At the church where I serve, we just concluded a sermon
series entitled “Wired for worship”. During this series, we are discovering
that all humanity has been wired for worship. And during this series our hope
and prayer has been that God would move in our heads, hearts, and hands in a
way that results in us understanding and embracing the life of worship that we
were created for in a way that results in us worshipping Jesus with our lives.
This week, as we come to the conclusion of this series, I
would like for us to spend our time together looking at a section of a letter
that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of
Romans. In this letter a man named Paul, who was the person that God used to
spread the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to people who were
not of Jewish heritage, responded to a timeless question that is still asked
today, which is “is the God that is portrayed in the Bible right? Is God
right?”
Paul responded to this question in the very beginning of
this letter by proclaiming that the message of the gospel reveals that reality
that God is right. Paul proclaimed that God is right. God always has been
right; God always will be right. And the extent that we are right when it comes
to our relationship with God is directly related to the extent that our heads,
hearts, and hands line up with what God believes is right, because God is
right.
After proclaiming his belief that the message of the
gospel reveals that reality that God is right, Paul then proceeded to provide
the evidence to prove that God is right. In Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20, Paul
revealed the reality that the fact that God is right is revealed by humanities
problem. Paul provided evidence to prove behind a shadow of a doubt that all of
humanity is guilty of having a huge problem with God as a result of selfishness
and rebellion. A problem that is universal and insurmountable.
All humanity has a huge problem with God that requires
rescue; a rescue that we are unable and unwilling to attempt on our own. Paul
then explained that humanities problem is not just humanities problem. Our problem is God’s problem because our
problem it calls into question God’s justice and love. And in Romans 3:21 to
Romans 8:39, Paul unpacked the reality that the fact that God is right is
revealed by God’s response of rescue to the problem of selfishness and sin.
Paul explained that God rightly rescues from rebellion
through faith in Christ. Whether
religious or irreligious; regardless of your past; forgiveness and rescue comes
not from what you do for God; forgiveness and rescue comes from placing our
confident trust in what God has done for you through Jesus life, death, and
resurrection. When we respond to what God transformational activity by
believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader, we receive
forgiveness and rescue and experience the relationship with God that we were
created for.
Paul proclaimed that as we grow in our relationship with
Christ, our growth should result in a separation from selfishness and sin as we
become more like Jesus in character and conduct. And as followers of Jesus, we
have a glorious future as a result of our rescue; a future free from sin in the
relationship with God that we were created for all eternity in Heaven.
Then, in Romans chapter 9 to Romans chapter 11, Apostle
Paul revealed the reality that the fact that God is right is revealed through
the history of the Jewish people. Paul explained that the sovereign God is free
to choose some and reject others. Paul then proved that God’s sovereign freedom
to choose some and reject others is just because mankind is responsible. All of
humanity is responsible for their response to the message of the gospel.
Paul then revealed God’s sovereignty and man’s
responsibility is revealed by God’s promises to the Jewish people. The fact
that God is right is revealed by God sovereign plan and dealings with the Jewish
people throughout their history. Paul
demonstrated that God is large and in charge and has the freedom to choose some
and reject others. And the reason that the sovereign God is free to choose some
and reject others is because mankind is responsible. Mankind is responsible
because all humanity exercises and embraces the choice to selfishly rebel
against God and the truth about God to worship something other than God as God
and to do things that hurt God and others, which the Bible calls sin.
And it is in this context, as Paul reflected on all that
he had written up to this point in the book of Romans, that we are given a
glimpse by Paul into how he processed and responded to what he had just written
for God. And it is in this glimpse that Paul gives us into how he was
processing and responding to what he had just written that we will discover
another timeless truth when it comes to being wired for worship. So let’s look
at Paul’s response together, beginning in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE
LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT
BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all
things. To Him be the glory
forever. Amen.
Now if the Apostle Paul were writing these verses in the
language we use in our culture today, these verses probably would have sounded
something like this: “Oh how difficult is it to access and wrap our minds
around the abundance of God’s wisdom and intellect! God’s decisions and
activity in history are unsearchable and incomprehensible. I can totally relate
to how the prophet Isaiah and Job felt when they encountered the truth about
the nature and character of God. Because everything is from God and everything
is through God and everything is for God. Everything. I just need to stop and
worship God, because I cannot wrap my mind around all that I have just
written”.
You see, as the Apostle Paul pondered what he had just
written about the reality that God is sovereign and man is responsible, he had
a hard time wrapping his mind around how God could sovereignly be in control of
the universe while man was totally responsible for the decisions and desires of
their lives. But the lack of total clarity and the tension that Paul felt did
not lead him to reject God and these two truths.
Instead the mystery surrounding these two truths led Paul
to respond in worship of God and to embrace the tension that these two truths
create. The fact that there are mysteries about God and the truth about God
that are beyond our abilities to wrap our minds around should result in God’s
reputation being enhanced.
You see, Paul worshipped the Lord because Paul recognized
that we are responsible for the choices we make that hurt God and others and
that separate us from God. And Paul worshipped the Lord because Paul recognized
that in God’s sovereignty, He does not give everyone what we deserve. Instead,
by His gracious choice He rescues some even though none deserve rescue.
And in the same way, as followers of Jesus, it is God’s
gracious choice that should humble us and provoke within us a response of
worship. Paul then unpacks what our response of worship should look like in
Romans 12:1-2.
Friday, we will examine that response and discover a timeless
truth about the reality that all humanity has been wired for worship...
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