Turning Information Into Adoration Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

Last weekend, Mary and I went hiking in Oracle State Park and we hiked the Granite Overlook trail which took us from the parking lot up nearly 300 feet to the highest point in the park. That trail was rather steep and rugged in places, but it afforded us this view when we got to the top.

[Photo of view from Granite Overlook]

After all the effort it took to get to the summit, we didn’t want to immediately head back for the parking lot, but instead we wanted to linger there for a while and enjoy those magnificent views.

I get the feeling that is essentially what the apostle Paul did as he came to the end of chapter 11 of his letter to the churches in Rome. For eleven chapters he had been doing the “heavy lifting” of explaining the gospel. He has written about the pervasiveness of man’s sin and his inability to do anything about it. He has explained how the death and resurrection of Jesus makes it possible to be righteous before a holy God through faith in Jesus. He has taught about how we are to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. And he has revealed how God plans to incorporate both the Jews and the Gentiles into His kingdom.

And now that he has completed all of that, he just wants to pause to contemplate the greatness of God who could accomplish all that for a few moments before he moves on to the last part of his letter where he will explain how the gospel ought to impact the way we live our day to day lives.

TENSION

And I believe that Paul invites us to join him in and to take some time to just sit back and marvel at the magnificence that same God.

I think that is rapidly becoming a lost art in the church. Sometimes in an effort to be relevant and to attract others to Jesus, we have been guilty of making Christianity just another form of self-help that will result in happy marriages, obedient children, contentment in our jobs, and a healthy bank account. No doubt, living out our faith in Jesus can help accomplish all those things. But, as we’ll see this morning, that is not its primary purpose. And fortunately for us, Paul’s words at the end of chapter 11 are an important reminder that the gospel is not primarily about us at all. It is about giving glory to the amazing, incomprehensible God who created us and who loves us.

TRUTH

So we’re going to take a radically different approach to the message this morning. Although I will take a little time to explain some important aspects of this morning’s passage, I think what this passage requires most is just some time to read it and meditate on it. So let’s begin by reading it out loud together. And as we do that, let’s do it slowly, taking some time to really listen as we read.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him

that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

(Romans 11:33–36 ESV)

I am going to borrow from theologian William Barclay in developing our main idea this morning. Much of Barclay’s theology is quite suspect so his writings must always be evaluated carefully in light of Scripture. But he also provides us with invaluable information about the culture of Bible times and occasionally, he comes up with some nuggets like this one regarding this last section of Romans 11:

Paul never wrote a more characteristic passage than this. Here, theology turns to poetry. Here, the searching of the mind turns to the adoration of the heart.

That quote was my inspiration in developing today’s main idea:

We first began our journey through the book of Romans back in September of 2014 and have been working our way through the book intermittently since then. And we have certainly learned a lot of information during that time. But my prayer is that, like Paul, we would allow God to transform all that information into adoration this morning.