Q: Why does God choose some people and not others?
A: It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. God changes your will. He makes you do the work of confessing Jesus for His good pleasure because He wants to. It makes Him happy to do it. God does what He wants.
This language that I've been using from the beginning is in the Bible.
Q: Does God turn people away?
A: This is a question people always ask: "Okay, Aaron, if you're saying that God appoints people and grants them the ability to believe, what if there's somebody who wants to be a Christian, but God does not grant them that?"
The answer Jesus gives is that whoever comes to Him, He will never cast out.
That's the way we have to understand this. If somebody wants to come to Jesus, it's God who made that person want to come in the first place. God does not cast anybody out in the sense of someone saying, "I want my will to want this, but God does not change my will."
No, it's all done at the very root level. It's God, God being the cause of it.
Q: How should we think about this when we share the gospel with others?
A: Think about this whenever we present the gospel to people. We ask, "Do you want to believe? Do you want it?"
If the person says yes, then God has changed their heart. If they say no, we pray, "God, I pray that You would continue to work on this person."
Q: What does the Bible say about God opening people's hearts?
A: A practical example is found in Acts 16:14. This is the kind of language we use daily when we're talking as Christians:
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
This is the language of God changing people's wills so that they want Him, transforming people, conforming people to Him, and God opening hearts to Him.
When you look at the Bible and the language we use, this is all the same thing we're talking about. I'm just framing it in the language of irresistible grace.
Q: Has your heart been overcome by God, or is it still in resistance?
A: This is the question I want to leave you with for you to answer.
I try not to teach as if you're all Christians because I know that's not the case. I also don't want to assume that you're all Christians because I don't know what's in your heart.
So, if you're not a Christian, or if you know in your heart that you're not a Christian, the question I want to ask you is: Why aren't you?
If you do want to come to God, all you have to say is, "God, I want to." And God will change your heart.
God is able to overcome stubbornness and our own sinful desires. God changed me, and He can do the same for you.
There is no obstacle that God cannot overcome. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we talked about North Korea? We asked, "Is that too hard for God?"
No. Nothing is too hard for God. Even the most stubborn person is not beyond His power. God can overcome that person's will.
That's what we pray for: for God to overcome people's wills and to change people's hearts and minds.