it, but not accepted it properly. As I said, my point here isn't to discuss that so much today, but I want to draw a distinction because we're going to go back and look at how God has sometimes extended invitation to certain groups. And there is a large man group that we're going to look at who had the invitation and opportunity and didn't accept it, you know, didn't treat it properly. And so the invitation would go to others. The others are represented by us. In this parable, we're the ones that were on the highways and byways. And I think, you know, in one of the other gospels, it says the hedges and hedgerows, whatever, bring them in, get them in here. That's us. So, you know, we get to have the invitation because another group declined it.

That doesn't make it less of a privilege, though. We're still, you know, we're very privileged. We got to come to the wedding. But the last part of that parable has an important lesson for us to remember. Don't take it lightly. You know, you don't want to be the guy that says, okay, I'll accept the invitation, but you don't wash your hands or change your clothes. You know, there's a certain way to come to God. Now, I've been speaking, perhaps, cryptically about those who had the invitation. I guess because I didn't want to give away my point, but I turned the page, I'm coming right to it. In God's Word, who are those who originally had the invitation? The nation of Israel. God chose to work with a physical people, a group that descended from one man who were all related and then became a political entity. And we've recently reviewed that. We always do so in path overseas. And so I'm not going to say, let's turn to Exodus, but I'll recount to you. So you remember, God made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said, I'm going to make you into a nation. And for Abraham, then it was a little hard to believe since he didn't have any children. But I've learned that not having children when you're younger, when you first try, doesn't mean that you won't have them. Of course, Abraham waited a lot longer than Su and I, but three things can happen. So then, of course, they multiplied greatly. The children of Israel went down into Egypt, and then they were subjected, forced into slavery. But when they came out, you know, God brought them out by a strong hand and destroyed Pharaoh's army, brought them to Mount Sinai, and spoke to them in person, you know, kind of shaking in their shoes. And we sometimes overlooked the fact that there was an interm- you know, a particular point where God extended an opportunity. He didn't just say, I brought you out and I'll do this. He spoke to Ten Commandments. They said to Moses, we're scared to death. Please ask God not to talk to us anymore. You go talk to him and bring word. And so Moses did. He went and talked, and God laid out several things. And he made a proposition. You could say, he extended an invitation to Israel and said, if you'll obey me, you'll be my special people, you'll leave- listen to my commandments, then I'll make you a special people, and I'll make you prosperous and care for you. Moses brought back this word to the people, and they- I don't know if they had a conference or whatever, but in the Bible it says, they said, yes, we'll do it. All that God says, we'll do. And then they sealed this agreement. They had a sacrifice, and they cooked the blood, and Moses had written out this agreement. He sprinkled some blood on the paper, and then he sprinkled blood on the people, which must have been- sounds a little creepy to us. What I'm saying is, there was a formal agreement there.

You know, they extend- God extended an invitation, and the people accepted.

The problem is that they would later back out. That's why I say, in that parable of the marriage piece, they represent the people who decline the invitation, in a sense. Now, this is a different invitation than that we have today. God made promises to Israel that were physical. He said, I'll multiply you. I'll defeat your enemies. I'll make you wealthy. He didn't promise them eternal life, and he didn't offer to give them this Holy Spirit. But he did extend an invitation for a special relationship to them. And, as I said, they first- they started to, but they didn't follow through. Now, as I mentioned, this formal agreement was a covenant. We often refer to it as the old covenant, the initial covenant between God and a physical people. As I said, asking for physical obedience, he said, you know, ten commandments. Don't worship other gods. Don't kill people. Don't steal. Don't commit adultery. When he said don't kill, he didn't have the thing where he said, if you hate your brother in your heart, you've done as well as committing murder. That would come later, and I'm getting off my main point. There's a vivid analogy. God likens this to a marriage. So, let's turn to Ezekiel 16. This is a particularly vivid graphic depiction of the way God saw the relationship he had with the physical nation of Israel and the agreement that they- in the relationship they began, but which the physical nation of Israel, and I said later they declined. They didn't fulfill their agreement.

Okay, Ezekiel 16, I must be trying to talk too fast. The words keep getting confused. Let me just slow down. I will begin in verse 1. Then came the word of the eternal to me, saying, front of man caused Jerusalem to know her abominations. Now, in this place, Jerusalem represents the nation of Judah, and you could say by extension all of Israel, although this happens after part of, you know, the northern kingdom has gone into captivity. But God's going back and, like I said, He's using an analogy to show the type of relationship that He invited them to be in. And He starts off by showing them they weren't that special of and by themselves.

Verse 3, and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. That doesn't mean much to us, but you're saying they weren't, you know, they weren't Israel. Your physical beginnings are nothing to brag about. And as for your nativity or your birth, on the day that you were born, your naval cord wasn't cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you. You weren't rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. I have a greater appreciation of that since I was in the room when Connor was born, and I saw them taken out and take his footprints, but handling very carefully and clipped the cord, and later it would come off, and it gave him his first bath. Very special thing, but he's saying, Israel's beginning was nothing like that. It was more like when, you know, an unwed mother who was poor and didn't want to be pregnant takes the baby and throws it in a dumpster. That'd be the current analogy. Very sad that that ever happens.

He said in verse 5, No, I pitied you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you, but you were thrown out into the open field when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. So it's like, like I said, the baby cast aside. And then God likens himself to a young man, perhaps, who comes by and says, I passed by and I saw you struggling in your own blood, the baby who, you know, is left to die. I saw you struggling and I said, live.

I saw you in your blood and I said, live. And I made you thrive like a plant in the field.

Well, I talked in my last sermon about, in my sermon about mixing metaphors. I'm mixing metaphors here today, although not intentionally, but, you know, thriving like a plant. You took this baby that was about to die and said, I'm going to make something of you. So I made you thrive in the field. You grew and matured and became very beautiful. So the baby is like a young woman. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. And when I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed, your time was the time of love, of physical maturity.

And I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered a covenant with you and you became mine, says the Lord God. So again, God is using the marriage as a marriage, as an analogy for his relationship with Israel. It's like, I found you when you were nothing, you matured. And I said, I'll take you in as my wife. And I think of that. That is, it's, well, it's not a surprise that God would use marriage as an analogy because God is building the family and he wants us to, he created man to live in families. And so, by the way, he uses the analogy of family whenever he can. And you think many of us have gone through that. When a man proposes marriage to a woman, he's extending an invitation. I'm asking you, come, I'm inviting you to join your life with mine. We'll join our lives together. We'll share all of our stuff and we'll spend the rest of our lives together. God made that invitation to Israel. And, of course, I'm going to come to this later, but he's extended that invitation to us individually now. You know, when he calls us, he invites us to join our lives with his, to become part of his family.

Now, let's look in verse 9. Oh, yeah, then I washed you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood and anointed you with oil. I clothed you with embroidered cloth. I gave you sandals of badger skin and clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose. That's the only part of this that sounds a little odd to me, the jewel in the nose. But, of course, I mean, now girls are wearing, I've seen girls with things stuck in their nose, but anyways, a lot of this sounds good to me. You're adorned with gold and silver. You're clothing with a fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate the pastry of fine flour and honey and oil, and you were exceedingly beautiful and succeeded your royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect. Though through my splendor, which I had bestowed on you, says the Lord God. Now, how many men here wouldn't like to be able to do all this for your wife? I'm sure your wives are thinking, yeah, I wish you can't. Give me gold and silver and feed me the fine stuff. So, Israel, once again, remember a physical relationship. God wanted Israel to obey him, and in turn, he blessed them, and he fulfilled his commitment even when Israel didn't, many times. But there was a problem. In verse 15, "...but you trusted in your own beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen nor be. You have taken your beautiful jewelry from my gold and silver, which I have given you, and made for yourself nail images, and played the harlot with them. Here, he is likening adultery to worshiping false gods. You took embroidered garments and covered them, and set my oil and incense before them. Also, my food which I gave you, the pastry of fine flour and oil and honey, which I fed you, you set it before them as sweet incense. And so it was, says the Lord God, and even worse. Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to me, and needs you sacrificed to them to be devoured. For your acts of harlotry, a small matter, that you slain my children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire, and all these abominations and acts of harlotry, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare and struggling in your blood.

And I don't want to run down the ancient nation of Israel, but it's something for us to remember, as I said, having that invitation and then turning your back on it. God was very patient. He doesn't want us to turn our back on what we have. And then in verse 23, so it was, after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, says the Lord God. When I read that, I think, when God says woe to you, that's not a good thing. You don't want to be the one that He's saying woe to.

But I don't want to, I've read a lot of this already. Let's skip down to verse 35.

Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Eternal. Thus says the Lord God, because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, surely I'll gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those whom you loved, all those whom you hated.

And I will gather them from all around you and will uncover your nakedness to them that they may see.

And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood or judge. I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. There's a punishment to come. Now I want to skip ahead. I just noticed, noted to say it earlier, but I want to skip ahead to verse 60. Or, let's verse 59, sorry.

Verse 59, after all this and a lot of punishment, for thus says the Lord God, I will deal with you as you have done who despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember and be ashamed when you receive your older and your younger sister, for I will give them your daughters. In verse 62, I will establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Talk about merciful. God says, you did all these bad things, and the long run, He says, I'm still, I'm going to bring you back.

That's the story of ancient Israel in the Bible. It never ceases to astound me how much they did turn and just cast aside all the blessings that God gave them. But He shows that they they might be punished, but it's not forever. God will yet have mercy on the physical nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, and He'll renew the invitation. Only in this case, it's going to be a slightly different invitation. The opportunity to be a special people as a nation is going to be passed. That happened, and God did it for a special purpose. And as we saw in the parable of the wedding supper, those people wouldn't accept the invitation, even killed the servants. So the king said, go out in the byway, get other people. You might liken it to, He invited all the people of His town, and the town was rejected. The town rejected Him, He didn't do that. So He said, let's go outside the town. Let's go to any individual who He happened to find. And I wonder, perhaps there are some people that lived in the town that happened to be outside, and so when they were on the highway and the other servants came, they said, okay, I'll accept that invitation. The reason I'm saying this is, obviously, there are those who are descended from ancient Israel, from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are in the church now today.

The Apostle Paul explains the transition, the new invitation, fairly well. So let's turn to Romans chapter 11. Romans 11, we're going to just see how he explains what's happened with Israel, and what the new opportunity is. Because as we go to Romans 11, we'll begin in verse 1, it'll remind us, once again, what a privilege our calling is.

And that's the one point I want to come back to, what a privilege it is for us to have been invited for this relationship with God. And I wanted to bring out the point of, even though Israel was cast away, Paul is addressing this here in verse 1. I say then, has God cast away His people?

Well, certainly not. I'm also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not cast away His people, whom He foreknew, or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleaded with God against Israel? Then, Lord, they've told your prophets, they've torn down your altars, and I'm left alone, and they seek my life. This is, of course, a great incident after Elijah confronted the priests of Baal. You know, and you've called down fire from heaven, but then he lost a tart and he fled, and he's ready to die. And he told God, I'm the only one left. Everyone's against me. And God answered him. He said, what does the divine response say to him? I've reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not vowed any to Baal. Even so, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. So Paul's saying, just as back then, God told Elijah, no, not all of Israel has gone aside. And even now, today, not all of Israel has gone aside. There's a remnant. God decided to extend a new type of invitation, and Israelites can be a part of that. It's interesting, you know, we believe that the nations of the United States and Great Britain are made up primarily of those descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But when it comes down to us individually, we've probably, most of us don't know for sure, right? I think, you know, you can go back, so even if you can trace your ancestor all the way back to the main flower, sooner or later you say, well, can I trace it all the way back to Abraham? I think Jesus Christ was lucky. He could. It's written down in the Bible, but I've always been, I get sensitive to that, because my father was adopted. So I can trace my ancestry back to him, and I have no idea, you know, I've never met his true mother or father, don't know anything about them. You know, I'd like to, you know, I might be defended from Israel, might not. But the important thing is I don't have to be. I know Israel, I can't accept this invitation, but the privilege of the invitation goes to whoever God calls.

I got away here. Let's, uh, 11 and verse 6. If by, oh yeah, and if by grace, then it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. In other words, of works, you don't have to be physical Israel, and doing the physical sacrifice, God's new invitation is based on grace. He calls you, even though you don't deserve it. You know, what then? In verse 7, Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Now, that word elect, that's special. It's from the Greek word eclogae, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, the e-k-l-o-g-e, eclogae.

It means chosen. It means selected. You know, elect. Special people. Now, the physical nation of Israel has been called the chosen people, but as we recounted extensively, they were chosen of God, but then rejected and turned away from it. So, God began choosing and inviting some others to have, once again, as I said, a different relationship with Him.

Look back at Romans 11 and begin in verse 11. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Now, this is speaking of physical Israel. Well, certainly not, but through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Okay? Salvation has come to the nations. As Mr. Stiver liked to say, Israel was the nation. All the other nations were the nations. So, he's saying, because they stumbled, because they didn't fulfill that commitment, now salvation will be available to people from other nations. But, he said, it's not necessarily to destroy Israel. He says, if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentile, how much more their fullness? What if Israel does respond to this new invitation when they receive it? And for I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I'm an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. Now, let's look at verse 17. Let's start reading the entire chapter. He said, if some of the branches were broken off, the branches meaning the nation of Israel, and you, you, perhaps not necessarily descended from Israel, were being a wild olive tree, were grafted among them, and became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, don't boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember, you don't support the root, but the root supports you. Now, once again, Paul shifted analogy. But he said, the nation of Israel was planted and had rooted in God's Word and the blessings he had. But since they broke that covenant, he might break off some of those branches and take some others. People were not of Israel, graft them in. And that's the way most apple trees are grown these days. They have a good stock, but to get the exact kind of apples they want, they take them from an existing tree and graft them in. Somebody's saying, so if that's you, don't boast against the branches. Now, if you do boast, remember, I said that. You might say, well, the branches were broken off, but I might be grafted in. He said, well, because of unbelief, they were broken off, and you stand by faith, but don't be haughty. If God didn't spare the natural branches, he may not spare you, either. So, you know, having that calling, that special invitation, doesn't make you immune to being punished if you don't treat it properly. Now, verse 24, if you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will those who are natural branches be grafted back into their own tree? I think I added the word back, but you see the point.

Now, I want to skip ahead to verse 28, but I did have a note here. You know, obviously, he's saying Israelites can be part of this calling, and I suspect that, probably, as far as we know, most of us who are in the church are descended from Israel. We don't know for sure. It doesn't have to be, but there's a natural inclination. The natural olive branches can be grafted back into that tree and do quite well. In verse 28, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. That is the Israelites who have declined that invitation. But they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet now have obtained mercy through disobedience, even so, these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown to you they may obtain mercy. For God has committed to them all disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. And then Paul says, oh, the depths and riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how inserachable are his judgments and ways past finding out. God's plan is amazing. He's made it so everybody can have this chance. The calling went to the physical nation of Israel first to prove a point. And the main part of my sermon wasn't to deal with this, but he sort of showed Israel could have every physical advantage as possible. They could have teaching from God himself, the perfect law, the perfect type of government, but without God's Holy Spirit, it didn't bring the success, didn't bring the results they wanted. They couldn't live a good life. And we see that throughout the world. Mankind has tried just about every type of government you can imagine. You've got oligarchies and monarchies and this and that. It doesn't seem to work. The only way that'll work is by having God's Holy Spirit changing our very nature. And so God hasn't condemned physical Israel for all eternity because they didn't have the opportunity. They had a different type of invitation. Now, our worship of God involved in annual scheduled Holy Days. We're very aware of that because we recently began and we're right. We finished the days in London bread and now we look ahead to Pentecost. The meaning and symbolism of these days revealed that God has a plan for eventually inviting all people, but not on the same schedule. Not all at the same time. These early Holy Days focus on those who are called firstfruits, making an analogy of the harvest. Those who are called early, and that includes us.

And the Passover starts off the season. It reminds us of Christ's first coming and also reminds us that without Christ's sacrifice, there wouldn't be any reason for God to ever call anyone. The timing wouldn't matter if there couldn't be a sacrifice for your sins to be covered. And then we go into the days in London bread, illustrating the need for those who are called to change, to put sin out of their lives, to become like God. He doesn't call us. When he invites us, it's sort of like the guy who came without a wedding garment. He says, no, I'm giving you that invitation, but you've got to change. You've got to change clothes. You've got to change your life. And then, of course, Pentecost, which is coming, marks the giving of God's Holy Spirit. You know, that's what does make it possible for us to change. You know, we represent putting sin out of our lives earlier, but we realize that without God, we can't do it. And there's also a note that God is working with us as a group, as the church, rather than as a physical nation of Israel. I'm going to come back to that point.

But I want to say, as we make the transition, we go into the Fall Holy Days, we begin to focus on God's calling to the rest of the world. Right now, we're a small, privileged people. And like I said, we might sometimes, I know as a teenager, I'd be like, oh, we're a small group. I'm not out there with all my friends. You know, it wasn't always easy to see it as a privilege then. But if we study the Word, we do see it. Now, the early phase that I just talked about, with the Spring Holy Days, began with focusing on Christ's first coming, the Passover. The latter phase also begins with Christ's coming, but it's the Second Coming. So, the Feast of Trumpets represents Christ's return to earth. You know, he's already established himself as High Priest. Trumpets has talked about him coming and becoming King. King of kings and Lord of lords, establishing rule over all the earth.

Then, the Day of Atonement portrays Satan being bound and humanity being reconciled to God, sort of aching away, taking things out of the way that would have allowed them to accept the invitation that's coming. And, of course, then the Feast of Tabernacles. That, of course, represents the thousand-year reign of Christ. And it's important now we finally get a new group of people having the calling. Any physical people who are alive and left, for that thousand years, they're called. They can have God's Holy Spirit. They are invited to live God's way. And all the obstacles are removed. But you might say, well, that still leaves out an awful lot of people. Frank didn't talk about the six billion people on the earth, and we're only, you know, a couple dozen here. Of course, there's more than just us. But, well, the last great day, as you know, represents the general resurrection. And at the time when everyone who's ever lived is going to have the chance to live again and have that calling, you know, they're going to be able to understand spiritual things, have God's Holy Spirit put in them. And that'll include the descendants of Israel. That's where, as we saw, they might have been put aside because they cast aside that initial invitation, but God's going to give them the new invitation. Let's read about this in Revelation. Revelation chapter 20. Revelation 20 and verse 11. You can tell, I guess, preparing and starting the Holy Days, you've been heading to thinking Holy Days, and so you think of these big themes, but it's always good to think of the big themes. Revelation 20 verse 11, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. There was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. So there, remember, not many wise men now are called, but at that point many wise men will be called. All the wise and all the unwise, the small and great, they're all going to be invited. And the books were opened. Now, we believe that when it says the books are opened, it means the books of the Bible, God's Word, they're going to be open to understanding, because then another book is open, the book of life. And although this only takes a couple of scriptures, we believe that God is going to extend this invitation, understanding, then people will be judged according to their works. Not the works they did before they were called, but the works they do thereafter. So there must be some process of time that's going to be allowed. Their understanding will be open. They can accept that invitation without any hindrance, and then they'll be judged from that time forward as they strive to conform to God's way. Turn to the other side, what a wonderful thing! God doesn't give second chances, in a sense, but He's going to give everybody at least one true chance to know what that invitation really is and take advantage of it.

Now, oh yeah, I knew there was a point I wanted to make that I didn't want to skip.

We're privileged because that understanding that's going to be available to everyone then, we have now. We have that special thing. Let's look earlier in the chapter at verse 4.

Now, this is before that resurrection. This is the thousand years reign of Christ. It says, I saw thrones and they sat on them. There's a day that's not just Jesus Christ, but others who will join Him. And judgment was committed to them. And then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the deeper of His image, had not received the mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Now, that's talking about us.

Now, the beheading part doesn't sound real good, and shedding blood. Now, I suspect He's focusing on the time of the end. Some of us will have to suffer, others not so much. But the important thing is living and reigning with Christ for a thousand years. Because in verse 5 it says, The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.

So, this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.

Over such the second death shall have no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ and reign within the thousand years. What a privilege! What a privilege for us to be called now to that opportunity. But it's nice. I don't know if you're like me. I think, yeah, I really want that. I want to be part of that. I don't want to miss out. And I mentioned my mother and grandmother earlier, who both passed away. I expect that they're going to be the ones that come up in that first resurrection. I thought, I don't want them to look around and say, well, where's Frank? And I bring this up probably too often when I speak, but it's a reminder to me, like, Frank, stay on the straight and narrow. Make sure you are there when they come up. But as I said, it doesn't take away the fact that I'm looking forward to all those people that don't have the calling now. To my sister, who had the invitation but didn't answer it. She not only didn't, she didn't just not, I'm saying this backward, I don't liken her to the fellow who came but didn't put on a wedding garment. She's the one that just got the invitation and she never understood what it was about and didn't take it. She's going to have that opportunity with a lot of other people in that larger resurrection. Let's turn to Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37, as I said, just another one we read often on one particular holy day but we don't have to limit it to the last great day. It's good to look at now and be reminded of, like I said, God's invitation that's going to go out to a lot more people later on than it is right now. But while we still focus on what a privilege it is for us that we do have it now. Ezekiel 37, the hand of the Eternal came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Eternal and set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones.

And he caused me to pass by and all around and behold there were many in the open valley and indeed they were very dry. I mean, these are bones from dead people. They've been there a long time.

And he said to me, Son of Man, can these bones live? Now, if someone asks you that, I think he's got the great response. Well, Lord, you know. And it's sort of like, well, you tell me. I'm not sure what answers you're looking for. And again he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Eternal. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, surely I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live. I'll put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you and cover your skin and put breath in you and you shall live. Then you'll know that I am the Eternal. Important thing to remember here is it talks about flesh and skin and breath. This is a resurrection not the spirit life, which we look forward to in that first resurrection. This is a resurrection to live again just as we're living now. Flesh and blood. And very importantly, moldable and changeable. When we're physical, we can change. And that's important because Christianity is all about change. We put away our old, you know, put to death the old man and we grow up a new creation where we're joining with God's Holy Spirit to make us into new and better people. In verse 7, So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I crossed side there was a noise and suddenly a rattling and the bones came together bone to bone. And indeed I looked and the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over. This would make a great movie. I bet it was special effect. They could probably make it so you could see this now. But there was no breath. There's all these bodies laying there, lifeless. And he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God. I'm telling you, if you have the old King James, does it say, prophesy to the wind? But the Hebrew word is pretty much the same. So anyway, it says, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain so they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded, and the breath came into them, and they lived, stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. And they indeed say, Our bones are dry, and our hope is lost. We ourselves are cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I'll open your graves. I'll cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you to the land of Israel. Now, there's an important distinction. I usually read over that, but I'm pretty sure seeing all of the bones in one valley was sort of a symbol, a metaphor. Because here he says, I'm going to bring you up out of graves. So it's not that if you aren't in that particular valley, sorry, you missed out on the resurrection, God's going to bring people up all over wherever they are and give them life.

That's important. Remember, as I said, I spent some time on this physical nation of Israel, who had this invitation to join this special relationship with God.

As we saw, Ezekiel has all these great, vivid analogies. In chapter 16, it was like a young bride, scorting her husband and going off and committing adultery with anybody and everybody, and just spitting on the marriage covenant. As bad as that is, God's going to say to Israel, yeah, you turned away, but you didn't have the right invitation, or you didn't have the invitation to what I'm going to give you now. So they would come up again. And the important difference in verse 13, Then you shall know that I am the Eternal, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you out from your grave, and I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. And then you will know that I, the Eternal, have spoken it and performed it, says the Eternal, that they're going to have God's Spirit at that time. What a privilege it is to have God's Spirit. And when it comes down to it, that's us now.

God's plan, oh, yeah, I do want to mention this, because we might look at this and say, well, He's talking about Israel. That doesn't say the Chinese people, or the Indians, or whatever, are going to have the opportunity. Well, the Bible has primarily addressed that physical nation, because they had been, God had revealed a special thing to them, because they had had that earlier invitation. But let's turn to 2 Peter chapter 3, because I do want to establish, because it's important for us to realize that you don't have to be a physical Israelite, to be in that general resurrection. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. This is one of the scriptures, once again, often tied to the last great day, but it's important for us to keep in mind all the time. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Two small words there, any and all. He doesn't want anyone to perish. And by perish, I mean the long term. He lets people are living their lives now, probably during the time I've been speaking. There have been several auto accidents, if you look across the whole country, and I don't like to think of such things, but people die every day. So, God is willing to let people perish in a temporary, physical way. But He's thinking the long term, knowing I'm going to bring those people up out of their graves, and I'm going to put flesh and sinew and skin on them.

And then, from that point on, I don't want any to perish. I want all to come to repentance.

Now, God is a God of love. He doesn't want to condemn people without ever giving them a chance. You know, when He's going to make sure you get that invitation, that calling, and you understand what it is, I don't say you, because you already have it. Although, we do want to understand what a special calling we have today, and that's the whole point of my sermon. And why it's so special that we have it now. Again, you know, I think back to being a 14-year-old, as I was starting to comprehend some of these things, and thought, there were times when, you know, I wanted to go out for the football team in high school. I had friends who were doing it, and I said, yeah, I want to go play football on Friday night. Or there were certain girls that I knew wouldn't go out with me, you know, because, you know, I had this weird religion. And I didn't always realize what a special thing it is. But remember what we read in Revelation 20, verse 6, where it said, blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. It says, blessed the holy thing. You make note of this Hebrews 11.35 calls that the better resurrection. So it's not, oh, I can be here, or I can be there, it's all the same. No, it's better to be in the first resurrection. We have special privileges, special benefits. And we should understand and appreciate those. I want to look at a little bit of that now. And also, remember what a privilege it is. It's not a right. It's not something we just get because we should have it. And it's not even something a person can qualify for. We can't, you know, I've got to meet the standards to make God call me. And we can say, also frustratingly enough, we can't call someone else to be called, even if we really think they, you know, they'd be a benefit to church and we wish they could. So let's confirm that again, John 15 verse 16.

John 15 verse 16. This is the fourth during that last half over supper when Jesus had a lot of instructions with His disciples. And He was reminding them of how they got to be there.

He says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain in you. I wonder if Peter, Andrew, and James and John, when He said this, when He said, You didn't choose me, I chose you, did they think that to when they were on the seaside that day when Jesus came along and said, Follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. And perhaps James and John thought, Yeah, those other guys in the boat with Dad, you know, and Dad himself didn't get that invitation. We got it. And Jesus chose them. And John 644, of course, and we read this earlier, no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws Him. But, and I always make a note here, I want to remind you, we don't have as many young people here as we do in Columbus, but, you know, that includes our children. You know, Peter specifically said the promises to you and your children. So, no children sneak in here without the adults knowing it or without God knowing it. And I didn't always realize that when I was a kid, you know, it's like, Oh, God did call me. And many of us have learned the hard way, you know, how it comes about. I think that there have been a couple of times when I was younger and I, you know, started developing emotional attachments to young women. I mean, one at the time, but it happened on a couple of different occasions where, oh, and I would pray God, boy, she'd be really good in the church and we're such a good man. You really need to call her. And I would pray about it. I think once I even passed it saying, you know, God, come on, come through for me, you know, call this girl. Matter of fact, I just remembered, this came out of the blue, but when we were in college, there was a fellow he said, and he would explain when he was younger, he'd see this pretty girl and he'd say, someone give that girl a plain truth. You know, we're going to get her in the church.

But we don't get to choose. It's a privilege. Let's turn to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 16. Because I want to remember not only, you know, it can start seeming very exclusive now, but what do we get? I think at one point, you know, the apostles asked Jesus, Peter said, we've forsaken everything, so what are we going to have? You know, it's like, okay, you know, listen to it for us. Now, we don't want to think that way, but God does say there's some stuff you're going to get.

Ephesians 1 will begin in verse 16, and some of it's a little intangible, but those are the things that are most valuable. I said, do not cease. Oh, he's talking about him, Paul, saying, I do not cease to get thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, once again a calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? What is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power? And I want you to be aware of some of the stuff you're going to get, and as I said, some of it's intangible, but the wisdom and revelation of knowledge. And as you, there's points in your life where you stop and you look around and you say, what really matters? You know, it's funny, it can happen when you're really poor or sometimes when you're really rich. If you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon had everything and he finally, he darned everything and finally said, huh, what's it matter? What's it worth? But we know why it matters. You know, when God calls you, it gives you that understanding of what's it all about? What's next? You know, we understand why we were born. Remember the booklet had that title, Why Were You Born? A lot of people don't know.

In my job with the Humanities Council and when I was at universities, there are a lot of intelligent people that I came in contact with who still, you know, for all, sometimes they had a lot of physical wealth, they had a lot of knowledge, but I saw a lot of them were unhappy because they reached this point where they said, if this is all there is, it's still fleeting, especially as they would get older and they start trying to come up with things. They get involved in political causes or they might say, I'm going to retire and I'm going to ride my bicycle across China and they thought that would give their life some meaning and those are cool things to do, you know, supporting a good cause or having an adventure. But knowing what it's all about, not having that futility of things, you know, Solomon said, I've got all this and I'm going to die and leave it to someone else, you know, our calling gives us a peace of mind. That's a phrase, I'm glad I wrote it down because I wasn't thinking of it. That peace of mind of knowing what it's really about and where we're going.

And again, of course, it's not because we're smarter, not because we're better.

If they were more privileged, we've been given these things. You know, we're not more deserving, but we are more blessed. And I think I had a friend in grad school who was studying the Puritans, you know, in the Pilgrims in the 1600s. And I hadn't really looked into it much, but it's amazing how many of them read Greek and Hebrew and they knew the word. Like, boy, they were so smart. And some of them even read in the Bible and they understood the Sabbath and that the Roman Church had gone away from it. But they just didn't put the pieces together because it's not about how smart you are. It's about God opening your mind. You know, He has to send you the invitation for it to matter. So, if we're not smarter, we're not better, but we've been sent an invitation.

And again, these things pop into my mind. If you've seen Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, you unwrap the thing and you've got the golden ticket and you start singing the song. I've got a golden ticket. What we've got is much better than a golden ticket. Let's turn to Psalm 103. Once again, reminded that peace of mind isn't all we get. You know, we can count on certain benefits and blessings that come as part of this privilege.

Psalm 103 in verse 1, and we sing this a lot of times. I like the song, but I don't often read it.

Lest the eternal owe my soul and all that is within me. Lest his holy name. Lest the Lord owe my soul and forget not all his benefits.

There's benefits. Who forgives your iniquities? That's nice. He's forgiven. Who heals your diseases? Who redeems your life from destruction? He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like that of eagles.

You know, we can ask you to have healing. We can have our mouth satisfied with good things.

God will provide for you physically. Now, I always have to balance that. Sometimes, God lets us go through trials. I remember talking to Stu. We were going through the trial of having changes of job and looking for a house. I said, I know God gives us blessings, but sometimes I get cynical because I think, yeah, but this time he's going to give me a trial. I'm sure he wants me to learn a lesson. I haven't been punished enough lately. And then sometimes it works you out at all.

Sometimes he just gives you the blessing. You know, and it's happened to me a lot recently. And I said, boy, you start waiting for the other shoe to drop. And God, are you really giving me all this good stuff? And I guess I see it a little differently now as a father because I see Connor. I want to give him every good thing. Now, eventually, I'm going to have to spank him at times and I'm going to have to correct him. But my long-term goal is to give him every good thing I can to make sure he's happy and satisfied. Well, of course, God wants to do that with us. He wants to give us these benefits and blessings. And his word shows us that it's there. You know, being forgiven, being satisfied with good things, being healed. We don't see as many healings in the church these days as at least I heard there used to be, but it does happen. You know, and I don't want to go into all the details, but I've been healed somewhat miraculously before. And probably some of you have or know people. You know, it's something we should call on and expect to get those benefits. Another benefit moving towards the latter point about our calling is we do get to share it. We don't get to choose who we share it with, but we're not on our own. We look around, we're a few in number, but we are here together. We're a significant body. And the fact that we're called and invited into a special group demonstrates what a miracle it is. In Matthew 16, 18, and you can turn there, we're just making note of it. It's the time where Jesus is talking to Peter, and he says, you know, you're Peter on this rock. I will build my church. And he says the gates of hell won't prevail against it. You realize, and I didn't until I was doing this, that's the first time that the word church appears in the Bible. So there's me. So I'm going to build my church that the Greek word is eklesia, or eklesia, depending on how you want to pronounce it. And it comes from two separate Greek words. EK or E-K means out from. So it's a preposition, you know, like we have prepositions like this or in or whatever. And that preposition means out from. And the root word is klesis, which means invitation or calling. We've been talking about our invitation or calling. The church as a group are those who are invited out, called out of the world, but we're all called out as a group. We become a separate body.

And let's turn to Colossians at chapter one in verse 18. We'll see some of this and some of the special privileges that we still have. Colossians 1. There it is. Now, here, speaking of Jesus Christ, as we mentioned earlier, but in verse 18 it says, He Christ is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, the He might have preeminence. Look at cross also to verse 24. Same chapter in verse, same Colossians 1 verse 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church. I'm emphasizing here Paul says the church is the body of Christ. And that doesn't mean we're some type of a Frankenstein monster, that we're formed physically into a body and Christ is in the head, but we're a unit. We're put together and Christ is in charge. So He calls us out not to all be all called out, but we're all on our own. He calls us out to be together. We're a body. We're brought together for a special purpose. And some of those, let's look at one of those purposes. There are two of them. In 1 Timothy, it could just be a few pages further to the back. 1 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 15. One of the insights here is we are invited to have a special relationship with God, but in doing so, we're also invited to join this special body, to be part of a group, a privileged group.

I knew there was something wrong. I'm looking at 1 Peter. 1 Timothy 3 in verse 15.

But if I'm delayed, I write to you so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church and the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. Paul says a lot here in this trainer, and he's saying the church is the church in the living God and it's the pillar of the truth, and the ground of the truth. It is an ability to build Remember what we read in 1 Corinthians 26.

He's the one that's special. He can take the weakest of the world and show the great, you know, I didn't need you to be great. I've got all the power that I need. And he's doing it. God's weakness is stronger than anything man can do. His foolishness is greater than our greatest wisdom.

I remember once I was with a friend of mine, I can't remember, we were in his backyard and we saw this ant, and it sort of blocked, and it was running and just moving back and forth. I said, yes, he's going back. His brain is just like running a little program that keeps him going.

I mean, I could see that, but then again, think of even a simple part of God's creation, like a little tiny insect. It's able to work all six of those legs. Some of them can fly. You know, the bees leave their nest and they go out and they find a flower, and they come all the way back and find where they started, and they have this way of communicating with the other bees to let them know where the flowers are to go get the nectar to make honey.

I mean, this is something that God programmed in a brain that's so small, you know, we could barely see it. You know, to be able, for being kind to be able to come close to matching that, you know, our most advanced scientist has developed these big computers and advanced robotics, and we're only trying to imitate and still not getting there.

Of course, all I'm saying is God's foolishness is greater than the best we can do. So He can take the base and the common ordinary folk, call us out to be part of a privileged body, and He can do great things. And of course, because of God's calling, I said, we're not better, but we are better off. We're given a lot. We're given that peace of mind that knows God's plan and purpose. We know what's going to happen in the long run, something that a lot of rich and powerful people would part with a lot of their riches and their power to have.

And of course, that's not even considering the blessings in the long run, being that better resurrection to get to reign with Jesus Christ. So brethren, you know, and I say brethren because we are called to be part of that body. We share this special thing. We're the ecclesia. We're the called-out ones. Each of us individually was invited by God the Father to have this special opportunity.

Your calling is a miracle, and it's a privilege. But like most privileges, it does come with certain responsibilities. Remember that phrase, to whom much is given, much will be required. Now, if you're looking at your watch and you think, is he going to start talking about all the requirements? I'll just mention some, but they could be the source of a lot of sermons, you know, and books have been written about it.

We have a responsibility to mature and bear spiritual fruits. We have a responsibility of loving and supporting our brethren. You know, Jesus Christ said, you know, this is a new commandment. Love one another as I loved you. And of course, we have the responsibility to preach the gospel to the world. Go out and make disciples. Yeah. Preach the gospel. You know, we could go on that length and hit about any one of these. But I want to conclude there's one special responsibility that comes with our privilege.

Let's go back to the book of 2nd Peter. I was going to say back to the book of 1st Peter, but I want 2nd Peter. 2nd Peter, Chapter 1, and we're going to read verses 10 and 11. You're calling. That invitation is such a special thing. One of our responsibilities is how we care for it. And then Peter addresses that here.

2nd Peter 1 and verse 10. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and your election sure. For if you do these things, you'll never stumble. So you've got something special you're saying, make it sure. Hang on to it. Don't take it for granted. Don't cast it aside. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly, and to the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We've got to be faithful and loyal to this special calling we have. And if we do that, we're going to have an even better privilege. That of being in God's Kingdom. Right now, we're in God's Church. But that's just the forerunner. We want to hang on to what we've been given, and the end result is we're going to be in His Church. That's the result of the miracle we're experiencing now, that privilege of being called by God. Thank you.