SERMON TITLE: When Passions and Achievements Aren’t Enough
SCRIPTURE: Romans 9:30-10:4 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 11-24-24
Sermon Discussion Guide
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It’s good to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And — if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — are joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
After a three week break we’re returning to our series in Romans. And we’re in the middle of Paul’s answer as to why so many Jews — even though they were God’s chosen people — why did so many of them reject Jesus as the promised Messiah? And — in answering this question — Paul showed us that their rejection of Jesus was not because God’s Word had failed. For the promises to the Jewish people — according to Paul — had been promises given to the true Israelites — not to all who were ethnically Jews — they were promises given to a chosen remnant among the Jews.
Paul then goes on to defend God’s sovereignty in choosing some to be part of this remnant — what he calls the children of the promise. For God chose Isaac — not Ishmael. He chose Jacob — not Esau. He chose the enslaved Israelites — not Pharaoh. God — in his sovereignty — chooses those whom he will save to be his people.
Which leads Paul to respond to our next question: Does this mean that God is unfair? Does the fact that God chooses some — and not all — to be children of his promise of salvation — does God choosing some — and not all — make him out to be unfair? “Absolutely not” according to Paul.
To which Paul — knowing what our next question will be — makes it clear that — though God chooses those who will be children of the promise — those not chosen are still responsible for their sin and rebellion. Paul’s pushing against an idea that’s common among us. The idea where we think that God — if he’s going to be merciful towards some people — is required to be merciful towards all people. So Paul makes it clear that God isn’t required to be merciful towards any of us — for we’ve all sinned and fallen short of his glory — therefore we all deserve his judgment. And — if we want to talk about fairness — us all experiencing God’s judgment would be the only fair option.
Thus — what should astound us isn’t that some are judged by God because of their sin — instead — we should be amazed by God being merciful towards anyone. Yet — God being merciful towards some and not all — often doesn’t sit well with us — even those of us who have a high view of Scripture. Yet our being disturbed by God’s sovereign mercy is due more to secular thinking than what we read in God’s Word. For secular thinking tells us that we’re the final judge of how things should be. So we switch roles and play judge of God — questioning him for being merciful only towards some — as if his mercy is something we all deserve.
And — yet — and please don’t miss this — though none deserve mercy — God’s mercy is something that many do experience. Again — can we marvel at how amazing it is that any of us experience God’s mercy? And that — as Paul’s told us — the reason that any of us do is because God — though sinned against by us who he created to glorify him by living in obedience to his Word — and though it would be right for him to only dispense his judgment upon all of us — instead — God has said to his chosen people, “You are my beloved. Yes — you — though you don’t deserve it — you will be called my people.”
For here is our humbling and sobering reality: If God did not keep for himself a remnant — none of us would be saved.
Which leads us to our verses for today — where Paul now turns to the responsibility of those who reject Jesus. We’ll be in Romans chapter nine — beginning in verse thirty and reading through verse four of chapter ten. We’re in Romans chapter nine — picking up Paul’s thought in verse thirty — where he writes…
Romans 9:30–10:4 (ESV)
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
As you may have noticed earlier — I’ve titled this sermon: When passions and achievements aren’t enough. This title is based on two ways we can pursue being made right with God as found in our verses. Now I know not everyone is concerned about their relationship with God — but ultimately — most people instinctively — or naturally — operate under a default pursuit — where they’re trying to be right with God in a way that’s futile.
We find this in people who want nothing to do with religion — but claim to be spiritual. They’re pursuing a relationship with God based on their own wisdom or folly — intuition or self-deception — or maybe worst of all — because some celebrity or influencer — who knows nothing about the things of God — has led them down a path of ignorance.
But this isn’t just an outside the church problem — even those who are active in a local church can pursue trying to be right with God in a way that’s futile. This is what Paul says the Jewish people in his day were doing when he writes…
Romans 9:31–10:3 (ESV)
31 Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
I want you to notice what Paul says about the Jewish people’s pursuit of righteousness. Now — this wasn’t the case for every individual Jew — but this was the case for the Jews who rejected Jesus. Paul says they pursued righteousness — they tried to be right with God — through the law and their works — and not through faith. So they pursued righteousness — or being right and acceptable to God — by means of their own achievements. And Paul says they did so zealously and with lots of passion. And — the real kicker — Paul says — is they did all of it ignorantly.
This is the pursuit of righteousness that is futile. This is the attempt of being made right with God that is hopeless.
Now — what makes this so challenging — is that we live in a culture where our value is determined by our achievements — by what we’ve accomplished and done. When we meet someone new — what’s one of the first questions we ask each other? “What do you do?” This tells us something about how we define our self-worth — and the worth of others — by our achievements.
When I was in the Army — your achievements determining your worth — was in your face on a regular basis. We got evaluated all of the time. Peer performance evaluations — where — say there were ten soldiers — you would rank everyone from one to ten — from who’s the best soldier in the group to who’s the worst — including yourself. Then you’d be told, “Your fellow soldiers ranked you ___ out of the ten of you.”
Sounds fun, right? But that’s not all. Then your chain of command evaluates you. And you get an evaluation report that would say something like, “Of the ____ number of soldiers under my command — you’re number ____ in the ranking.” And this was official record stuff — meaning these documents would be taken into consideration for future promotions.
But it’s not just the military who dishes out this kind of “here’s what you're worth to us based on what you do” evaluation. Think of the jobs in our country that are paid the most compared to jobs that are paid the least. Now I know this is an incredibly complex subject so — to narrow our focus — let’s take jobs that require a college degree.
The highest paid jobs in our country probably don’t surprise you. Being a CEO, a medical doctor, a psychiatrist, a pilot, a lawyer — no real surprises. I’m not knocking anyone who has one of these jobs — by the way — this is just an illustration. Those are the top paid jobs in our country with a college degree.
So what about the lowest paid jobs that require some kind of formal education beyond high school? And — I promise I had no idea what number one would be — but according to two separate websites — the lowest paid job is that of priest, pastor, or rabbi — folks who have a theology degree of some kind. Journalists make the lowest paid jobs list — which may explain why it’s so hard these days to figure out what’s true or not and why so much reporting seems to be more opinion than fact-based — but I digress. Paramedics make the list — that one is kind of concerning — especially when I think we’d all like to actually make it to the doctor if we’re having an emergency. And — to no one’s surprise — teachers.
Now — salary isn’t the only measure of how much we value what someone else does — but it’s quite telling — isn’t it — that paramedics — who most of us will never be in need of their service — are on the lowest paid list. Much less teachers and journalists or — how the rise in psychology as a means to help people sort out issues — is now one of the highest paid professions — even though their field was once reserved for pastors — a profession often called “doctors of the soul”.
Regardless of what you think a doctor, paramedic, teacher, or pastor should make — it’s obvious — isn’t it — that our culture has an inconsistent principle in determining the value it gives people based on their achievements and what they do. Stay at home moms might even make CEO kind of salaries if things weren’t so twisted.
And — yet — even with all of the distorted values we give each other — just like the Israelites — we think this is how our relationship with God works. And here’s what usually ends up happening.
In believing that what we do is what will make us right with God — we become like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. If you’re unfamiliar with the Pharisees — their greatest mistake — like any of us who believe that our achievements are what will make us right with God — their greatest mistake was that they wrote their own rules — their own playbook on how to be right with God. And — when we do this — just like them — we end up hearing Jesus say something to us like...
Matthew 23:23–24 (NLT)
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
The Pharisees had defined being right with God to include tithing — or giving ten percent — not just of their income — but even down to ten percent of the herbs that grew in their garden. And notice that Jesus doesn’t dismiss the act of tithing. What he dismisses is the idea where — obeying a religious rule over here — releases you from the obligation to obey what God has said over there. Again — the issue isn’t that they’re obeying God’s command to tithe — the issue is that they’re using their obedience of one command to be the achievement that makes them right with God — even when they’re disobeying other commands God had given them.
Now — far too often — being more like the Pharisees would be a step in the right direction for some — not in being made righteous by what we do — but in making what you do align with God’s commands. Usually the rules we think that will make us right with God have little to do with his Word. But — never forget what God’s Word says about the law — the commands that we’re to obey.
For example, the book of Psalms begins with…
Psalm 1 (NLT)
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. 4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. 5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. 6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
God’s law — his Word and commands — how he tells us to live — is to be our delight. Not because it tells us that what we do will earn God’s favor — not because it lists the things we’re to achieve in order to be right with God — but because those who recognize what God has done for them in sending his Son — Jesus Christ — who realize that their achievements and passions will never be enough — and — instead — put all of their trust in what Jesus has accomplished on their behalf — these are the people for whom the law is no longer viewed as a means of salvation — but instead is seen as the way those loved by God — and who love him in return — are to live.
We know the Pharisees didn’t understand this about the law because they did what we all like to do: Instead of delighting in God’s law — we make a bunch of rules that are sure to tip the scales of the law in our favor, right?
We know the rules that we’re good at following — so we tell ourselves that following these rules — and only these rules that we’re good at obeying — is what makes us right with God. And these can be good, moral — even biblical — rules. Like reading our Bibles and showing up to church. Or giving money to charity or volunteering our time at a local homeless shelter. The options are nearly limitless to the kinds of rules we’ll use to say, “What I’ve achieved has made me right with God.”
If you want to pray a dangerous prayer — ask God: God, how am I trying to be righteous by my achievements? What list of rules — that I’ve picked to be in my favor — am I following — convinced that my obedience will make me right with you? Or — like the Pharisees — what of your Word do I ignore because — if I didn’t — I’d clearly see how the scales are not tipped in my favor?
Here’s another way to think of this.
On a bad day — a day where you miss your alarm, are late to class or work, yell at your spouse or kids or best friend on your way out the door, say a four letter word when a car swerves in front of you causing you to spill scalding hot coffee all over your shirt on your way to Life Group — on a day like that — how much does God love you?
Compared to a day when you wake up fifteen minutes before your alarm and spend that extra fifteen minutes in prayer for every co-worker by name, and then complete your BSF study on Revelation, and as your driving your kids to school you have the sweetest time of worship because K-Love played all the right songs as if the Spirit of God chose them just for you, and while grocery shopping you pay for the groceries of the person in front of you who couldn’t find their wallet, and — in the afternoon — you hand out water bottles to the students running around your neighborhood for cross country practice — on a day like that — how much does God love you?
We’re so used to the conditional love of others — where we’re loved because of what we achieve. And simultaneously we’re used to — when we don’t meet someone’s expectations — they abandon us. And — because of both of these — being loved because of what we do and being abandoned when we fail to meet their expectations — we confuse God’s unconditional love as if his love for us is based on what we achieve for him.
And we Christians — and you don’t have to be a Christian to do this — but I’ll just pick on my people right now — we Christians can be silly when it comes to saying that following my list of religious rules is what makes a person right with God and earns his love. And I wish silly was where it ends — but we can be divisive because of our rules, proud because of our rules, unloving because of our rules, and self-deceived because of our rules. Much less the unbearable burden we carry everywhere we go because we believe that our achievements are what will make us right with God.
And — then add to all of this — as Paul says — how we pursue being right with God — based on our achievements — and do so with great passion and zeal. In verse two of chapter ten he writes…
Romans 10:2 (NLT)
2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.
And — passion — or enthusiasm — especially in our culture today — is viewed as the trump card — as the determining factor — for whether or not something is true, authentic, and valid. Yet — just like the Israelites in Paul’s day — passion without knowledge — is just overzealous ignorance.
Again — Paul says it this way.
Romans 10:3 (NLT)
3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.
And there’s a lot of ignorance going around these days — a large amount of “refusing to accept God’s way and clinging to their own way” when it comes to what makes a person right with God. Oh it’s full of passion — but that doesn’t make it any less ignorant. And I say this — not to be proud — but because passionate ignorance is eternally damnable. I don’t care how passionately you believe something — that doesn't make what you believe to be true. And — in our day — there’s a pursuit that’s nothing more than an act of futility: Thinking that our achievements and passions will make us right with God.
Which leads us to the counter to this pursuit of futility — meaning — get this: There is a right way to go about pursuing a relationship with God. And — given what we’ve seen — that righteousness is not to be pursued by our achievements — no matter how passionate we may pursue them — how are we to pursue being made right with God?
Paul tells us — wasn’t that kind of him? In verse thirty he writes…
Romans 9:30 (ESV)
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
In verse thirty-three he says…
Romans 9:33 (ESV)
33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
And in verse four — of chapter ten — he writes…
Romans 10:4 (ESV)
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The only way to pursue being right with God is by faith. Faith in who? Not in ourselves. Not in our achievements. Not in anything we do. For it’s faith in the stone — Paul says. The Rock. The One who — when believed in — means a release from the shame so many carry with them everywhere they go because of all the things they’ve failed to achieve.
This is faith in Jesus Christ — for he is the end of the law. That’s Paul’s way of saying that Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law and achieved what none of us could do. And he did so without tipping the scales of the law in his favor. He obeyed it all — everything we read in the law — and he did so perfectly. And — that means — Jesus is right with God his Father.
Now back to the idea of promises and truths that should floor us and cause us to drop down to our knees in thanksgiving and wake up to the reality of the futility of making up our own set of rules and spending so much time judging others for how crappy they are at keeping our rules instead of facing how crappy we are at keeping God’s rules: All who believe in Jesus are given his righteousness. Through faith in him — God the Father credits you with the righteousness that Jesus achieved.
In another place Paul says it this way.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
On all of the peer evals — Jesus always ends up on top — number one — and it’s not even close. And though he has every right to take what he’s earned and keep it all for himself — which is exactly what we’d all do — in fact — we’re often quick to take what we haven’t earned and keep that for ourselves to — thank you very much. But not Jesus.
In love for you — in love for his people — in love for the children of the promise — the remnant he’s chosen — he blesses his people with his righteousness because they believe in him. And — in being blessed with his righteousness — in being loved by him — we pursue obedience to all that he’s commanded. We work — yes! But we work because we’re loved — we’re loved — we’re loved. We pursue obedience — absolutely! But we do so — you do so and I do so — because I am loved by God. Would you say that out loud right now? Say “I am loved by God.”
Say it again. I am loved by God.
One last time. I am loved by God.
I hope you believe what you just said. For it will change your life.
One final thought — and this takes us right back into the middle of the tension we’ve been in and where we’ll continue to be in these chapters. Paul’s explained why the Israelites — God’s chosen people — have — as a group — not every individual Jew — but overall — he’s explained why they rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
Did you catch that?
In verse one of chapter ten Paul says…
Romans 10:1 (ESV)
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
Do you remember how Paul began this section of his letter? By demonstrating a deep love for those who are lost — for those who don’t yet believe in Jesus. And here — once again — we see his love for them. For his heart’s desire is that they may be saved. This is what he prays about — the salvation of those who are caught up in a pursuit of being made right with God based on their achievements and passions — and he prays that God would save them from their futility.
Which means that we too — can believe in God’s sovereignty in salvation as we love people — and desire for them to understand how to be made right with God. Not based on their achievements — no matter how passionate they may pursue them. And not based on a set of rules that they — or others — say will make them right with God. But that they would understand that the only way to be made right with God is by faith in Jesus Christ.
Know that you are loved by God. And may his love for you ignite in you a desire to see others saved by our merciful God. Let’s pray.
God, this never-ending cultural treadmill — of our value being determined by what we’ve achieved — is so exhausting. So many are desperate to get off of it — but they know of no other way to live. Yet you’ve offered another way: Resting in who you say that we are — trusting in what Christ has achieved on our behalf.
Holy Spirit — the treadmill we’re on is going so fast that — if we’re honest — it’s scary to think of how to get off of it. Maybe we’ll go flying off the back in a mess of a crash. And at least — for now — we’re keeping up. Would you give us a confidence and trust in you so that we’re willing to crash? Not that we will crash — but may our fear of crashing be swallowed up by our trust in you.
And — Jesus — when we really ponder what you’ve done — especially compared to what we’ve achieved — it does seem quite ridiculous to think that somehow we’ll out perform you. Why even try — that’s the question. Not in a sense of hopeless self-defeat — but in a hope-filled sense of victory. For your works and achievements — perfect obedience — a life pleasing to your Father — a sacrifice made for our sin — the defeat of Satan, death, and Hell — is what you give to your people. Thus there’s no need to pretend that we’ve done or earned anything. What freedom — there’s no need to pretend. What sheer joy because of your love for us.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — may you draw more and more people to your love for them so they might experience the joy of what Jesus has achieved on their behalf. Life to its full. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
BENEDICTION
May you go trusting in Christ’s work on your behalf — experiencing the freedom of God’s love for you — not because you’ve earned or deserve it — but love that he’s said is yours. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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