An Attempt To Understand Gods Choices Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: August 4, 2012

Date Preached: August 5, 2012

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Series Title: A Journey thru Romans

Sermon Title: Gaining Understanding of God’s Choices

Sermon Text: Romans 11:11-24 [NLT]

Introduction:

People make decisions/choices all the time that we don’t understand… our children make choices that break our hearts… our family members make choices that we don’t understand… those we work with make decisions that baffle our minds… the politicians elected to public office make decisions that ENFLAME some and baffle others…

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the 1st part of this chapter and we saw that God was a choosing God… that God had chosen, that God was still choosing and that God’s desire is for you to choose Him… in other words, God has made many decisions and there are MANY of those decisions that we may question or simply do not understand.

There are 2 decisions in nature that I don’t understand about God… 1) the platypus… is it a duck, is it a beaver, is it a bird or is it a mammal… why did God choose make this animal like He did… I will NEVER understand that decision! 2) is the mosquito… REALLY GOD… the mosquito… what purpose does it serve… why would you create such an annoying and dangerous creature?

I don’t understand those 2 things and I will not ever comprehend why God decided to create those two things… but the fact of the matter is that it was God who created the universe and I was NOT brought in as a consultant or advisor! So when I see it from that perspective I know that I am just out of my league when it comes to understanding!

God has blessed humanity with a great deductive mind and the reasoning to understand not only THAT things happen but also WHY they happen as well… but there are still some things that we KNOW but don’t fully comprehend or understand!

From a physical and scientific standpoint there are so very many examples of things we don’t understand and cannot explain…

Such as the bumblebee… with its shape and size of wings it is aerodynamically impossible for the bumblebee to fly, and yet… there it is flying around almost effortlessly pollenating all the flowers around it…and then there is…

Life itself… and how it is beyond explanation: Scientists know the mechanics of how life begins with the egg being fertilized… but how that fertilized egg becomes the human it becomes is beyond our ability to understand!

So if there are things in this physical world that happen and occur and we cannot grasp its reason or how it happens… then why is it when we come upon a spiritual truth from Scripture that we don’t understand… that we feel we MUST simply make an explanation?

Understanding God is about knowing His word, His heart and His plan… Knowing these things come from reading His word and praying everyday for Gods revelation in your heart.

But there is a definite difference between KNOWING a plan and understanding a plan… there are things about God and what God has done and is still doing that we do not understand, and there are many good believers out there that waste so much of their lives trying to explain what cannot be explained… or worse trying to understand what cannot be explained or fully understood!

I believe that we, as humans, question so many of God’s decisions simply because we cannot understand them… we try to see it with our own mind and reason it with our finite understanding, but we cannot!

When it comes to the choices God has made throughout history, there are many choices and decisions He has made that we simply cannot grasp them or understand them…

BUT Before I get started here this morning I want to stress that, as humans, there is absolutely NO WAY that we can fully understand God’s choices!

Isaiah even writes about God telling us that His ways are ABOVE our ways… and HIS thoughts are ABOVE our thoughts! SO…it only stands to reason that HIS CHOICES [or more specifically the purpose of those choices] would also be beyond our full understanding…

With that being said we must realize that we will NEVER fully comprehend God’s choices, but I do believe that through the guidance of God’s word and through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we CAN come to a better understanding of those choices!

I say all of this because this morning we are going to look at a passage of Scripture that is rather difficult and seems to contradict itself or other truths we know of in Scripture… but I want us to look at this passage and come to it from an perspective that we MAY NOT be able to fully comprehend ALL of what God is doing and saying through this Scripture.