Romans 9:11-13

Jacob or Esau Romans 9:11-13 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Romans 9 is a passage that we are all familiar with. Each of us has a goal in life. Is there anyone without a goal? There is something we each want to be, want to do, and want to attain. If that is so, and if you have become that someone, done what you wanted and attained what you desired, are you then blessed? Is that right? If you have done all you have wanted to do, then are you able to say definitively that you have achieved all your goals? Are you certain you have done everything? Today being a millionaire does not seem that unique. In the past, if you were a millionaire you were part of an elite group, but today there are billionaires. But, let us say that you decided to be a millionaire and did so. Would you say then that you have been blessed? Or let us say that you desire some merit, and you did so, would say then that you are blessed? Or if you have lived your life in good health, are you then able to say that you have lived a blessed life? Or let us say you have many children and all of them do well, grow up without any problems, then would you say that you are blessed? What would you have so that you would say that you are blessed and what kind of life are you living so that you can attain the blessings? If you are living to achieve a goal, then we can say that that goal is the blessing that you are trying to attain. If what you desire is merit, status, money, health, or your children’s well being, if you have something that you desire and attain it, then people will look and say that you are blessed. Is that not so? Then, in order to attain these blessings, there are things that we do. What are these things? A nonbeliever, one who does not believe in Jesus and serves any other god, goes and worships their own gods. The ask for their desires to be granted. They are begging to have their desires granted. We have all seen this. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen this? Either at a temple, or a fortune teller, there are various ways that people seek to have their desires granted. What this means, is that there is a method to having their desires granted and they are going to do those things to make it so. Is that not so? Someone may have prayed to a big boulder and their child passed an exam. Someone who was unable to have child was able to become pregnant, or some other news of this type is heard from others. Someone had a problem and when they prayed to something somewhere all there problems were resolved. So then that boulder, tree, or location is now seen as having a spiritual power and so people go and pray to these things. How do they pray? They do so with all their might. Someone had written, that when these people go to pray to what we see as an idol with no power, they do so with such an intensity and focus that it surpasses that of our giving and posture of worship to a degree that cannot be measured. When we compare the posture of worship of those who believe in a lifeless idol and that of us who believe in the living God, the difference in our worship is like day and night. What is our attitude of worship as we worship a living God? Are we truly worshipping with a heart of reverence? Do we recognize who God really is when we come to worship Him? If there is one seeking a blessing, then that means that there is one who is able to give it. What is your reason for coming to worship God? Do you worship so that you may receive a blessing? Do you worship and praise Him so that you can receive merit, a job, health or money? Are you coming to worship so that you can get something? Is that so? Are you coming before God believing that He is the Creator of all things and the giver of life and that by being able to be with you then you will be able to attain something that you desire? If that is so, then we must examine ourselves. When the youth speak, they say that they will take what they want. For example when they are in love, and they see someone who is beautiful and who they like, they will do all that they can so that they can posses the one they desire. They will take the one they want and make them their own. Then is it over? They gave all within themselves to posses the one that they have desired and done so. Then what do they do? They try to take back all that they have invested into that person. That is how people are. Is this true love? This person only tried to posses the other for the sake of possessing them, they did not do so out of love. They saw something that was pleasing to them in beauty and form, but the moment they come to posses them, they start demanding that the person return all that was invested into them. It is not love to desire to have returned that which was invested. I speak as a man. If I see a woman that I love, that I am willing to sacrifice everything in my life for, then after I have made her my wife, then I must give more. I must die more. I must cherish her and hold her and love her and so that she will not break or be hurt and so want to leave me. This is putting in the effort to maintain that which you have attained. But if we are mistaken in our thoughts then we are not loving the way we should. If we have forgotten the essence of love and tried to love then we have missed the mark. In the world, there are two sides to every story. If one is good there is also bad. When I desired to have someone, I have a standard to which I desire that the person be and then later, after having been married I realize that the person is different from when we used to date. It is rare to find someone that has not changed. Everyone changes. If I have done everything to make this woman my wife, then what comes next? I must make sacrifices to keep her happy. We fail to do this just like we fail to understand the true essence of love. Just like there is good and bad, I must persevere to the end and make sacrifices for the one I love. This is the way it is in life. What about our spiritual life, the life of being God’s child? We say that we love God. We come before Him singing praises and worship saying that we will sacrifice ourselves to God. Then what are the two sides? First we must forgo all that we thought we knew about love. Our standard of love up to this point has been the way of the world. We must rid ourselves the standard in which the world loves when we come before God. We are to come before Him and confess our love and continuous sacrifice for Him. But we do not get rid of the world. Rather we confess our love for the world and ask God to give us the things of this world which are merit, money, health, and employment. We tell Him that if He answers our prayers, then we will use those things and love God more. We are trying to have both. Is this the right way? If we are trying to attain all things through God, and we believe that God is the one who provides all things, and therefore we come and worship Him, then should we be seeking blessings from God or His love? I am asking you. “God I need money because I have put myself into debt because of all the finances I have needed to live life so please give me money.” Is this how we should ask God? “God I have eaten and drank how I wanted and now I am sick, please make me well. I am seeking the blessing of health.” Is this how we are to pray? “I have lived all my life being numb to the Spirit, and have been entangled by the world, I am asking that you free me from all my burdens and heal me.” If I seek in prayer the blessings to all my worldly attachments from God, is this the right way to pray? It is not. If I have sacrificed everything to attain all the love that I have desired, then I must sacrifice so that the love does not depart from me. If I see later that the person is not as perfect as I have perceived, then I must realize that I too am not perfect and also a disappointment to the other person as well. We think that we are the only to make a sacrifice and not get what we want. What about the other person who was deceived into thinking that they were going to be with someone who was going to love and sacrifice for them forever? Who is really being deceived? We do not think of the person who was deceived by my false acts of sacrifice. Our thoughts are wrong in the way we seek satisfaction and our desire to seek a return in what we have sacrificed. We have a misunderstanding of love. When we come before God and seek the things to love Him back, then we are wrong in our worship and the way we pray. When we try to posses the love of God in our lives, we must come before Him first having let go of everything in this world. When we seek His love and posses it then our prayers will be answered. If we are not seeking His love, but are seeking the things of this world so that we can do what we desire then the prayers we pray are wrong and our life and faith are also all wrong. Let us look at the love of a parent and child. Which child does a parent love the most? Is it not the child that captures the parent’s heart? Of course the parents love all their children equally and uniquely but the child that pleases the parent and captures their heart is naturally won over by that child. There is a difference of focusing on a child out of love and focusing on a child because they might do something wrong. We are just speaking generally. That is why people give more to those who they can trust and love. If you come before God seeking His blessings, then what must you do so that you can have all that you want? You must find the key. Without the key all your efforts are useless. Everything else is secondary to you finding the secret to your confession of love for God and receiving all of His love for you. All things can be resolved once you figure this out. But we have a hard time understanding this. The one who receives much of God’s love can also receive all the blessings in this world. Rather than seek God’s love, we put a requirement on giving God love by first asking Him for the things we desire. If you give us that which we ask for we will love you more is our attitude. If you allow us this or give us that then we will love you more, but that is wrong. I may have nothing of this world but to be made in the image of God and to know Him means that we possess all the things that He possesses in our spirit. God is love. That means we too have that love. What kind of love? It is the love that sacrificed His one and only Son for us. We too for the sake of love, for our children and the ones we love, can sacrifice all that we have for them, and there are those that do. When you truly love, you can sacrifice any part of your body for someone even your very life for your child. Why? Because, that is love. The relationship between parent and child must be that can give and receive so that all can be overcome. There are many things in our lives that we do with a wrong understanding. When I ask you if you love your wife, husband, children or parent you can answer “yes” but the question is by what standard are you loving them? God sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for us. Do we love like this? Can we answer “we cannot love like that, but we still love”? There is a video on our website about a story of a little child who was blind so when he was too young to remember his mother gave him her eyes. He never knew that he could not see. As he grew up he ignored her, his entire life. Later he found out his eyes belonged to his mother. What use it is to confess your love for a mother who is dead? A parent can make sacrifices. God, our Father, sacrificed His Son, for us so that there would be a way for us to be His children. We have received this love. Do I really understand His love and what it really means before I tell Him that I love Him? If I love God for my satisfaction and according to my standards, then I do not understand the love of God. There is a story of an 86 year old man name Mr.Chu. He gets up early in the morning and prepares a measure of soup and then walks 20 kilometers to a hill with a bamboo violin. What does he do there? For 30 years he has visited his wife’s grave with a bowl of soup and the violin which he plays for her. Why? When he was engaged to her, he had promised that he would daily prepare her soup and play her a song that she enjoyed until he died. She has died, but because he still has life and because of his promise, he goes in the morning with the soup and plays a song for her though no one listens and then comes home. What is this? This is his way of keeping his promise of his love. He is 86 years old but he has not given up on his love. The editor of this story asks at the end, how are you caring for the ones that you love? This old man is keeping his promise to a wife who has died. How are you caring for the ones that you love that are living? Examine yourself. The editor tells us to ask ourselves, “What kind of person am I?” If there is someone who can love and respect someone who has died, then am I loving all those family members around me and loving me spouse the way that truly defines love? Through all trial and adversity am I loving those the way that true love is to be? If not, and I am unable to even love the spouse who I see that is before me, then can I say that I love God? What kind of life of faith am I living? If we are unable to do so, then I am asking that we examine ourselves. Are you really in love? The time that you spend together is important. Don’t you want to spend as much time together when you are in love? You do not try to avoid each other. After work, you want to come right home and talk to the one you love. When you have a moment at work, you try to call her and talk to her. When you are young before you are married, you are always calling each other letting each other know where you are and what you are doing. But once you get married you stop. It is because you did not do it for love but rather you tried to posses the other person. When you love the other, you listen to what the other person is saying, you are trying to understand their heart. Having deep conversation is a sign of love. How much time have I spent before God in prayer to receive His love and to know His heart? Are we living our life of faith drawing closer to God listening to the things that He is saying to us? Are you doing so? Do you read the Bible often? Are you praying often? Just as you try to make time for someone you love and send a message often, whether I sit or stand am I offering to God the true life of one who worships Him? In this way I can confess my love I have for Him. In this way I can understand the essence of what love is. If I am unable to receive God’s love, then what must I do? It is written that “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.” Compare the descendants of those of Jacob and then of Esau. Jacob who was loved by God. Esau who was hated by God. Should I receive God’s love or His hate? What then must I do so that I can receive His love? You must do as you have heard, seen and learned from the Bible. Abraham is the father of our faith. Abraham communicated with God, listened to Him and obeyed Him in faith and God made him the father of our faith. The seed of our faith comes down and separated between Jacob and Esau. Even from the descendant of the seed of faith we can see that there is one who is loved and one who is not loved. Esau is from Abraham. Jacob is from Abraham. They are both descendants of Abraham. You are all descendants of the family of faith from Abraham. If you are descended from the family of faith, should you stand in the line of Jacob or in the line of Esau? Where should you stand? Without a doubt you must stand in line with Jacob. But if you are to stand in line with him, what kind of life must you live? You are the one who must live it. God showed us what to do by example, and because He has shown us, when we do the things He tells us, then He is in us and we are in Him. We are His children. We can know then we receive His love. If I do not love then I do not know God. I have no relationship with God. If I have no relationship with Him then can I receive His blessings? I wouldn’t be able to. The answer is simple. To receive God’s love there must be a connection between Him and me. If that is the case, then should I not receive all of His love? In order to receive His love completely should I stand behind Him, beside Him or be found in front of Him? Where do you find the child that you love the most? Do you love the child that does not live at home or do you love the child that is at home and captures your heart? Do you love the child that is in the next room or the child that is found in front of you? God has shown you the way. He does not take into account your age. He does not favor between boy nor girl. If a parent is pleased by a child’s speech and action, then what are the things that please God? It is doing the things that please God in front of Him. Meaning God is watching me at all times. Am I then able to sin? I am not. Because God is watching me, then when I speak today, I will speak so that God will be glorified. My speech will have to be righteous. I must open my mouth in a manner that would be pleasing to God. If I am to do business with someone today, then knowing that God is watching I must conduct my business in a manner that would glorify God and when I do He will be pleased with me. I must follow and obey Him. When God is pleased with me He will open the door for the business to succeed. But what do we do? We ponder and stress about the finances and bring what little that we make to God and then ask Him to give us more. This is not the way. God has given the students an opportunity to study. When a student asks God to bless them so that they can do well and make lots of money and achieve a high status so that they can do God’s will and please Him they are doing it wrong. You should pray that you are grateful for the opportunity to study and that by studying you are doing God’s will, and you do so in obedience to Him so you ask Him for wisdom to overcome the evil in the world. Then when you study with the wisdom that God grants you, from the place God has placed you, you are to please God by the life you live and the words you speak. When you live this life, when you pray in this manner, because God chooses to love you, He will bless you with the things you need. From that place you can be a witness of God’s love and blessing to others. This is the life of faith. You must be able to attain this love to be able to confess that you are blessed. If you are seeking blessings by your standards then there is no one who has ever attained the blessings they have desired. Do you prefer a million or two million? Two. Two million or three million? Three. Let say you set your goals to make 50 million but you see that your friend has made 100 million. Now what you set as a standard has been crushed and now you are found wanting more. Even if we had the whole world we would still want. The woman you were once was crazy in love for is now getting older and there are many younger more beautiful women around. Your standard of love has changed. Anyone who looks at anything according to their standard may be satisfied in the moment, but the moment they turn their head and see something else that standard is now changed. If to be blessed means to satisfy oneself, then your life will never be blessed. When I let go of my standards and if I believe that my life in God is the best the way it is, then whether He blesses me or does not, I am satisfied in God alone. This is the blessed life and in this life there is joy and this life is a life keeps flowing forth from God through me. This is the life of victory. God is glorified through the one who lives this life. Just as we see in Romans as God loved Jacob and hated Esau, I must decide to confess to God that because He loves me I will live my life for Him. To live a life of victory. To live the blessed life. To be able to say that I have done it all for God. To receive God’s love and to also love. Who’s love is it? It is God’s love that you must receive and understand. Pray that you may. Focus all your strength on attaining God’s love. Love yourself and throw away everything inside you that is contrary to it. Be one in God’s love in your family and with the overflowing abundance from the love of Jesus may it be evident to all those around you. May you all receive the blessing of God’s love. Sermon by Pastor Howard Park Translation by Miguel Park