God is Ruler
Notes
Transcript
Handout
-Pre-Introduction: Vista Del Rio Launch: Feb. 11 @ 6 p.m.. Invite Hispanic People. A dying church giving birth to a new church plant. Like Sarah, who laughed when God said giving birth while old.
-Gen. 18:13-14, But the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ 14 Is anything impossible for the Lord?
-Can we just give a hand clap of praise for God’s faithfulness
NAME: Adam Blake Diggs
-Lott Cary: First-American Missionary to Africa *pic of Lott Cary*
He was responsible for the missionary movement, which created a growing interest among African Americans in the evangelization of Africa and other parts of the world.
-Born in 1780 in Virginia as a slave to a family of Christians
-He was sent away to work in a warehouse at 24. He used his freedom from his family to drink & party
-However, after a few years, he felt conviction for his sin & accepted Christ as his savior
-Cary saved up, bought his freedom & felt called to ministry. First Baptist Church licensed him to preach. He preached across the state of Virginia.
-In 1815, Cary worked with several other men to organize the Richmond African Baptist Missionary Society. Lott served as the society’s first secretary.
-On January 23, 1821, Lott Cary, his family, and a team left America to establish an African mission.
-Sometimes, we hear stories about heroes like this & we think things always work out for the hero
-But things were not smooth on the mission field. When they reached Liberia, they realized the missionary society had not completed the transaction to buy a home, so they were homeless for about a year.
-Shortly after Cary’s wife died & he had to care for his 3 children alone.
-Lott Cary only served in Liberia for about eight years.
-His dream of seeing the gospel spread throughout Africa did not happen in his lifetime.
-But because of his efforts, Liberia is a free nation today, and the American Baptist Missionary Convention continues to send men and women like him to take the gospel to other lands.
-One historian said, Cary became the forerunner to Christian work across the continent of Africa.
-Cary’s life shows us that when we answer the call to tell the world–it’s not always easy.
-We may not even see the fruit of our labors in our lifetime
-But our job is not to make fruit grow, it’s to sow the seed faithfully
-We can faithfully sow seeds by faithfully sharing the gospel
-That’s why in this “Tell the World Series,” we have wanted to put all the gospel tools in our gospel toolbelt we need
-God, Man, Christ, Response *pic of the 4*
-Went through a brief overview of the 4, now circling back to spend two weeks on each one in-depth
Romans 11:33–36 “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”
1. A Wise Ruler (33)
1. A Wise Ruler (33)
--After 11 chapters of unpacking the gospel in Romans, Paul leads the church of Rome in a hymn
-He says when look at this gospel, you should blown away by the infinite wisdom & knowledge of God!
-He is a wise ruler. And the riches of his wisdom and knowledge are revealed in the gospel
-There are two things I think v. 33 teaches us to do in response to God’s wisdom:
-(I) Wonder
-v. 33, Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
-Tom Schreiner, in his commentary on Romans, says Paul is trying to describe the immeasurable. He is attempting to describe the infinite.
-Pastors can throw words like “infinity” & it means nothing to us
-Most of us have only heard “infinity” in Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear says, “To infinity & beyond!” *pic of Buzz Lightyear*
-One theologian explains it. Take one attribute of God, like his grace, and learn just about it for the rest of eternity. And you will never completely or totally learn everything about grace.
-Elsewhere, Paul says this is one reason God gave us eternal life b/c it will take all eternity to learn about his infinite grace
-Eph. 2:7, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus
-For all eternity, we will not run out of things to learn about God’s infinite, eternal, unending grace
-We can never exhaust our knowledge of God’s grace in the gospel, so we never stop learning about it.
-This is why I say the gospel is not just the ABC’s of the Christian life but the A-Z.
-It’s like a well where you get the best water by digging the well deeper, not wider
-We come back to Jesus and his grace, over and over and over again. That’s how we grow as Christians
-So we can’t lose our wonder in the gospel
-(II) Witness
-v. 33, How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!
-The wisdom of God in the gospel is unsearchable & untraceable
-This does not mean that we can’t know God’s ways, but that we need God’s help in knowing it
-For example, all historians say Jesus is a real person, who died on the cross.
-However, believing Jesus died as a historical fact, is not the same as Jesus dying for YOU
-We have to explain the gospel to people
-The secret weapon in our witness is the Holy Spirit
-1 Cor. 2:14, But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
-People without the Holy Spirit see the gospel is foolishness
-Therefore we need the Holy Spirit to work in people’s hearts as we witness
-I remember the first time I went to one of Arbor’s ballet performances
-I had never been before. I was confused. When does it start? Why can’t I see her?
-Then it got dark, the spotlight shown on the stage, the curtain pulled back, and I saw Arbor on the stage. And I was like wow…She’s beautiful.
-Was she any more or less beautiful than before? No.
-The curtain pulled back & I could see her as she really was
-In the same way, The Holy Spirit works on people’s hearts to pull back the curtain of their hearts and see the beauty of the gospel
-That’s why in “Who’s Your One?” we pray for our “One.”
-If we want to show people that God is a wise ruler in the gospel, we need to respond in wonder and witness to the gospel
-Application (Restated): A wise ruler
-Transition Sentence: If God is all-wise, then he is enough for our life
2. A Sufficient Ruler (34-35)
2. A Sufficient Ruler (34-35)
-God is sufficient, which means he doesn’t need anything from us
-v.34-35, For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid?
-One commentator summarizes these verses by saying God does not need an advisor, a counselor, or a creditor.
-God does not need us to tell him what to do
-Isa. 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
-Job is a character in the Old Testament who began to doubt God when suffering happened in his life
-He questioned God. Doubting his goodness.
-I think its so interesting that God doesn’t answer Job’s questions
-God asks Job more than 60 questions related to creation
-He says were you there when I created all this?
-You don’t even understand things on earth, how are you going to understand God’s heavenly plans
-Today, we trust that we know a lot in science but there are still things we don’t know
-In space, we don’t know what most of the universe is made of. *pic of dark matter*
-Most of the matter in the universe is actually unseeable, untouchable, and undiscovered *pic of dark ocean*
-Not just space, but it blows my mind that only about 5% of the ocean on planet earth has been explored
-Sean Carroll, a Cal Tech cosmologist says, We have a complete inventory of the universe, and it makes no sense.
-There are things that still make no sense to us, that God knows exactly
-There’s no way we can know everything as humans
-But we can know the one who knows everything, and trust him
-After seeing how Big & powerful God was, Job began to trust God in his suffering
-God didn’t give him the “Why” he gave him the “Who”
-Instead of telling him why he was suffering, Job told him who was going to get him through his suffering
-Job saw God was enough to bring him through
-God is sufficient
-Job 42:4, My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. (NIV)
-Have you seen that God is sufficient to bring you through whatever you’re going through?
-Are you quick to tell God what to do, or quick to surrender?
-Are you looking more for answers to why you’re suffering, or are you looking to God to help bring you through?
-The gospel does not mean we will never go through suffering.
-But b/c of the gospel, we can go to God whenever we are suffering
-Application (Restated): A sufficient Ruler
3. A Sustaining Ruler (36)
3. A Sustaining Ruler (36)
-v. 36, For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
-One translation: God is the Source, Guide, & Goal of all!
-Paul is God is worthy of worship and glory forever b/c he is the creator, sustainer, and purpose of all creation
-And what’s even crazier is that all these things can be applied to Jesus
-Jesus is the agent of creation
-John 1:3, 3 All things were created through [the Word], and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
-Jesus is the sustainer of the world
-Hb. 1:3, 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
-Since we were made by the Son, we were made for the Son
-Col. 1:16-17, For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
-Jesus is first.
-He is the creator of everything
-Also, Jesus went first.
-He pursued a relationship with you before you went looking for him
-1 Jn. 4:10, Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins
-Before you died in your sin, Jesus went before you to die for your sin
-Jesus wants us to put him first in our lives
-He doesn’t want to be the first thing on a list you checkoff
-Like went to church Sunday, check Jesus off, now I can live the rest of my life
-No, Jesus wants to be first over every area of your life
-That would be like me telling Arbor she’s my number 1…on a list of the top 10 women in my life
-No she wants to be my one and only
-Jesus wants to be your first. Your one and only.
-Jesus is sustaining you not so you can forget about him and live however you want
-Jesus has given you another breath so that you make him the ruler of your heart
Conclusion
Conclusion
-Image: Lott Cary experienced God’s grace when he was in his mid-20s
-He trusted the gospel as his only hope to save him
-And he spent the rest of his life telling the world about the gospel
-Action Step: Tell the World God is the Ruler
-When we see God’s wisdom in the gospel, sufficiency in our suffering, & sustaining grace in our lives, we should make God the Ruler of our lives.
However the Holy Spirit is calling you; now is the time to be doers of God’s word and not just hearers only
Pastoral Prayer
-Immediate Response: (1) First time: Make God your ruler by believing Jesus; (2) Baptized; (3) Join the Church; (4) Pray: Wonder of the gospel, who’s your one, God’s grace would be sufficient to bring you through; Make Jesus #1.