Dear Christian friends,

Many people waste the blessings and gifts God gives to them. Think about those young people who today are destroying their health and life by the wrong use of drugs and alcohol. These young people really are despising God's gifts and blessings to them.

God gives many physical blessings and gifts to people, but often people do not receive and use these gifts for His glory.

God also gives spiritual gifts and blessings to some people to whom He decides and chooses. But often these people despise His spiritual gifts and blessings, and then they are in danger of being lost in hell.

Here in our text St. Paul reminds us about this and tells about the sorrow he had because of this.

I. Here in our text St. Paul tells about the many wonderful gifts and blessings God gave to the Jewish people and about how they despised these gifts and blessings.

Paul writes, "God chose those people. He adopted them as His sons and gave them His glory. God became their King and Defender. God gave them His Law. God showed them how to worship Him and made wonderful promises to them. Their fathers are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and from them Christ came. Christ is God and Ruler over all, and He receives praise forever." (vv.4-5)

A. Truly God gave many wonderful, special blessings to the Jewish nation. He even let His Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior, be born from a Jewish woman. Jesus accepted the Jewish flesh and blood. Jesus lived in their land, taught in their cities and died before their eyes and then arose from death exactly as the Jewish prophets had written.

2. But most of the the Jews did not appreciate these gifts and blessings from God. They did not accept Jesus as their Christ. Since St. Paul's time, even unto this day most Jews do not accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God and Savior.

B. How did St. Paul feel about this? Was he against them because of this? Did he forget them and forsake them as enemies? No! Their refusing to accept Jesus as the Christ gave Paul much sorrow and sadness. He writes, "I speak the truth in Christ - I am not lying. The Holy Spirit is my witness. I have much sorrow; my grief never stops. I wish God could send me to hell and separate me from Christ, if that could save my people, my nation." (vv.1-3)

2. Paul here shows wonderful love for his Jewish brothers and sisters, same as Jesus' love for all people. Paul is willing to be lost, to go to hell, if his suffering would mean the Jews' salvation. Paul did not give up hope for his Jewish people. Instead he suffered great sorrow and anguish.

3. When you love others, you should expect to be hurt. Only those who love can suffer sorrow, grief and have a broken heart. Those who do not love others do not experience sorrow and grief. They never have a broken heart. Paul's sorrow and grief shows that he really loved his Jewish brothers and sisters.

II. We also have pain and sorrow when our children or others in our family do not believe in Jesus, despise His kind gifts.

A. Many of us have experienced this sorrow, the same as St. Paul experienced it. Paul did not give up on his fellow Jews. Their unbelief led him to make greater efforts to win them for Jesus.

1. We, too, should not give up on our children or friends who do not now believe in Jesus.

2. We should continue to love them, pray for them and watch for a good opportunity to speak to them about the Savior Jesus.

B. We should not feel anger or hatred toward those who despise God's gifts. We should not forsake them or say mean things about them as we sometimes feel to do and as Christians often have done in the past, especially to the Jews.

1. You know that the Jews in the past have suffered much because some Christians hated them and persecuted them and killed them.

2. Instead, we should have sorrow and grief in our heart because of our love for them, the same as Jesus and St. Paul. We should pray for all those people who do not now believe in Jesus and wait for a good time to tell them about our joy and hope in Jesus. Also we should willingly support the preaching of the gospel to all nations, to Jews and Gentiles alike.

B. Especially we should do this for our own children and relatives who do not now believe in Jesus. When they have problems and troubles, offer to help them and speak kind and sympathetic words to them. Then they will see that we really love them and they will be open to us when we talk to them about the Savior, Jesus.

Conclusion: When we see many unbelievers here in the world we should feel sad and brokenhearted about that, and then with Jesus' love and spirit do all we can to win them for God's eternal kingdom. Jesus, Lord and Savior, help us and show mercy to us.

Amen