What is God Doing in the World
Notes
Transcript
Handout
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
Grand Canyon
Last Week - Romans 13
Call to be in subjection to and honor our authorities
Why? Because they are instituted by God.
God has given mankind government to accomplish his will…
even when it does not look like there is a plan OR
when it appears that a bad plan is at work,
we must realize that God is accomplishing his sovereign will through governments.
Today, we are going to continue our study on the plan of God.
What is God doing in the world?
Romans 11
Worship in Real Time
Worship in Real Time
Worship Comforts us with the Plan of God… so be Reminded.
Worship Comforts us with the Plan of God… so be Reminded.
By examining How God’s Spirit directed Paul to be comforted during the execution of a Plan of God that Paul did not understand.
Context of Romans 9-11.
Has God abandoned the Jewish People?
Eternal destiny of his own countrymen, the Jewish People.
God had chosen to use the Jewish People to bring His Word and His Savior into the world, they had rejected Jesus Christ.
Paul, a Jewish Man, had been chosen by God to take the Gospel to the Gentile People of the World.
God had set aside the Jewish People to concentrate His Gospel on the rest of the World.
This was difficult for Paul to accept.
So the Spirit of God drove Paul to Worship.
God’s Plan is being Accomplished by God… so be Reminded and Worship God by Trusting Him.
Worship is a matter of Trusting and Obeying.
Obedience - Worship God by doing what He expects - Pay Your Taxes
Trust - Worship God when He doesn’t do what we expect - Honor the emperor
What brings us to Worship? - Romans 11:33-36
Essential Truths that bring us to worship… by obeying and trusting
God’s Mercy for Sinners - Romans 11:32
God’s Grace for the World - Romans 11:25
God’s Righteousness by Faith - Romans 9:30-32
Remarkable Change in Paul’s State of Mind… Romans 9:1-2
How can we trust that the events of this world are pointing to those truths???
How can we trust that the events of this world are pointing to those truths???
God’s Plan is being Accomplished
God’s Plan is being Accomplished
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
Theology - Doctrine of God
Theology - Doctrine of God
Paul is overwhelmed at God’s Plan…
Flows out of His character.
Paul’s worship is a response to what He is constantly discovering about God.
Sovereign
Sovereign
God is sovereign of all things; all creatures are accountable to Him; all creatures do glorify Him - wittingly or unwittingly
God is under no obligation to oblige, explain, repay, or submit to our thoughts
No one has given Him anything… for everything is from Him, through Him, and to Him
He is the first cause, the ongoing effective cause, and the final cause of everything.
His ways are beyond our discovery, our knowing, our understanding, our counsel, and our assistance
Paul Highlights 3 Attributes of God
Call us to trust His Plan
His Plan is rooted in His Nature… not ours.
God’s Unlimited Nature -
God is not limited in any way.
His knowledge is unlimited, His presence is unlimited, His power is unlimited.
“Riches” - the depth of His riches (vs. 33)
All Powerful
Rich - Wealth, Abundance
Self Sufficient - no need from anyone or anything
Omnipotent
“Knowledge” - (Vs. 33)
All Knowing - Insight into the very essence of things, people, ideas, etc.,
Omniscient
“Wisdom” - (Vs. 33)
All Wise - Ability to select the best means for the attainment of the highest goal - Omnisapient
God offers the believer His wise character as a source of hope in the midst of struggle. God calls his followers to realize that He is wisely using suffering and evil to glorify Himself, draw people to the grace of Jesus Christ, and prepare mankind for His eternal home.
Wisdom: “His unerring ability to choose the best means to accomplish the best ends.”
This unlimited aspect of God’s nature ensures that through His unlimited knowledge, God can apply His unlimited power, to achieve the best result.
God has a Plan… His Plan is being Accomplished.
God has a Plan… His Plan is being Accomplished.
How?
God Knows the Best Means to Accomplish His Best Plan
God has the Power to Accomplish whatever He desires
God’s Wisdom allows him to know How to apply His unlimited Power to Fulfill what He knows to be the best plan.
Martin and Gracia Burnham - White Paper
God’s Plan is Beyond Us
God’s Plan is Beyond Us
“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?”
Not Seeking Ideas - “The mind of the Lord”
Not Seeking Advice - “his counselor”
Not Seeking Help - “given a gift to him?”
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Illustration - Mushi the Dog
Shampoo in the eye
The Eye drop fight
His owner, the one who loved him more than any other, the one who purchased Him, provided for Him, was doing something He could not understand. But it was all to accomplish the owners plan and Mushi’s good
Are we just pets, animals driven by our instinct or learned behavior.
Not at All.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Great Commission is the Great Invitation.
Great Commission is the Great Invitation.
Insight into what he is doing
Friendship as he is doing it
Joy of carrying the fruit of what He does
For Example - Orphan, Widows, Unsaved Neighbors, Immature Believers, Struggling, Sinning Christians, Children and Youth needing
For Example - Orphan, Widows, Unsaved Neighbors, Immature Believers, Struggling, Sinning Christians, Children and Youth needing
God’s Plan is about Him
God’s Plan is about Him
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
All Things are...
From Him - Plan is God’s Will
Through Him - Plan is God’s Doing
To Him - Plan is for God
What is God doing?
One Author explained this concept in this way...
God rarely gives micro reasons for his painful providences (why did my car break down, why did i not get the job, why did my marriage fail, why did my candidate lose, why did my child get sick, why did my parent not do such and such).
but regularly gives magnificent macro reasons (God would be glorified, Unsaved people would hear the Gospel, Believers are made more Christlike)
God cannot make plain all he is doing, because there are millions and millions and millions and millions of effects of every event in your life, the good and the bad.
God guides them all. They all have micro purposes and macro purposes. He cannot tell you all of them because your brain can’t hold all of them.
CenterPoint,
I know that you want to obey Him - Worship Him by doing what He expects
Will you trust Him - Worship Him when He doesn’t do what you expected.