Learning Our Place Before A Sovereign God

It was November of 2019, the last time we were here in this room. And things back then and this is the understatement of the century were a little bit different. We didn’t go through the last four years, a sort of a normal four years. What we went through since the last time we had been here was like an epic novel, a Hollywood blockbuster movie. It had twist and turns and plot shifts. We experienced over the last four years a lifetime’s worth of drama. We saw a disintegrating political landscape, the distrust of social and civil institutions. We saw war. We experienced recession, inflation and isolation. We saw the moral and cultural topography shift like sand under the foundations of our lives. And we experienced a virus run through a population like a plague. We saw death. We felt fear, anxiety. Some of us were angry. We were lost. I don’t know how you felt looking at the last four years, but as I peer back over the roads we traveled, there is a single word that comes to my mind.

The word is I felt confusion. Wouldn’t you agree the world has become a confusing place? I’ve asked the question, Why? More times than I can possibly count. I’ve asked God, where are you? More times than I can count. How come this is happening? What is going on? Over the last few years I have searched for answers. I’ve Googled terms I had never heard before. I read books looking for some relief to the chronic confusion. Maybe you’ve asked yourself these same questions over the last few years and maybe the confusion for you was not so corporate, but was a little bit more personal. Lord, why is this happening to me? What am I supposed to do about my children, my marriage? The friends who have abandoned the faith, the people who I thought loved you, but now have turned their back on you. Where have you been? Where have I been? What am I supposed to do? What do you want me to do? And I know personally that living in confusion makes me more apt to contamination. In fact, Jose will say this God pronounces a fearful indictment. He says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

So the more confused and consumed with questions I felt, the more I felt personally that I was vulnerable. So over the course of the last few years, I went looking for answers. Looking for answers to my question. But more importantly, what I was looking for was a way to deal with my confusion and what I went what I found as I went searching, I want to share with you today. See, over the next 30 minutes or so, I want to show you from God’s word one simple truth that I hope will bring to you some relief. It will give you a way to access the confidence and the peace and the promises of God. So I’m going to just go ahead and tell you. I’m going to bury the lede. I’m going to tell you exactly where we’re going and then we’ll work our way back. Are you with me?

Today I want to show you. And I want us to come to grips with one idea and it’s this we don’t need answers. We need to learn our place before a sovereign God. You don’t need answers to have confidence or to alleviate confusion. You don’t need to know more. You and I need to learn our place before a sovereign God. I’m going to explain this, but this is going to be your key takeaway. We’re going to need to learn to worship more than we learn to ask questions. We’re going to need to learn to come before a totally sovereign God. And we’re not going to need to hear who or how or what or why. But what we’re going to need to know is our place before a God who is in total control of the universe. And if we get this, like if you and I get it, I believe we can break free from the tyranny of our own anxiety.

We can break free from all the strange questions that we ask. We can live like the heroes of old and we can echo the prayers of people like Habakkuk who would say this this is such an incredible passage. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine, though the olive crop fails and the field produces no fruit, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God, my Savior.

This is the heart you and I can have a heart of praise. Even when everything is caving in and even when everything is fading away and even when there are no answers we can praise. Even when the job is lost, even when there’s no money in the bank account, even when everyone walks away, even when the anxiety is on the rise, even when our country is a mess and even when our homes are a disaster and though my kids leave the faith and my health is fading, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God, my Savior. You and I can find peace, but it’s not going to come the way you think it is. See, what I hope to do for you today is to begin in you what the Spirit has been doing to me. My prayer is that we can come before these scriptures. And though we find no specific answers to our specific questions, what we will see is a holy God whose plans are good and that will fill our hearts with peace.

Romans, chapter eleven, verse 33 is where we’re going to go. We’re going to look there together. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Tony. My wife and I, along with an amazing staff and eldership, lead the Broward Church, and I am completely honored. Amen, Broward folks, I’m completely honored to be able to share today. I’m grateful for the opportunity from the leadership of Miami and Ralph and Palm Beach. The whole one Miami crew is just amazing. James and Kim, Leke and Maddie, John and Sylvia, Doug and Em and all of the rest of the leadership there.

In Palm Beach with Ralph and Eileen and that incredible group of elders. You guys are heroes to me. And so to be given a couple of minutes to speak to their congregations is a tremendous privilege for me. So thank you. I also want to say this. I’ve been inspired to change the world in settings like this, where multiple congregations come together to praise God, where thousands of disciples come together, and it feels a little bit like a pep rally. You know that feeling where it’s like all right, let’s let’s go somewhere.

I felt inspired by by lessons telling me I need to move forward, I need to do more, I need to get back on the mission field, I need to reengage my life and my faith. I felt so inspired by messages like that. But today I come here with a different type of message. In fact, I debated not sharing this message at all. But the more I prayed, the more zealous I felt about it. See, what I’m going to ask from you today is not to do anything. At the end of this, I’m not going to say what you need to do is do this a little bit more and things will be better. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to ask you to have any sort of relevant takeaways or relevant applications. I am simply endeavoring to persuade you how to be before our Holy God. That’s it.

And stay with me, okay? Because I know that some of this is going to sound a little intense. I apologize in advance, but the zeal of the Lord, I believe, is upon me, and I feel like I just have to talk about it. Hebrews eleven. As you turn there, let me just set up the context. Romans. Sorry, I said Hebrews. I meant Romans. Romans eleven. Romans nine through eleven is one of the most difficult sections of scripture in the Bible. It’s Romans begins with a clear explanation of the Gospel. That’s what one through eight is about. It talks about things like sin and obedient faith and sacrifice and the plans of God. And then Romans twelve through 15 talk about how to live out the Gospel. So one through eight, the Gospel twelve through 15, how to live out the Gospel. But in the middle of Romans, there are three chapters that seem like they come out of nowhere. Romans 9, 10 and eleven. And they’re there to address one major issue. It’s about how God’s plan works for the nation of Israel.

Now, we aren’t going to talk about any of that today, but what you need to understand is this in the midst of the explanation of the Gospel, Paul is addressing confusion that men have about the plans of God. In these three chapters, Paul touches on matters like sovereignty and free will and human responsibility. And at the end of the chapter, he just goes, he throws his hands up and he goes, yeah, I just need to praise God.

So you have to hear this. Rather than trying to figure out more answers to his questions, or rather than. Fighting for clarity, he just says, no more. And instead I’m going to sing a song of worship. This is what’s happening there. And I think he’s pointing us to this idea that we don’t need more humanistic answers.

What we need to be is be brought before a holy, unsearchable God. He gives us a model about how we are supposed to address God in the midst of our confusion. So let’s read it, then we’ll work back through it.

Here we go. Romans, chapter eleven, verse 33. It says, o the depths of the riches of the wisdom of the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of God? Sorry. Who has known the mind of God. Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay them for from Him and through Him, and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Paul concludes these wonderful chapters by talking about the God we have and the plan that he is unfolding. And he bursts into wonder and praise. If you were to compare this to earlier on, Paul is confused, Paul is in anguish, Paul is in sorrow, Paul has questions. But by the time we get to Romans eleven, Paul is finished with his questions and all he has left is praise. This section begins with this line the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

What is he saying? He’s talking about God’s wisdom and his knowledge being inexhaustible, unfathomable, inconceivable, unthinkable. Paul begins his praise by saying, God and his ways are beyond your understanding. This is the way the Psalmist speaks in Psalm 92, verse five. How great are your works, Lord? How profound your thoughts. The word profound means deep, bottomless beyond measure. He’s saying, the wisdom of God is such that if you try to get into it, you’re going to be like a scuba diver who gets the bends. It’s way too deep for you. No, you want to understand my plan? It’s way too deep for you.

I came with questions. This is how it works, right? I come with questions. And when I get into contact with the wisdom of God, I realize that he doesn’t have to explain anything to me, because even if he tried to, I wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway. I’m way, way too dumb, and so are you. You cannot understand the ways of God. If God were to come to you and try to explain to you what he was doing with you, it would be like a quantum mechanic physicist trying to explain to you a subject matter that he knows.

In fact, I found in a textbook, a quantum mechanic textbook, a little bit of an excerpt you guys want to hear. Here it is. Yo wave mechanism, postulates. Let us consider spinless’s nonneglected points like particles whose classical dynamics may be described by a certain Hamiltonian function x h, where R is the particle’s radius vector and P is its momentum. This condition is important because it excludes from our current discussion the systems whose interactions with their environment result in irreversible effects.

You guys got it? Did you get it? You understand? You’re good? Now, maybe someone here is like, I’m a physicist. I know what you’re talking about. It’s like, you just listen to that, but you’re not a native English speaker. This is the attitude Paul has when he approaches God. This is the posture he puts himself in. I had questions, but I’m too dumb to understand. See, if you’re struggling with questions, I beg you to come to grips with a very, very simple truth. It’s an axiom. This is not a joke. This is for real. God knows more than me. You should learn to say that honestly in your own heart and mind. I’m not even joking. He knows what he’s doing. He isn’t worried. He isn’t unsure. He isn’t concerned. He is not fearful. He knows what he’s doing. And if he tried to tell you what he was doing, if he tried to explain how he was working everything out for the good of those who love him, you wouldn’t be able to get it anyway.

Do you think yourself so wise to be gifted with the mysteries of God’s plan? Paul didn’t. Do you think yourself so wise to be gifted with the understanding of an eternal, immortal, unfathomable God? Paul looked at God and says, your depth is the word. He uses it’s like, no, no. The depth of the riches, of the wisdom, of the knowledge of God. Brothers and sisters, this is for all of us. I think we need to learn to humble out. You come with your situations, and he knows how it starts, and he knows how it ends and knows exactly how it all plays out from start to finish.

He knows each event and how each event plays out into each other event. He knows how the events of the past play out to the events of today. He understands the butterfly effect from the very beginning. And so you know the thing that you’re going through right now? Yeah, whatever that is, God knows everything about it. He knows the intricacies. He knows all your prayers. He knows its complexities. He knows it’s a challenging situation for you, but he has no problem with it. And I get it. It’s human nature, right, to want to know what is unknowable.

I see it most often in the way we plan for our futures. We want to know how things turn out right? Will I be able to retire? Will my loved one get better? We want to know how things turn out because we really believe that knowing equals peace.

We think that if we knew how our children would turn out, we would have peace in our heart. We think if we knew how our sickness would play out, we would have peace in our heart. If we could just know what was happening four months in advance, four years in advance that would give me so much peace.

But what’s interesting to me is that this desire for knowing more is actually the motivation of man’s first sin. You might remember Adam and Eve, right? You know those guys? The fruit they ate was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They needed to know. They wanted to know. God knowing wasn’t enough. They needed to know. And so they fractured reality forever.

My point is very simple. God knows how it all plays out. You don’t need to know. Knowing will not give you peace. God gives you peace. Then Paul points as he continues his discussion to God’s decision making. It’s one thing to know that God knows everything. It’s another thing to know that God decides everything perfectly. He says this: how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. He speaks not only about the depth of his knowledge, but the faultlessness of his judgments. You guys know this, but God has never, ever made a mistake. Ever. God has never done something and it was wrong. Ever. There’s never been an issue beyond the ability for God to make right. God’s decisions, verdicts, judgments, sentences are always 100% correct.

In fact, it’s beyond tracing out, which means you couldn’t figure it out. It’s like understanding your situation. It would be equivalent to this. Imagine I gave you a thousand page novel and then I read you one line from that 1000 page novel and I had you try to explain to me the plot. You couldn’t do it because you don’t have enough information. But you also don’t have enough information to make correct judgments. And this is the point. It’s insane for us insane for us to second guess God. When you’re on your knees. Lord, if you could have just made this better than life would have been, you better learn to shut up.

Do you second guess God? Like you know anything? This leads Paul into a few questions. He says, who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor?

Two rhetorical questions for who has known the mind of the Lord?

Let me ask you anybody anybody here want to put your hands up. Any volunteers? Anybody know the mind of the Lord? Perfectly? Oh, yeah. I understand exactly what he’s doing. You do? You do? This is Paul quoting from Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 13, from the Septuagian. He’s quoting the Old Testament. In the Old Testament says, for who has known the mind of the Lord? In which Isaiah responds, no one. No one. No one. No one is a witness to the infinite depths of the mind of God. And then the second question, or who has been his counselor? Who has been the Lord’s counselor? Another way to ask this is who does God go to for advice? Who does God have to check in with?

And the answer, again, is no one. Nobody stands at God giving him some suggestions that would make his plans better. I know we do that in prayer a lot, but no one would make his plan better. He doesn’t need your support. He doesn’t need your approval. He doesn’t need your counsel. Who would he talk to to come up with a better plan? Some of us in the sinful part of our hearts, we wouldn’t admit it, but we felt it. We would say, oh, if he could just ask me what he was doing, things would be better.

You have been responsible for every bad decision in your life. Why would he come to you? Get out of here. There’s no problems in God’s plans, and you and I know nothing. Were you there when he laid the Earth’s foundations? Were you there when he spoke reality into existence? Were you there when he, from the dust of the ground, formed mankind and breathed life into them?

Did you conceptualize the tectonic plates? Was that your invention? Did you come up with the creatures of the deep neutron stars or galaxies? Were you there? No, you were not. You’re an ant. You’re a roach. You’re nothing. I’m nothing? This is the way we need to learn to approach the God of the universe. You are nothing.

This would be the equivalent of getting advice from an ant about how to invest your 401K. Would you invest in Tesla? It’s like I’m an ant homie. Know your place. You are nothing, and I am nothing. But we try to give God counsel. We judge God a lot. We give him advice about what’s best. I just think we need to learn our place a little bit. It’s like, who could guide Him to convince him to do something better than what he’s already decided to do? No one. Who could speak to God and convince him to have a better plan? No one. Who am I to approach God as a counselor as though I’m his advisor? Who am I? And I get it. Some of you are uncomfortable with where God’s plans have brought you. You prefer different plans. And in some ways, all of us are tempted then to come before God, who is greater than us in every way, and sit in judgment. And to think that if he could just listen to me, things would be better. But don’t don’t mishear me. God does love you, and God does want you to bring your prayer requests and your fears and your concerns.

But I think we have just become way too comfortable with sitting in judgment of God. We become way too comfortable in our own prayer lives, in our ways we read, in the ways we engage with him. We treat him like he’s just a guy down the street. We treat him like sometimes like he’s a sideshow. Don’t get so comfortable. And you think to yourself, well, this is an unfair power structure, and it is. You’re a roach. He’s the creator of the universe. Show him more respect.

I tell you this, God is our friend, yes. But every time people got a little too comfortable with him, he put them in their place. You remember Peter? Peter approaches Jesus after Jesus says he’s going to die. And Jesus says to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You don’t have in mind the plans of God, but the plans of man. You talk to the people like you see Moses, who approaches the burning bush. And when he approaches, he approaches just like, oh, there’s a burning bush there and God stops and says, take off your shoes. Where you’re standing is Holy. Isaiah, who comes before God, and he has to say, whoa, is me, for I am unclean, for my eyes have seen the Holy King. This is don’t get so comfortable with him. We need to learn to come before him a little bit, like Job. This is Job 42, verse three.

You asked job was talking to God, talking about God like he knew God. And then God was like, who are you? This is what Job says. You asked, who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge? Job is saying, surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

Job says, I’ve been saying a whole lot of stuff about you, God. I said you would do this. I said you would do that. I said God wasn’t doing that. And now I realize I’m talking about things I don’t understand I’m sorry. Some of us may need to apologize to God for things that we’ve said about God, for things that we’ve told God to do. When you talk about God, you should watch your words. When you sing to God, you should check your heart. When you serve God, you should clean your hands. He may be willing to stoop down to make you great, but never think of yourself as higher than he is because he will lower you.

Who has ever given to God that God should repay them? This is the next rhetorical question in this moment of praise, here’s the question. Who loans something to God that now God is in their debt? Who has God in debt to him? Anybody? Anybody? Who has God under obligations to perform for them, like some circus sideshow, like some vending machine?

Who has God in debt that if you asked him to do something, he would change his plans to help you? Who has? And the answer, again, is no one. Who am I to think God is there to give me health, wealth and the American dream? It’s utterly ridiculous. Know your place. You are a servant of his. And everything he gives you is because of his graciousness. God doesn’t have to give you or me anything.

Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters. God doesn’t owe anybody anything. His favor is never owed to anybody. It’s never earned by anybody. You think. But I’m a disciple. And I’ve been a disciple a long time. And I’ve served to many, many, many years. And I deserve something. My rights, my respect. Do not get this thing twisted. You and I deserve one thing death. Everything else we get is from the amazingly benevolent God that we serve. And thank God for that. He is a generous giver of what a great and glorious and compassionate and generous God we have. Man.

But the truth is that we owe God an unpayable debt, don’t we? Like the man in Matthew 18, there is. He owes everything. Everything. There’s no merit in us that would make us right before God. God is self sufficient. He is sovereign. He is not under any obligation. He doesn’t owe you or me. He doesn’t owe you answers. He doesn’t owe you health. He doesn’t owe you salvation. He doesn’t owe you anything. But because of his amazing character, God does for us more than we could ever possibly deserve.

I feel like we should say thank you. Know your place. You’re an in debt roach. For from Him, and through him, and for Him are all things to him be the glory forever. Amen. What a great climax to this psalm. He is the source. It’s from him. He is the means by which it comes. It’s through him. He is the goal. It’s to him. He makes all things right. He puts all things together for his own glory.

You know Psalm 23? That beautiful passage he lies me down in calm waters or he leaves me beside calm waters. He lies me down. You know that whole passage? What a beautiful passage at the end of it. Do you know why it says he does it? He does it for his name’s sake. So even when he’s nice to us, it’s for his own glory. It’s from Him and through him, and for him. He made all things for himself. He brings all things to completion for his own glory. See? He is what all of this is about. And so this is how this works, right? You come to God with your confusion, with your fears, with your concerns. And when you come to Him, you come face to face with a sovereign God. And you and I are supposed to feel blown away. And what we find is that in our proper place, the questions turn to praise. I don’t need to know the answers, because I know the one who knows the answers. I don’t need to be in control because I know the one who’s in control. Have you seen my God? He’s amazing.

Oh, you should be worried. No, I’m not. Why would I be worried? I worship the God of the universe. See, what I long for you is this that you can have confidence and peace, that is inflamed and informed by the greatness of God. That the more you study out who he is, it won’t be that you get any more answers to any of your hard questions but you will find his majesty, his wonder, his beauty, his depths. And you’ll become someone who praises more than you judge, who praises more than you fear, who praises more than you wonder.

We’re going to close here with Psalm chapter eight, verse 33. It says, when I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, this is the way the Psalmist reacts. What is mankind? That you are mindful of them. Human beings that you care for them?

I know I’ve said some intense things, but I want to ensure you of something. This teaching isn’t about leaving you with the idea that you’re a roach and you’re in debt. Now, have a nice day. It’s to help you understand this that you are nothing. But God cares for you anyway. And he cares about you in such a way that not a hair could fall from your head without Him knowing. And he cares for you in such a way that he would send his own son to be crucified in your stead. And he loves you so much that he would do anything it took to bring you into a relationship with Him. If you and I are in fact nothing owed nothing not smart enough and yet God loves us, this should impact everything about our lives. You don’t need to prove yourself to be loved by God. He simply loves you.

This is like the equivalent of me loving the dust bunnies in the corner of my room. I just love them so much. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. And if you love Him and you turn to Him, he accepts you. He redeems you. He justifies you. And he glorifies you. Oh that we can be in the hands of an immortal being who knows the end from the beginning and yet loves us even in spite of our sin.

I want to close with an illustration. This coming on stage is my son Silas. Silas is a little over one. His birthday is in November. Silas doesn’t know anything. Silas knows how to keep us up at night. Silas knows how to eat. Now, he’s learning little words like mama and papa, but he doesn’t know anything. But in the arms of his dad, he is wildly secure. If I were to put him on the stage and just leave him here, he would be crying, frustrated, fearful. He would be confused and unsure about what to do next. But in this moment, even though he’s in the middle of all of you in the arms of his dad, he’s secure. I want to encourage you to come before God this way, not like a prepubescent teenager, but like this. Hi. You want to kiss? Before God? Come. He’s kissing you guys. Calm and secure. And in your arms and in his arms, you will find answers. Well, I’m sorry, you will find no answers, but you will find a whole bunch of confidence. Let’s pray together.

God, I felt when we were singing the song no One I felt just kind of the zeal of what I’m talking about here inflamed in me. I felt very much like I have been a person who has asked you for too much, questioned you too much, thought that you were some type of assistant to me, living a comfortable life. Lord, I just want to say sorry, lord, I want to say sorry for being arrogant, for being rude, for being proud, for believing I know more for not praying to you before I give advice or praying to you before I make decisions. And, Lord, I’m a wretch. I’m a sinful man, Lord, and I know all of us in some ways feel that about ourselves. At least we should feel that about ourselves. And, Lord, I just thank you so much that you are a dad. That when we humble out, Lord, you just pick us up and hold us tight and comfort us and give us love and guide us into life everlasting. And I just want to say thank you for that, Lord, I want to say thank you for our families, thank you for the jobs we have and the positions we have and the vehicles we drive and the gifts that we’ve been given.

Lord, we have been given way too much, God, and I just want to say thank you for who we are. We don’t deserve anything, God. And so it’s just a great honor to know that we’ve been given so much. God, I felt very, who am I to even talk about you? Who am I to open my mouth and to describe the God of the Bible? I’m nobody God, but so, Lord, I just want to say, I pray, God, that we gave you honor today, that we glorified Your name today, that the people in this congregation felt closer to you than they ever have before Lord, I pray that all of us can find our place before you. And instead of having confusion in our heart, I pray that all of us, instead, will find some confidence in the arm of an immortal, beautiful, lovely God. We love you, Lord. We thank you for being who you are. Thank you for Jesus, who, because of his grace, gives us confidence and access into your presence. We don’t have to live in fear. We can live in confidence, Lord, and what a wonderful, wonderful thing that is. We love you. In Jesus name. Amen.