Going to be in Romans chapter 11.
We're going to be ending Romans chapter 11.
And really the book of Romans is split into two different sections.
The first 11 chapters is all about God's redemptive plan to us.
So the way that you can think about is the Gospel to us.
And then what we're going to do is we're going to pick up Romans
chapter 12 and Romans chapter 12 on is all about the Gospel through
us, how we're supposed to live our lives in accordance to what we
believe.
And so we've seen in the first 11 chapters the truth of who God
is, the truth of what God has done for us in the plan of redemption.
It started all the way back in Romans chapter one about the gospel.
You remember in Romans chapter one, verse 16, Paul says, for I'm
not ashamed of the Gospel.
He says it is the gospel of the.
The truth of Jesus Christ that changes everything for us.
And so at the core of all of our theology is the Gospel.
Now, by way of review, what is the Gospel?
The Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.
It is the good news that he came to this earth, lived a perfect
life, fulfilled the law, died on the cross for our sins, conquered
death through the resurrection, and gives us an opportunity
to know him in a relationship through faith.
And the only way that we can have that is through his mercy and
his grace.
And so in Romans chapter one, he tells us it's all about the Gospel,
the plan of God for our salvation.
Then he goes on in Romans chapter three to tell us that we've
all sinned to come short of the glory of God.
The reality is, is that all of us fall short.
All of us need a Savior.
All of us are marred by sin.
And sin is missing the mark, it's missing the holiness of God.
And by the way, the Bible tells us, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God.
We all have missed the mark.
No matter how good we think we are, we all have missed the mark.
And that sounds kind of bad, but again, this is the good news
of Jesus Christ.
And so the Gospel tells us later on in Romans 5, verse 8, that
God demonstrated or commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So the Bible tells us that even though we were sinners, even
though we didn't deserve God's love, he proved his love.
As we mentioned this morning in the Book of John, he proved his
love through a sacrifice.
And the sacrifice of the Holy One, the sacrifice of the perfect
Lamb.
Jesus Christ.
But then we see In Romans chapter 6, it says, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But verse 23, the second part of it says, but the gift of God,
the grace of God, is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Over and over again we're told what we are to believe about Jesus.
And it is this.
Not that he's just an add on to our life.
Not that he can help us.
Not that he can come alongside of us and pick us up and help us
in our physical and material needs.
No, the Bible says that we are dead in our sins, that we are destined
for hell and separation.
But the beauty of the message is that Jesus comes and changes that.
We looked at that last week.
But God, who is rich in mercy, it's God stepping on the scene and
creating a plan of redemption.
And then we go further Into Romans chapter 8 and we see that
if we believe in the Lord, if we have salvation in him, there is
no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
And we have that beautiful passage in Romans chapter 8 that
tells us all about the security and the strength that we
have in a relationship with God.
That nobody can separate us from the love of God, that we are
more than conquerors as we are in Christ Jesus.
And then we saw in Romans 9 that 10 and 11.
God's perfect redemptive plan, not just for the Gentiles, but also
for his people, his nation of Israel.
That we saw is in for the most part, rebellion at the time.
And he says, no, but there is redemption that is to come.
And so looking at all of Romans 1:11, Paul concludes this
section with a worshipful response.
And so the way that we could title the sermon this morning is
a worshipful response.
Response to the power and the plan of God.
When we sit under the power and the plan of God, there's only
one proper reaction.
There's only one proper way in which we should respond, and that
is with worship, giving God the glory for everything.
And that's what verses 33 through 36 talk about here in Romans
chapter 11.
Paul is giving this beautiful doxology of worship to the glory
of God.
And folks, when we stand under the mighty power of God, when we
look at the redemptive plan that he has laid out for us, the
only proper way to respond is just to give him glory.
Because we realize as we study the book of Romans and as we study
the rest of Scripture, that it's not about us, it's not about
how good we are.
It's not about how much we can obtain through our works.
It's about the work that God has done for us.
Sometimes we'll hear that salvation is not by work and by the
way.
For us, it's not about our works, but it is about a work.
And it's about the work of Jesus Christ, the work of Jesus Christ
on the cross, the work of his resurrection, the work of his grace
that's coming to us.
And we get to accept that and believe in that and receive that
gift and have the opportunity to walk in identity in Him.
And as Romans 8 says, to cry out Abba, Father.
That we can cry out personally to a God who loves us and cares about
us.
So here, Romans, chapter 11, verse 33.
This is Paul's response to all of that.
This is Paul's response to the gospel.
This is Paul's response to God's redemptive plan for Israel.
This is Paul's response to all the things that he has been discussing
here.
He says, verse 33.
Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God.
His response is this.
How deep are the riches that we find in knowing God and applying
his truths?
Think about that just for a moment.
We, we talk about riches in this world and we talk about wealth
and we talk about material things, but he's not talking about
the material things here.
He's not talking about having a deep bank account.
He's talking here about the depth of the spiritual riches that
we have in a relationship with God.
He says, oh, the depth of the riches.
That word riches there just means the storehouse, the, the blessings,
the things that we have in our life, particularly in the sense of
our salvation.
And that word depth.
I, I looked that word up, that depth, and it says in the Greek.
It's talking about the depth of the ocean, the, the deepest part
of the ocean that, that we can't even explore.
Back at that time, they had no understanding of how deep the oceans
were.
They just knew that it kept going on and on and on.
And that's what the Bible's talking about here.
It's saying if we truly understand what God has done for
us, when we truly understand who he is in his character, who he
is in his eternality, who he is in his holiness, and the fact
that he would create a plan for us, his creation, who rebelled
against him, who turned our backs against him and live in sin,
that he would create a plan for us to come back into the fold,
for us to be part of the family of God.
It is an Amazing, mind blowing thing.
And he says the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God, the wisdom of God is the application of the knowledge.
So he says what an amazing blessing it is to know God and to
be used by God to know what he tells us about the truth of who he
is.
And also by the way that we live that.
That's what Romans is all about.
Romans is all about believing the right things so we can live the
right things.
And that's what he's saying here.
He says it is the most beautiful thing, it is the most mind
blowing thing to know that God would do this, that he would create
a plan for us, that he would care about his creation.
If you think about the contrast, the, the, the craziness,
if you will, that in Romans chapter one, we're reminded that
we as humans, in our flesh and in our rebellion, worship the creation
instead of the Creator.
The Bible tells us that we can have a lot of beautiful things in
our life, a lot of good things that we can see and experience and
taste of.
But really all of those things must point us back to the thankfulness
of the Creator, the One who gave us the wisdom and knowledge.
He says, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding
out, meaning this.
We can't understand why God would do this.
We can't even understand how God would do this.
But we must trust in faith that his ways are beyond our ways.
We know that stated throughout Scripture that his ways are beyond
our ways.
His thoughts are beyond our thoughts.
And I'm thankful for that.
I'm thankful that the plan of God is not something that man could
create or even conceive in our own minds, in our own hearts.
If I had the reins and if I was the one making the decisions
in this world about redemption, I certainly wouldn't
have drawn it up this way.
I certainly wouldn't have drawn it up in a way in which I would
sacrifice my only begotten son for people who turned their backs
against me.
In our human nature, we would say, you know what, it's their fault.
They've got to figure out a way to get to me.
But no, what God did is I'm going to give them an opportunity
to know me in a personal way by sending my only begotten Son to
them.
And he says that's mind blowing.
We can't comprehend that.
He says his ways are beyond our ways.
They're unsearchable.
His judgments, the way that he deals with things are beyond us.
And he speaks of the mind of God, verse 34.
He says, for who have known the mind of the Lord?
Well, the answer to that question is none of us.
Now, to some degree, we can get taste or, or pictures of what
God wants for us, but none of us can search the depths of the mind
of God.
And here, what Paul does is he actually quotes two Old Testament
passages.
He quotes Isaiah, chapter 40 and Job, chapter 40.
And really the emphasis in these verses is God and his grand
wisdom in his grand power and the way that he acts.
Nobody can understand that.
And he actually goes a little bit further and he says, and, and
who hath been his counselor?
Meaning who could give advice to God?
Who could tell God what to do?
Who could give God a better plan?
He says, nobody.
We all need a counselor to some degree in our life.
I was just talking to our Bible study here on Sunday mornings
about the importance of the mentor mentee relationship.
As humans, we need people to counsel us.
There's different levels of counseling.
There's different levels of wisdom that we can apply to our lives.
Ultimately, we need the counsel of God because no matter
who you're getting counseling from, by the way, it must be seen
through the lens of the gospel.
It must be seen through the lens of scripture.
But the Bible says that, yes, we do need counselors.
But you know who doesn't need a counselor?
Our Lord.
He doesn't need anybody to tell him what to do.
He knows every decision.
He knows the right decision to make in every scenario.
And so he says, who could counsel the Lord?
It's a rhetorical question.
Nobody can counsel the Lord.
Nobody could give him advice.
And so we look at our world today, and we look at our world even
back at this time, and there were people that would say, you know
what, God?
You're doing the wrong thing.
God, your decision in this manner doesn't line up.
I think I have a better plan.
I. I think I have a better way to salvation.
I think I can work my way.
I think I can plan my way.
I think I can write an additional book to this book to give
it more understanding.
Folks, the Bible tells us that we cannot tell God what to do.
We don't have a better idea.
We don't have any idea when it comes to the understanding of the
grandeur of the power and the.
And the wisdom of God.
And so we see in different instances in Scripture people trying
to tell God that they have a better way.
Think about Abraham.
Abraham was promised a son named Isaac, but yet Abraham said,
lord, I trust you, but I think I might have a better way.
Think about every instance in which individuals went in rebellion
to God.
They maybe even to some degree, trusted God.
But then they thought, you know what?
I'm going to do it my way.
I'm going to.
I'm going to try to get God's plan in my life through my own device,
my own wisdom, my own path.
And so what we see here this morning is a challenge for all of
us as believers to trust in the Lord's plan, to know that his
ways are beyond our ways.
And we cannot counsel him.
We cannot advise him.
We cannot tell him what to do and how to do it.
All we do is trust that he is the One who is righteous, holy and
just.
And we believe and we worship him for what he does in our life,
whether it makes sense or not.
There are certainly times in Paul's life that I'm sure he looked
at the Lord and didn't understand all the things that the
Lord was doing.
We even know in second Corinthians, he asked God to take
away that pain that he was feeling, whether it be physical or
spiritual, in his life.
And God said no.
And God taught him a lesson.
He said this.
What did he say?
He said that it's when you are weak, Paul, that I am made strong.
And what is Paul's response?
He says, well, then I'll glory in my infirmities because this shows
the power of God when I am humbled.
And folks, there's going to be times in our life when we are humbled
in many different ways that we can be humbled, whether it be in
the physical or the emotional or the spiritual.
But when God humbles us, the proper response is not to harden
our heart against him and question him and think that we have
a better way.
The proper response is to worship him and trust him for what
he is doing in our life.
And that is what Paul is getting across here.
He says, you might not understand why God is doing it this
way.
You might not understand why he's giving an opportunity for Israel
to repent.
You might not understand that he's doing this all through mercy
and grace.
But.
But either way, you can't counsel Him.
And by the way, that's what he's talking about here.
Because if we just go back up to verse 32, where we left off last
week, he says, for God hath concluded them all, everybody, Jew
or Gentile alike in unbelief, meaning all of us before we come
to Christ are in the same standing.
We are in unbelief.
I don't care whether you're from this country or this country.
You have this much money or this much money.
You work here or you work there.
He says, anybody outside of belief is, as we see here, going
to be faced with separation from God.
But then he says, the reason for this at the end of verse 32,
is this, that he might have mercy upon all.
Meaning, the method of salvation is through mercy.
God gives us mercy.
He extends that to us.
And so this is Paul's response to the mercy of God.
He says, I don't understand his mercy.
I wouldn't give mercy to somebody else.
I wouldn't even give mercy to me, because I know how bad I really
am.
But God, who is rich in mercy, extends that gift to us.
And so Paul says, I have a reason to worship.
I'm glad I don't have to counsel the Lord.
I'm.
I'm glad that it's not my plan.
He says, I'm relinquishing that control and giving it over to
the Lord.
Verse 35.
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed
unto him again.
What is he saying here?
He says, who can make the Lord his debtor?
Meaning there's nothing that we can do that gets God in a trap
that says, well, I gotta do this for this person.
You ever think about that?
You ever try to make a deal with God?
Well, God, if I do this, you must do this.
There's actually a movement out there called the Word of Faith
movement that basically says, if I have enough faith, God must
do this.
Folks, we can never dictate anything to the Lord.
It's the Lord who dictates things to us.
Now, does God love us?
Yes.
Does God give us grace?
Yes.
Does he shower us with blessings?
Yes.
He gives us more, infinitely more than we deserve.
But what the Bible says is, I can't make God my debtor.
I don't do things for God.
It's not a transactional relationship.
Well, God, if I do this for you, you're going to do this for
me.
You're gonna.
You know, that's.
Sometimes we have that in our human sense.
Like, hey, you know, I helped you move a couple years ago with
my truck.
I'm moving now.
Can you come help me?
You know, some of us as men, we know that's one of the biggest
commitments is going and help a friend move.
Okay?
So that's sometimes how we work in our human relationships.
It's a transactional thing.
Well, I did this for you.
So can you do this for me, folks?
There's nothing that we did for the Lord that earned our salvation.
It was all Him.
And we just trust in that.
And that brings us to a place of humility.
Now, it doesn't bring us to a place of.
Of hopelessness.
Because sometimes people think, well, when you preach that
we're sinners, Pastor, and that we need completely Lord, does
that mean that we're hopeless?
That.
Well, the truth is, is that we're hopeless without Him.
But when we have him in our life, we're full of hope.
But our identity is not in ourselves.
Our identity is what he has made us to be.
The change that you see in your life is not because you pulled
yourself up by your bootstraps and said, I just want to be a better
person.
No, the change that God brings about through salvation is his change.
He cleans our hearts.
It's the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the
Holy Ghost.
As Titus, chapter 3, verse 5 says, you're different today in Christ
because He changed you.
He took your heart of stone and made it a heart of flesh, folks.
He transforms us.
We're going to talk about In Romans chapter 12, just in another
verse, he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
He says that there's a change that happens with this.
And so that's what Paul is celebrating here.
And to really understand Romans 12 and on, you have to understand
what Paul is talking about here.
He's sitting before God and realizing that he falls so short,
and God's glory just reigns over him.
And he's giving him all the praise and glory.
He says, no one can owe the Lord anything.
You can try all you want, but we can never make God a debtor to
us.
You've heard it said this.
I. I think sometimes people will say it this way.
And, And I've said this.
You can't outgive God.
You know that, right?
And I'm just talking about the material money, even.
Even though that is a principle as well.
But you can't outgive God.
Why?
Because anything that we do for him falls so short to what he
has done for us.
When it comes to the gift of the cross.
You know what?
I'm.
I'm committed to the Lord.
And I think that many of you are as well.
And you might say, you know what?
I want to serve God at every capacity in my life.
I want to read my Bible.
I want to go to church.
I want to serve in ministry.
I want to raise my children in the word of God, I want to live a
pure and holy life.
Those are all good endeavors.
But folks, that's not a way that we repay God for what he has
done.
We can never repay for what God has done for us in our life.
Only what we do in our life is done out of gratitude and thankfulness
for the love that he has given us, for the sacrifice that he has
given us.
So we don't do these things to earn God's Browning points.
We don't do these things to get more pins on our lapel.
We don't do these things so that we can get a sticker that says,
well done.
We do this because God has done everything for us.
And it's as the Bible says In Romans chapter 12, it's our reasonable
service, that we as a servant of God would just pour our lives
back to him because he saved us from destruction.
He saved us from death.
And so Romans chapter 11 concludes with this idea.
And verse 36, I believe is one of the most beautiful worshipful
verses in all of the Bible because it gives us the full picture
of our need for God.
And folks, that's why we worship God.
That's why we sing songs before church.
That's why we have Bible studies.
That's why we have fellowship.
That's why we talk about having a Sunday morning, Sunday night
worship service.
Because we as Christians are called to be vessels of worship.
We're to worship God.
What does worship mean?
Oftentimes we think of worship in a narrow sense to reducing it
down just to singing, even though singing is one of the many
ways that we can worship.
But worth worship just really means he is worthy of everything.
He's worthy of honor.
He's worthy of our lives, he's worthy of praise.
He's worthy of everything it's worth ship is really what worthy
worship is He.
He's talking about that he is worthy of worship.
He's the only one that's worthy of our worship.
And by the way, when we think about worship in our lives, we think,
okay, yeah, I worship God, but I don't worship anything else.
Think about this for a moment.
I'm thinking about this for a moment here.
Think about all the things in our life that we might not recognize
that we worship, but we are worshiping.
What do we spend our time on?
Where do we show our love?
What do we think about when we're bored?
What do we think about when we have nothing else to think about?
Where do we turn when the struggles come?
That's all part of Worship.
There's things in my life that I love, and sometimes, if I'm honest,
I love too much.
There's things of this earth, sometimes that I'm gripping onto
too tightly.
And that equates worship.
And what the Bible says is that worship is really this.
Turning it all over the Lord and being thankful for what he has
given us, but ultimately giving him the glory in every element
of our life.
So it's not just about Sunday morning.
This is a worship service, but this is when we come together corporately
and worship together as a family of God.
Get to worship with my brothers, I get to worship with my
sisters.
But the Bible calls us to live a life of worship.
The Bible says in First Corinthians, whether, therefore,
you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Meaning this.
Everything that we do in our life should be an act of worship.
Everything that we do, everywhere that we go, our lives
should be lives of worship.
And so he says Here in verse 36, this beautiful statement about
why we worship him, how we worship him.
He says in verse 36, for of him and through him, and to him are
all things.
I want you to think about this for a moment here.
He breaks it down really into three categories.
I love when Paul just gives us the outline right there.
He says three things here.
He says everything of the Gospel, everything of the redemptive
plan, everything that is good, everything that deserves praise.
It says in verse 36, for of him, meaning first and foremost,
it comes from Him.
He is the author of our faith.
He is the Creator of this world.
He is the One who breathed life into us.
He's the one who offers it.
So it's of him, it's from him, it's coming to us.
He is the cause of everything in our life.
He is the great creator of the universe.
And so he says, here it is, all of Him.
I think about that here in.
In my life today.
And I struggle with this because sometimes in my life I'm
tempted to think that I've created things for myself.
I. I'm tempted to think that I've earned something good.
The Bible says that every good gift comes down from God.
That's James 1:17.
He says, the plan of the Gospel, the plan of redemption, the
plan of salvation, comes of Him.
Nobody else came up with it.
I could not come up with it.
I could not devise such a plan.
Everything is of Him.
And then he says it is of him and through him, meaning he didn't
just come up with the plan.
But he enacted that plan for us.
So.
So he's not just the author, but he's also the doer.
He's the one who causes it.
He's the one that brings it to pass.
He's the one that is not a God who.
Who is standing way far away from us, as many people that are
deists believe.
There's a.
There's a movement called Deism that believes that there's
a God, but he's separate from us.
He doesn't want a personal relationship with us.
No, the Bible says that he came to this earth.
He personally worked through those things that we all work through
when it comes to temptation.
But the Bible says he did that without sin.
He was tempted in all points, like we are, yet without sin.
So the Bible says that he came so that we can have a high priest
who has been touched by the feeling of our infirmities, meaning
he is the One who went through the same struggles that we went through.
But the only distinction is, is that he did it in perfection so
that he could pay the price for us.
So it's of Him.
He is the author, but he's also the doer.
It says through Him.
The plan of salvation is through him and him alone.
Then it says, and to him, he's the end.
He's the means of all of this.
He is the One who brings it to pass.
He is the One that creates it.
He is the One.
He is the One who does it.
And he is the One who receives all the power.
So we read verse 36, and he says, for of him and through him,
and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.
Now, I read verse 36 a lot this week and throughout this study.
And you know what I see missing in that equation in verse
36?
I don't see me.
I don't see us.
You would say, what does that mean?
Does that mean that God doesn't love us?
No.
This is talking about worship and glory.
So a part of this worship equation is nothing with us.
We don't deserve any percentage of the worship.
It's not about God getting 99% and we get 1%.
It's all about him.
Salvation is not 99% God, 1% us.
It's all him, the act of salvation, the glory of salvation.
He says here, for of him and through him, and to him are all things.
So what does he say here?
He says this.
It's all about Him.
Our worship is all about Him.
Our praise is all about Him.
What we do within the church is all about Him.
Our lifestyle is all about Him.
Our sacrifice is all about Him.
It's never about us, folks.
We live in a society.
We are humans and we do live with that overwhelming pressure to
recenter it back to us and think about what it means for me.
And I think that there is importance to that.
We, we do need to know the application of the word of God in
our lives.
We do need to know that God's gift of grace is to us.
So that is a good thing.
But where it does turn to be a bad thing is when we turn the focus
of what we are doing in our worship and our church to somebody
else other than the Lord.
Whether it be a pastor, whether it be an individual, whether
it be a movement.
Folks, anytime we put worship, we attribute any type of praise to
anyone else outside of our Lord.
We are in idolatrous worship and.
And therefore we are not following what God calls us to do.
Folks, I know you're not tempted to worship me, but don't
ever worship a man.
Don't ever worship a person from behind a pulpit.
Don't ever worship a way of thinking.
Worship the Lord.
If anyone is not pointing you to Jesus, don't look to them because
they're not pointing you to the right thing.
Jesus is the final authority on faith and practice.
Jesus is the final authority on our salvation.
I want you to go to a passage of scripture in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12 tells us more about how Jesus is the author
and finisher of our faith.
I'm going to tell you something.
I love you to death.
You say you don't know me well, just because you're here.
I love you, okay?
God's called me to love you and I love Middletown Baptist Church.
But I didn't sacrifice my life for you.
I. I didn't pay the price for your sins.
I didn't offer forgiveness to you.
I can't offer you that.
All I can do is lead you to what the Bible says is the living
water.
But in Hebrews, chapter 12, verse number two, it says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the Creator
and the sustainer of our faith.
And then it tells us why he's the author and finisher of our faith.
Who for the joy that was set before him.
Folks, wrap your minds around that for a second.
Jesus did what he did for you with joy, though he understood obviously
in his humanity the pain and suffering that he would face in the
sacrifice on the cross.
It says that he who for the Joy that was set before him endured
the cross.
He did it willingly for you.
He did it willingly for submission to the Father, says, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, meaning,
if you're tempted to faint, if you're tempted not to keep going
forward in your faith, if you're tempted to doubt, if you're
tempted to think that God doesn't love you, go back to the
proof of his love.
And the proof of his love is the sacrifice on the cross.
And so what Paul is telling us In Romans, chapter 11, what the writer
of Hebrews is telling us in Romans or in Hebrews, chapter 12,
is the simple fact that we as Christians must go back to the Source
to know what he has done for us.
If we want to be worshipful believers, if we want to be believers
that are acting right, living right, believing right, serving with
faithfulness, we must go back to the Source.
Because if we go to anything else for our satisfaction, for our
sufficiency, for our strength, we will eventually run dry, because
those wells run dry.
But there is one well that does not run dry, and that is the
depth of the unsearchable riches of God.
Go back to that.
Go back to what he has done for you, go back to what he continues
to do for you.
And go back to what he is going to do for you forever in eternity
by giving you everlasting life.
That's what he says at the end of verse 36, to whom be glory forever.
That's the person that we give glory to forever, Our Lord, the One
who, as it says there in verse 36, that gave us salvation of him
through him, and then ultimately the worship to Him.
That is all things.
So what is he saying here?
He says this at the end.
God wins.
No matter what your plans are, no matter what the world's plans
are, God wins.
We sing that song, Victory in Jesus, and we sing it loud.
And I think we should, and I love.
It's one of my favorite songs.
But think about what we're saying in that song.
We're saying that, yes, we have victory, but it's not in what
we do, it's in what he has done for us.
You have victory today.
We don't have to live discouraged.
There's gonna be times where we do live discouraged.
I know that there's a lot of factors in this world that can bring
us levels of discouragement.
There's a lot of factors in this world that can bring us to levels
of doubt in our life.
But when we get to those places, what do we do?
We don't look at the circumstances around us and say,
well, this circumstance doesn't make sense to me.
It's not good for me.
Therefore God must not be who he says he is.
Well, we go back to Romans 11.
He says, no, it's all glory to God.
If I must go through certain things for his glory, so be it.
I know that's not what we want to hear.
I know we want to hear that if God loves us, everything's going
to go smoothly.
And that's what maybe you've been told before.
But let's just go to scripture.
Let's go to every single person in scripture that is given
as an example for being a godly believer.
Think about what they went through.
Think about Paul, think about Peter, think about even in the Old
Testament, Job, Joseph, all these people that we would say, wow,
these are great examples of, of saints of the past.
We would say, okay, look, they all went through struggles and trials.
It didn't mean that God forgot about them.
It didn't mean that God stopped loving them.
It meant that they were going through those things to see the power
of God resting upon them.
And ultimately we live in a world that's short sighted.
We live in a world of smartphones, we live in a world of
microwaves, we live in a world of, of instant access, same day delivery.
And folks, that's the way we see our faith.
Sometimes we see our Christian walk as what has God done for me
today?
Why hasn't God spared me from this specific thing today?
Because maybe, number one, God is working through you in a time
frame that is not your time frame.
And maybe he's teaching us a lesson for the future.
Maybe he's preparing us for something tomorrow or two years from
now or, or ten years from now.
But maybe God's allowing you to go through a trial to teach us
a lesson about relying on Him.
Maybe it's a lesson that we should teach someone else.
The Bible doesn't give us all the clarity on why sometimes we go
through trials other than it brings us to a place of relying on
Him.
And so Romans chapter 11.
Paul just says, I can't help it anymore, I've got to worship all
glory to God.
And the declaration here is that God wins.
No matter if the people on this earth are going to obey or not,
God still wins.
I mentioned this last week, I believe, and it is a tough statement
to think about.
And, and I'm also very cautious when I say this because
I don't want you to think that God doesn't want you on board because
God wants all of us to be part of his work.
But let me just tell you this with grace.
And I'm going to speak from my heart here.
And I'm also, I thinking, speaking from the truth of scripture,
God does not need me.
God does not need you to ultimately do his defining work of
redemption.
If I said, today, I'm done, I'm not serving you anymore, I don't
hinder God.
Now, can I help God's message get out?
Certainly.
But if I could hinder God, that meant that God is not all powerful.
God is all powerful.
And my dad used to tell me all the time, son, don't think that you're
irreplaceable.
And I would be like, well, again, I struggle with that because
I'm an only child.
And I thought like, you know, world needs me.
You know, I'm a pretty.
I'm a blessing to this world.
I thought that for a while, and I still struggle with that.
But the idea would be this.
We get to a sense of pride and entitlement when we think the Christian
life is all about me and the end is all about me.
Though I get blessings in this relationship.
What does he say here at the end of Romans chapter 11, verse 36,
to whom be the glory forever now?
The whom there is not me.
The whom there is not you.
The whom there is, our Lord and Savior.
That's who gets the glory.
Now, let me tell you, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ,
you might go through trials, but the greatest blessing in anyone's
life is to walk in fellowship with the Lord.
Think about Stephen.
Some of you guys know the story of Stephen, the.
The martyr.
He was stoned.
He was being stoned for preaching the gospel.
But you know, in that last moment, the Lord came and spoke to
him and consoled him and gave him hope and clarity.
Even in the midst of.
We would consider to be the worst moment of someone's life being
killed for their fate.
God was giving him abundant blessings that we could never understand
in that moment of grace.
He was just saying, look, it's all worth it.
Paul even mentions this in the book of Romans.
He says, one day, when we understand the blessing, when we
understand the culmination of everything, we're going to think
that this world was nothing.
But all the struggles that we went through are nothing in comparison
to the Glory that we will have when we are with our Savior, reunited
with Him.
And so to whom be the glory forever?
Amen.
The fact is that Paul is stating here, I can't understand
God completely.
I don't know why he's doing what he's doing.
I can't figure him out.
I don't know if you've ever been there.
I just, I don't understand why God would do that.
Paul says, I can't figure him out, but that makes me glorify God
all the more because why he's beyond me.
And that's proof that it's something bigger, something infinite
that I cannot understand.
Someone said to me recently, explain to me how the Trinity works.
I said, well, I'll explain to you what the Bible says about the
Trinity.
And I think the rest of it's taking it by faith because I can't
explain to you how that works.
And that's, by the way, that's comforting for me.
It's comforting for me to know that God is beyond me.
He's outside of the realm that we live in today.
He's beyond us.
There's certain face out there, I call them face or religions
or cults that are very clearly, if you inspect them, man
made.
Think about some of these religions that say, hey men, you
can have as many wives as you want and you can continue on and
that's your you.
We can very clearly see that there was a man behind this, creating
a paradise that he would want for the future.
It's very clear.
There's certain elements, there's certain face that we can
say that's clearly man made.
But when we look at what God has done, it doesn't make sense to
us.
All the more reason why we glorify him.
Because it's an outside causer coming into this world and starting
everything.
And that's what the picture here that Paul is painting.
He says, when we understand just some, just a little bit of the
greatness of God, we can none of us, none of us can fully understand
God.
Some of us can understand God more every single day.
But I'm going to tell you, you can study God 24:7, 365 for your
whole life and you will never mind the depths of the greatness
of God doesn't mean that we stop mining it.
It just means that we just want more and more.
But what he says is even when we understand just a glimmer of the
greatness of God which one day we will see completely.
But even now, as we just see a Little, little more soul of the greatness
of God.
We worship him more passionately each and every day.
So the question would be for us, the action item for us would
be, what is our response to the work of God?
What is our response to the plan of God?
Whether we agree with it or not, what is our response to the
power of God?
Well, some people in this world's response to the plan of God
is saying, well, why would he do it that way?
I think I have a better plan.
Or yeah, sure, I agree with it.
But the way that I act in my life does not line up with what I
say.
You ever heard someone say, I believe I trust God in every way.
He's got me.
I believe in him, I, I know he's got me.
And then the first trial comes and they go, what am I going to do?
And they start crying and saying, lord's forgotten about me.
Folks, if someone says that they trust God, the, the statement
of our verbal language of saying that we trust God is not enough.
The Bible says that we prove our faith by the way that we live.
So we've got a lot of people in the world today that say they
trust God.
But when the rubber meets the road, who are they truly trusting?
Well, usually they're trusting in the things that don't give sufficiency.
And so what does he say here?
He says this.
When we stand under the power and the plan and the presence of
God, what's our response?
Our response should ultimately be worship.
But what is our response?
Sometimes it's worry, right?
When I think about all the things that God is doing and allowing
for my life, I worry.
Sometimes it's weariness.
Think about that.
Think about just like all the things that God's doing.
Sometimes we just get tired.
And the Bible does remind us, don't get weary and well doing.
Galatians, chapter 6.
For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
So sometimes we are in worry, sometimes we're in what we would
consider just weariness.
Some people to the response of the plan of God is rebellion.
No God, you can't tell me what to do.
You can't tell me that this is wrong, want to do my own thing.
So sometimes it's rebellion.
Whatever the case might be, any response to God in his power,
in his plan that is in worship is a wrong response.
Though sometimes we can worship with questions.
Let me be clear this morning.
I'm not saying that all of us have to just understand everything
about God and never have any questions because then we would be
contradicting what the word of God says.
Because many times we see great saints of the faith coming
to places in their life where they're asking God questions.
And maybe you've heard me say this before.
I think it's completely fine and actually biblical to ask God
questions.
But it is not fine and biblical to question God.
And I hope that you understand the difference.
When I mean, there.
Sometimes we can ask God questions with the understanding
of knowing that you are the great God of the universe.
You don't have to tell me what you're doing.
But, Lord, I really would like to know what's going on.
Can you give me some clarity?
Why are you doing what you're doing?
And sometimes God gives us an answer.
And in many cases, God doesn't give us an answer.
You remember Job?
Job was coming to God saying, lord, why?
What's going on?
And God's response is like, where were you at when I was creating
the world?
And Job's like, well, okay, understood, Lord, sometimes God doesn't
give us an answer.
Now, I truly do believe by faith that one day we will have all
the answers when we're with him in heaven.
But until then, we trust in his character.
So what's the biblical way to question God?
Well, we don't question him in his character because that would
be sin.
If I looked at Lord, the Lord and said, lord, why'd you do this
to me?
I think that's a sin.
I think you're wrong.
I don't think you're truthful.
That's the moment where we've turned our hearts away from faith
and we've turned to the selfish focus of questioning God
and actually saying that we have a better morality than God.
So that's not the biblical way to question God.
I don't think we should ever question God.
So what should we do?
Well, the right way is to ask God questions with the proper worshipful
response of saying, lord, I know that you are beyond me.
Lord, I know that you're all powerful.
I know that you're perfectly holy.
I know that your plan is sufficient.
But, Lord, please, please, in this moment, I'm begging you, please
give me some clarity on this.
That's the proper way to ask God questions.
And so that's worship.
I'm not saying that you have to understand everything.
I'm not saying that you even have to get to a place in your life
where you even celebrate certain things that have happened
in your life.
But what I will say is this.
There is a proper biblical response to the plan and the power
of God, and that is worship.
How do we worship?
We submit everything to him.
We worship him by the way that we live our lives.
When we come back next week, Romans chapter 12 is going to tell
us right away what we are to do.
We are to give our bodies a living sacrifice.
God doesn't just want your Sundays.
He doesn't just want your Wednesdays.
God wants all of you.
He doesn't just want your thoughts.
As there was a thinking back at even in the time of Paul, that
as long as you believe the right things, it really didn't matter
what you did physically with your bodies.
You know, do whatever you want to do with your body, but just make
sure that you think right.
Well, Jesus condemned that way of thinking.
He says, because what you think about leads to sin.
Actually, even what you think about can be sin.
And, and so what the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 12, which
we're going to get to next week, is that the proper response
to the grandeur of God, the infinite nature of God, is to present
our bodies, our everything, a living sacrifice.
So if we look at Romans chapter one, verse 11, or, excuse
me, chapters one through 11, we will see God, the gospel to us,
and then we see this beautiful transition, and then we'll get to
Romans chapter 12 and we'll see the gospel through us.
Meaning how do we live in light of what God has done for us
and what we believe?
How do we become Christians?
And we move from the belief of doctrine to practical theology?
Because theology is.
Yes, it, it.
Sometimes you hear the word theology.
It's the study of God.
I would take a step further.
It's about knowing God.
But a lot of times people think theology is just like this
book study that we do and just know the attributes of God.
And then we stop there.
But real, complete theology is what we believe about God and what
we do about it.
So practical theology, Romans chapter 12 on, is all about applying
these truths.
Because all of us in this room might agree, well, I believe that
Jesus is God.
I believe he died on the cross for my sins.
But I believe that I'm a sinner.
And I believe that he can save me and restore me.
But then now what?
What.
What happens when so and so says something about me?
What.
What happens now?
How do I serve in the church?
How do I deal with the government?
How do I deal with another Christian who says that I'm in the
wrong?
Good thing that you ask those questions, because Romans talks all
about those specific things.
And so to live a life of a Christian who, who is walking in
the truth of God means that we apply those truths to those areas
that are difficult in our lives.
Because sometimes it's not hard to sit in church and hear a
pastor preaching about the goodness of God, say amen, sing a
song and leave.
Where the struggle comes is when someone in the church does something
against me or someone in my family is turned away from God, or
the government's instilling certain things in my life that I
don't agree with and I don't know how to act as a Christian.
Well, that's what Romans 12, 13, 14 and on talk about.
And so we have to understand what comes before that so that we
can get to a place of being, a living sacrifice.
So what does Paul do here?
Well, verses 33 through 36 of Romans 11 give us that transition.
And we start with Romans 12.
And he says, I beseech you, therefore.
Now some of you know that if you see the word therefore in scripture,
you need to go back to see what he's referencing.
What is he referencing?
Well, some might argue he's referencing Romans 1 through 11,
which I would say he is for the most part, but on a more micro
scale, he's referencing verses 33 through 36 saying this, the Gospel
is coming to all, and it's through him and it's by him and it's,
it's, it's from him and all these things.
And he says because of that, therefore give your bodies a living
sacrifice.
Because of the fact we need to worship God with everything.
So what is he doing?
He's giving us a reason for worship.
He's giving us a framework for worship.
And folks, if you've struggled in church or in your personal life
with reasons to worship, go back to the well that never runs
dry.
First, start with your salvation.
If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, there is no reason
to worship.
Think about this world today.
We live in a very bleak world.
There's not a lot of hope.
And if you don't have Jesus Christ for your eternal hope, I would
tell you there is no reason to have hope because this world is a
dog eat dog world.
There is sickness, there is pain, there is death, there is rebellion,
there is betrayal.
There's all these things.
And so outside of Jesus Christ, there is hopelessness.
So you can't worship God if you don't understand the hope that
you find in Him.
And so the first step of worship is to believe in him and
what he has done for you and have that transition, that change
that Transformation in your heart.
As the Bible's gonna say next week that we see that we are new
creations in him transformed into his image.
So the first step of worship is number one, trusting in what God
has said in his word is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But then secondarily, if you've already trusted in that, it's
going back to the gospel and realizing that the only hope that
we have in anything that we do is, is through going back to what
Jesus Christ has done for us.
Have you ever gotten tired?
Have you ever gotten worried?
Have you ever been tempted to rebel?
Have you ever tempted, been tempted to quit?
Go back to what Jesus says as the author and finisher of our faith.
He is the author and finisher.
So don't go to Pastor Josh and say, pastor Josh, make me not be
mad all the time.
I can't do that for you.
I can't change your heart.
Well, Pastor Josh, make me more happy, folks.
If I try to make you happy, I'm gonna make these people not happy.
If I make these.
I, the, the humanity in me wants to make everybody happy and
want to make your life perfect, but I can't make you happy.
Give me, I need to find a purpose, Pastor Josh.
Give me a purpose.
I can't ultimately give you your purpose.
So what do we do?
We go to the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ,
who endured the cross with joy for you.
So if you want purpose, if you want satisfaction, if you want joy,
if you want salvation, it's coming to Jesus, folks.
If you're broken right now, maybe it's a marriage, maybe it's
a child, an adult child.
I don't know, maybe it's a grandchild, maybe it's a co worker,
maybe it's your own life and you're, you're leaning towards that
feeling of just don't know what to do.
I'm beyond my grip.
I, I can't hold on anymore.
I don't see a change happening.
I don't think this can work.
I don't think God has anything for this.
What I'm going to tell you is the answer to all of that is going
back to Jesus Christ.
Worshiping him, recognizing his worthiness, recognizing that
all things are of him, through him and to him.
The challenge might be here today.
Can I say that about my life is the testimony of my life, that
all things in my life are of him, through him and to him.
Everything that I have, God has given me, everything that I have,
everything that I do is through Him, Everything in Service
in my marriage, in my workplace, in my parenting, in my
patience.
It's all through him and not through myself.
And then ultimately, I are all things to him.
Have I given my life to Him?
Have I given my family to Him?
Have I given my finances to Him?
Have I given my service to Him?
Have I given my work to Him?
Have I given my future to Him?
These are all questions that must be asked.
And Paul is saying, this is why we do what we do.
This is why we worship.
Why?
Because he is worthy of our worship.
And so here this morning, maybe you've been living your life
in such a way that you say, you know what?
I just don't see a reason to worship.
The gracious side with me would say, well, appeal back to the
goodness of God.
The prophet side of me would say, wake up, open your eyes and
see all the goodness around you.
Because the truth is, is that God is working around you.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God is working through you.
And it's to be available and ready and willing to see God's plan
and purpose in our life.
So what happens when my plan and God's plan are running and my
plan deviates from what God's plan is for me?
What do I do well for many people?
Well, God, I'm going to go my way.
And I hope that your plan will just follow me and find me back sometime.
Okay, Just bless me, Lord.
Truth is, when our plans are running in tandem together, we're
walking in the will of God.
But let's say this happens all the time, that my wants and my plans
are this way and God's plans are this way.
The biblical response is to say, I die to my plans.
I yield to your plans, and I give you the glory for it, through
it.
And at the end, I will praise you for whatever happens.
That's the proper response.
And so if you're struggling with submitting yourself to the will
of God today, know that that's the only will that brings satisfaction.
That's the only will that brings security.
And so here this morning, I want you to respond to the preaching
of the word of God.
What's your response to the plan and the power of God?
Is it worship or is it something else?
When asked if you're able to.
To stand here this morning, every head bowed, every eye closed,
the music's gonna play.
My challenge for you is to respond to what we've talked about
here this morning, not what I've said so much as what is the
word of God said Romans 11 tells us that God has a plan for
his people, that God has a purpose for his people.
How are you responding to that plan and purpose?
Is it with worry, weariness, rebellion?
Or is it with worship?
Maybe you haven't been living a life of worship.
Maybe it's very superficial, maybe very shallow faith.
Maybe it's today that you say, lord, give me more of an understanding
of the depths of your wisdom and knowledge so that I can have
depth in my worship.
Folks, none of us are perfect.
None of us have reached the pinnacle.
But all of us are called to take that next step of faith.
What's your next step of faith?
Is it today just the first step, trusting in Jesus as your Savior?
Or maybe it's the second step.
Maybe it's about growing in our faith.
Maybe it's just about taking the next step of service.
Maybe it's the taking the next step of restoration with a fellow
brother and sister in Christ.
Maybe it's just giving yourself over to the Lord so that
your marriage can be renewed in him, that your work can be renewed
in him.
Whatever it might be, I challenge you here this morning.
I challenge myself this morning to take that next step of
faith as we worship.
You know, the Bible says there's one mark of our worship.
It's not how loud we sing as much as it is our obedience and our
heart for him.
What's God's command?
For us to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Will that make me sing?
Sure.
But we all know that we can sing without a heart of worship.
And so it's deeper.
What is your heart of worship this morning?
Where's the heart?
The heart is tied to what we love.
And what we love is what we obey.
Are we obeying him today?
Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
So the challenge would be here this morning.
How are we worshiping him?
Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives pray that you bring us to a place of worship and
humility when we stand before your power and your plan.
We thank you, we give you all the honor and glory in Jesus name,
Amen.
As the music plays follows the Lord leads this morning some have
already come.