Lilac City Church Sermons

God's Grace Keeps the Called - Romans 11:1-10

Has God rejected His people? Paul's answer is immediate: by no means. In this sermon from Romans 11:1–10, Pastor Brolin Rosquist unpacks two realities running side by side in Israel — a remnant kept by grace, and a hardness brought on by rejecting God's call. God does not reject the ones He called (vv. 1–6) Paul points to himself as proof — a Jewish man, from the tribe of Benjamin, now preaching Christ to the Gentiles. Then he reaches back to Elijah, hiding in a cave, convinced he was the last faithful one left. God's answer still echoes: "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Elijah's despair was real — but it wasn't reality. There was a remnant the whole time, kept quietly by grace. And Paul says the same is true now: there is a remnant, chosen by grace, not by works — because grace that requires payment isn't grace anymore. God hardens those who reject His call (vv. 7–10) But not everyone who sought righteousness found it. Paul describes a hardening — a spirit of stupor, eyes that can't see, a table that becomes a snare instead of a blessing. The very gifts meant to lead Israel to the Messiah — the law, the temple, the scriptures — became the things they hid behind instead. It's a sober warning: Bible knowledge, church attendance, and religious heritage can become a fortress instead of a path, if they replace Jesus instead of pointing to Him. The whole chapter lands on one sentence: God's grace keeps the called. Not your effort. Not your record. His grace — calling you by name, today.

The Gospel We Preach - Romans 10:14–21

How does anyone come to call on Jesus? Paul walks us back through the chain, link by link — and what he shows us about Israel lands squarely on us. In this sermon from Romans 10:14–21, Pastor Brolin Williams traces three movements in the gospel's unstoppable reach: The Feet of the Gospel (Romans 10:14–15) Calling requires believing. Believing comes from hearing. Hearing requires someone to preach. Preaching requires someone to be sent. The chain is deliberate, God-designed, and it runs on words — not charades. Isaiah calls the feet of those who bring good news beautiful. Do you remember who brought the news to you? That's who Paul is talking about. And now — God sends you. The Reach of the Gospel (Romans 10:16–20) Not all of Israel accepted the good news. But Paul fires back at every objection with Scripture. Did they not hear? Of course they did — the voice went to the ends of the earth. Did they not understand? Moses warned them this would happen. And Isaiah said it plainly: God was found by those who weren't even looking. The gospel has a way of landing on unexpected ears. Your job isn't to predict who's ready. Your job is to speak. The Hands of the Gospel (Romans 10:21) After all the refusal — after every objection answered and every opportunity missed — what is God's posture toward a people who keep walking away? All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Arms thrown open. Father on the porch, eyes on the road. Waiting. And he sends you onto that road to help people get home. The gospel we preach extends God's loving reach. His hands are still out. His heralds are still sent.

Who You Gonna Call? - Romans 9:30–10:13

Who you call in life matters. Emergency contacts. Late-night calls. The person you dial when everything falls apart. But when it comes to righteousness — actual right standing with God — most of us aren't calling the right number. In this sermon from Romans 9:30–10:13, Pastor Brolin Williams shows us why Israel — with every advantage imaginable — missed the Messiah they were promised, and what it means for us. Two moves. One stone. One question: Who are you going to call? Religion is a wrong number (Romans 9:30–10:4) The Gentiles weren't chasing righteousness — and they got it. Israel was chasing it hard — and stumbled. Why? Because they were calling the wrong number: their own effort, their own moral staircase, their own zeal. The problem wasn't their passion. Their zeal was real. But zeal aimed at self-righteousness is still a wrong number — and it still rings to no one who can help. Christ is the culmination of the law — not its replacement, but its destination. Every commandment, every sacrifice, every prophecy was a sign pointing forward to one word: Jesus. Jesus answers every time (Romans 10:5–13) You don't need to climb to heaven to bring Christ down. He already came. You don't need to descend into the grave to bring him up. He already rose. The word is near you — in your mouth, in your heart. Confess Jesus as Lord. Believe God raised him from the dead. That's not a checklist. That's a call. And there is no difference between Jew and Gentile when it comes to this line: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. One number picks up every. Single. Time.

God's Mercy Is God's Choice - Romans 9:14-29

G.K. Chesterton said it like this: "The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits." The poet stands at the ocean and lets it be the ocean. The logician shows up with a mason jar. When it comes to God's sovereignty, most of us reach for the jar. Paul wants us to reach for worship. In this second sermon of the Romans 9–11 series, Pastor Brolin walks through Romans 9:14–29 to confront us with one of Paul's most weighty teachings — and one of his most comforting. The answer to the tension doesn't live in the middle. It lives at the extremes: God's full sovereignty and our full responsibility, both at once. Three movements shape the passage: * God's choice is mercy (vv. 14–18) — Is God unjust to choose? Paul slams the door with mē genoito — "May it never be." Mercy withholds what we deserve. Grace gives us what we don't. Pharaoh's hardened heart didn't catch God off guard — God used it to herald His name across the earth. God's choice to show mercy is not about your effort or your desire. It rests on God alone. * Know your place in God's choice (vv. 19–23) — When we don't like God's choices, we step into the judge's seat and take the moral high ground. Paul will not have it. "Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?" The clay doesn't question the potter. And notice Paul's careful grammar — when Scripture talks about mercy, it shouts (God prepared the vessels of mercy). When it talks about judgment, it whispers (vessels of wrath are simply "prepared for destruction"). This is the old theologians' word antinomy — two truths held at full strength without collapsing either one. * God's choice is expansive, not exclusive (vv. 24–29) — For 23 verses Paul says them. Then he says us. He reaches into Hosea — a promise made to unfaithful Israel — and applies it to Gentiles who were never in the covenant. He reaches into Isaiah and reminds us that even Israel survives only by mercy. Without a remnant, we would all be Sodom. We would all be ash. The shocking thing about Romans 9 isn't that God hardens. The shocking thing is that God includes. In a playground game called Mercy, you had to extract mercy from someone who was hurting you — beg loud enough, hurt bad enough. In the gospel, mercy isn't extracted. It's already been chosen. You are not on your knees before a God who is reluctantly waiting for you to beg loud enough. You are on your knees before a God whose very name is mercy. And His choice — long before you ever cried out — was you.

God's Choice is Our Comfort | Romans 9:1-13

Every episode of The A-Team followed the same formula. The plan goes sideways. Bullets are flying. The van's flipped. Everything looks lost. And then the camera finds Hannibal — bound, surrounded, smiling — lighting a cigar and saying nine words: "I love it when a plan comes together." The chaos wasn't the plan failing. The chaos was used. He had a better view than you did. That's Paul in Romans 9. Israel has rejected the Messiah. The promise looks lost. The plan looks like it failed. And with a metaphorical cigar in his mouth, Paul says: "It is not as though the word of God has failed." In this opening sermon of the new series through Romans 9–11, Pastor Brolin walks through Romans 9:1–13 to launch us into one of the most theologically weighty sections of Paul's writing. This is heavy ground — many churches won't even preach it. But the destination isn't a debate. It's comfort. Two stops shape the passage: * When God's word seems to fail (vv. 1–6a) — Paul grieves for his people with unceasing anguish, willing to be cut off from Christ himself for Israel's sake. He lists eight gifts that still belong to Israel in the present tense — including the eighth gift that is not a thing but a Person: the Messiah, God over all, forever praised. God's faithfulness runs on his character, not ours. * God comforts through his choice (vv. 6b–13) — Paul uses "Israel" two different ways in one sentence. Through Isaac (not Ishmael), through Jacob (not Esau, before either had done anything good or bad), Paul names the doctrine: election. God chooses first, freely, and apart from anything in us. And the paradox? The once-"hated" Gentile nations now receive the good news of Jesus through Christ. Sovereignty isn't a debate to win. It's a Father to trust. God is free to choose, and his choices are always good — because he is good. If you've said yes to Jesus, God's choice of you wasn't because you would get it right or because you have the right family. He chose you because he wanted to. And his choice is good.