Astounded | Wise (July 4, 2021) Mike Armstrong

Welcome to the Redemption Church New Market podcast.

This morning we are hearing from Pastor Mike Armstrong, the senior pastor here.

The series is astounded, the attributes of God.

Amen, amen.

Well, you can go ahead and uh take your seats.

Just want to say uh good morning and welcome, Redemption Church.

It is uh man, it's so much better.

I know we're only 25% full here, but it feels like it feels like 110 compared to what we've been doing.

And and I just want to welcome you.

Great to see you all out here today.

Special shout out to the crew uh to Intent City out there watching the service and uh being a part of everything outside.

So glad to have you uh all there.

Welcome to those of you still watching online.

Uh grateful to have you uh tuned in and uh and part of all of this.

And uh we are about to get into God's word here.

Uh but just before we do, a couple of things to make you aware of.

Uh we have this Church Center app uh that we've been uh using and promoting uh that helps you get plugged into the life of our church in terms of everything that you might need sermons, uh children's ministry videos, giving, information about small groups, everything is really all uh right in there.

And so you know this, download that, uh, get uh involved in that way, and uh we will uh uh continue to promote and let you know about that.

One of the important ways that you can uh use that app or go online or even do it in person is is uh with giving, right?

With giving.

An important thing that we do here is worship the Lord through our giving, and so we're thankful to all the those of you who give uh as uh as part of our church.

Also want to make you know that if you are a guest with us here today, uh no pressure uh at all from us uh to give.

Uh, this is the way that uh regular tenders and members uh support the work of ministry uh here.

Speaking of giving, by the way, great news in terms of our special offering.

Over the last couple of months, we've been uh looking to raise$14,000 uh to go to a number of projects.

You know, the church in uh Romania and uh the life center here in town and capital needs.

And you're like, yeah, yeah, we know all that.

Tell us the good news.

Well, the good news is uh we uh went above what we were asking uh to the tune of sixteen thousand dollars, two hundred and forty-one.

So, yes, that is absolutely something to praise the Lord about.

And uh we're thankful to him.

I want to express my gratitude to each of you as well uh for your willingness uh to give uh to that.

And so again, we're excited to see how the Lord is going to uh use every one of those uh dollars uh to further the gospel uh in our church and uh certainly beyond it as well.

So thank you for that.

And then last thing here, uh and certainly not least, we've been doing some online prayer meetings uh throughout the pandemic, and we're gonna continue to do that uh Tuesday mornings, 6 a.m.

Uh bright and early.

We get up and we pray and we bring our needs and our joys to the Lord.

And so that is all happening through Zoom.

You can find it on our website or again, the Church Center app, you can find it there as well.

And uh that's Tuesday mornings and then Sundays.

We've been obviously moving this time frame around based on you know how many services are we doing and why are those services happening?

Well, now that we're at 10 a.m., uh service, we're moving that prayer time to 11 a.m.

Okay, so immediately following the service should be pretty simple for you if you're watching at home, and uh especially if you are on your own and you want and need somebody to pray with, uh, we're gonna have uh Dave Grant uh there to pray with you uh immediately following uh our service today.

All right, we'll get your Bibles and get them uh open to Romans chapter 11.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 11 is our location this morning, looking at one verse, verse uh 33, and uh so you can find that.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

Now, some of our uh most beloved stories, okay, that you would be very familiar with, some of those stories that have turned into books or or movies, uh they involve, some of them involve uh the discovery of unimaginable, pretty much, amounts of treasure.

Right?

You've seen these before.

I mean, even like the movie Aladdin, right, when he walks in, he finds where the lamp is, it's this cavernous area of gold and treasure, like almost as far as the eye can see, right?

It's massive.

And you think about the hobbits, and I'm not like a huge hobbit guy and fan.

I know that's gonna lose a lot of respect in some of your eyes.

Uh, but I know in one of those movies or a couple of them, you know, where the dragon was, and he's like sleeping on gold, and and it's it's almost like the dirt of his cave, but again, it's this massive area of immense, immense wealth.

But I think you think about different pirate movies and stories and tales, Treasure Island and all of that, they're kind of all the same in many ways because they all capture our curiosity and our wonder, you know, with with the uh a depth of of wealth, okay, or or riches that we can't even really comprehend.

You think about that, you know, where where we're left, as we watch these or we read these books, basically astounded, you know, as our imaginations kind of run wild on us at the sheer thought of what it would be like if we were to step into a discovery like that for ourselves.

You think, imagine if I just never had to worry about another mortgage payment.

If you're a kid, imagine I could buy not only a PS5, but the new Xbox as well.

And we don't even have to think about it, right?

We think about these kinds of things.

Every vacation we've ever dreamed of, the biggest house, the best car, all of that kind of stuff are imaginations.

Again, they they kind of go crazy.

Okay, well, interestingly enough, the phrase phrase is like depth of riches, okay?

It's precisely how the Bible describes the wisdom that our God possesses.

Okay, Romans 11, 33 is where we see that actual phrase.

And so look at it now with me.

Look at what Paul says.

He says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

Okay, let that settle on you.

He says, How unsearchable, meaning bottomless.

It's a bottomless pit.

How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable, that word inscrutable, not probably not a word that you use all the time, but it just means, you know, impossible to completely comprehend.

Okay, how inscrutable are his ways, the ways that he moves and acts.

If you think about it, this verse is really that cave of unthinkable treasure moment.

And I think it really captures for us the main idea that we're gonna look at here this morning together.

It's this.

I'm astounded as I consider that God is wise.

That God is wise.

Have you ever sat back and just tried to kind of absorb the awesomeness of God?

You ever tried to just allow your mind to kind of go down that rabbit trail and think about the depths and riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, as the verse says?

You know, as you read the scriptures, I don't know what your quiet time looks like when you do that, how often you get to it, how much you read each time you sit down, but as you read the scriptures, okay, have you been blown away at how God expertly, okay, expertly, with with precision, with know-how, with kindness and grace and mercy leads his people.

As you've studied that, as you've looked at that, have you been blown away by that as he's directed the course of history and the Israelites and how all of that shook out.

As you think about the Israelites and their exit out of Egypt, for example, and and the plagues that came in, and how he used Moses, and how he leads them out, and he he takes them through the Red Sea, and then they worship at the foot of the mountain, and at every turn, they're confused and they don't really know what's going on.

And even at times, they want to go back to the slavery.

Especially in those moments where the manna just became too much, same thing over and over again.

This is all we're eating, right?

They would complain and they would grumble.

Moses slipped up, he made all kinds of mistakes.

And you see that though, it's just his direction, the wisdom in which he guided his people all the way through the Bible.

I mean, it is wild, wild to comprehend.

Have you ever paused and just spent some time thinking about and reflecting on how he's done that kind of thing in your life?

I was doing that a little bit this week as I was thinking through how God has had his hand on me and our family.

I was reflecting on how, you know, I've been in full-time vocational ministry for 15 years now.

Like Angela and I got married, and it was like a month later, full-time camp ministry.

You know, it went from that and working with college students in an amazing kind of outdoor pursuits ministry in the U.S.

to then joining Harvest Berry and being part of their student ministries, and then it was family ministries, and it was jumping on the Markham bandwagon, becoming the campus pastor, and then the senior pastor, just thinking about how, you know, in my life, how the Lord has guided me through so many question marks.

You know, so many times of moments of confusion.

I don't know what's next, I don't know what's coming around the corner, which direction should I go?

The different ups and the different downs.

I see God's wisdom.

I can see why he withheld certain things I was praying for and that I wanted and I felt like I needed right this second.

I can see why he withheld that with the benefit of hindsight, seeing, no, the Lord was going after something else in me.

He was doing something in me that I couldn't see.

Have you ever looked at your own life like that and marveled at the wisdom of God and how he's directed you and how in through all of it, he's never let go.

Right?

He's never done, he's never pushed you aside and said, forget it, I'm I'm done with you.

Which means he's never gonna do it in the future.

In fact, if you really were to kind of stop and think about it and take the time and reflect, I mean, he has been your guide through through many moments like this, confusions, questions, doubts, setbacks, lack of direction, lack of wisdom.

Have you thought through that?

Have you have you worshiped the Lord as you've seen him answer prayers in your life?

As you've seen those things you've been praying for, and you're like, I need it right now, and he comes through, or he comes through at a different time, or he or he moves you in a direct different direction, or you've seen him do that in in other people's lives that you have been praying for.

Because that's what that's what this verse really is.

It's a cry of worship.

As Paul, he's marveling here as as he writes this.

The depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

He's in awe as he considers deeply how unsearchable, again, bottomless his judgments are, right?

And how inscrutable, you know, impossible to fully comprehend his ways are.

Okay, this verse is written by a man astounded as he just considers these things.

And so my question to you is is do we do likewise?

Do we marvel at who the Lord is?

Or do we let these moments and these opportunities kind of slip by?

We've asked the Lord, we're not we're not bad at asking the Lord for stuff.

We've all got the shopping list.

But when we get it, do we just like move on to the next thing?

Or do we have that kind of thing and going on in our undercurrent of our souls?

We're like, finally, it's about time he answers me and finally throws me a bone?

Which shows maybe just a lack of gratitude and understanding of our place and his kindness.

Do we let these opportunities to worship and marvel and be astounded just kind of go by essentially unnoticed by us?

See, I think the thing is, I think many of us have been astounded in these kinds of moments, but just not in the right way.

Okay, meaning we tend to be astounded at many moments throughout life, but but by the wrong things.

Right?

Far too often we're we're blown away by by our weaknesses, by by our you know, the difficulties that we encounter, our our circumstances not going our way.

We're astounded by our lack of wisdom and and knowledge that the Lord possesses, our lack of understanding.

We're astonished and often shaken, not by God's greatness, but often by the sheer depth of our neediness and the awareness that we have of that, or our failings, or what have you.

And it often all comes out in things like anxiety, and things like in things like fear and and just rampant idolatry, which I think just really means that ultimately this all boils down to self-centeredness.

Right?

That's where we're astounded by we're standard by ourselves, we're self-centered, and that's really our our default setting as people that have been marked by sin.

Right?

That is our natural focus.

Instinctively, we look at our ourselves because our because that's just what we do because of sin.

Instead of having our focus and and our attention on the awesomeness of our God.

At the end of the day, many times we just don't really have a clear enough vision of his greatness.

Right?

We don't.

Now I know it's been a week or so since we've had a Tozer quote, and I'm sure you're all concerned.

Like, how's Mike doing here?

We haven't put anything up on the screen with him.

Don't worry, we're back.

Okay, here's what Tozer says, and how he describes the greatness of God's wisdom.

Take a look at this.

Okay, wisdom, hey, among other things, this is describing God's wisdom, mind you.

Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends.

Okay, so he sees the ends, okay, perfect ends, and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means.

Okay, so he knows how to do what he wants to do perfectly.

He's not like, well, here's where I need to go, but but I but it's gonna be a bumpy, messy road, and I'm gonna make some mistakes, and I don't really know what I'm doing, but we'll we'll get there.

No, that's that's not it at all.

He's able to achieve those ends by the perfect means.

It says and it sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture.

Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.

That's our God, that's the wisdom of our God, flawless precision.

Listen, if if you're a if you're a Christ follower here today or watching from home, the pathway out of all of that that awe of self, that self-centeredness, that that anxiety or that fear, you know, or that confusion or that lack of wisdom that you have and you're all too aware of, is really by seeing God, and as we're focusing today specifically, his wisdom, right, by seeing God as clearly and and with as much wow reverberating through your soul, through your heart and your mind as possible.

That's the pathway out.

And so what I want to leave you with here today is three very practical ways to learn to appreciate God's wisdom more.

Very practical, like like there's something for you to grab hold of, something for you to put into practice today.

Okay, here's the first one.

Pray that God would give me eyes to see him at work.

You've heard me say this kind of thing before.

We need we need to pray that the Lord would help us to see his wisdom in action.

So many, like God is always working, God is always doing something, he's always doing a million things.

The problem is that we are too, again, self-centered, self-focused, we navel gaze too much, or or we have this veil that seems to cover us spiritually, where we just don't see it.

And so, how many times have we been like, is God even real?

And is God really doing anything?

That's just a astounding lack of awareness at who our God is and what he does.

Pray that the Lord, Lord, open my eyes, help me to see this, help me to see your wisdom at work.

As I read the scriptures, as I open up my Bible and as I study, as I come to church and hear it being taught, help me to see, wow, that is that is a God who is infinitely wise.

Help me to see it as I read.

As you look out at creation and you marvel at dandelions.

Think about the wisdom of God in that.

What do we do when it comes to dandelions?

We complain and curse them.

We hate them because they spread, right?

But you think about how God created something like that in wisdom.

I mean, that's just one example.

As you look out in creation, notice the wisdom of your God.

Ask for him to see his wisdom in your life, in the lives of others that you know.

Right?

The more in tune we are with with him at work and how wise he is, the more that we are going to be astounded.

That's the way that that's gonna work.

Here's the second thing here, a practical way to appreciate God's wisdom more.

Read more biographies.

You're like, what?

That doesn't what?

Read more biographies?

Yes, seriously.

Read more biographies.

I mean, I'm talking about like Christian men and women who have gone before us, who just show us what a life surrender to Jesus Christ looks like.

I remember reading George Mueller's biography years ago and just being astounded by not just the the immense faith that that this man had, but just the wisdom of God and the timing and how he would provide for him.

Read something like George Mueller's biography.

I asked my wife about this because she's so good at reading biographies.

I'm like, give me a list of people.

She just started spitting them all out.

Right?

Corey Tenboom, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Amy Carmichael, Susie Spurgeon.

I mean, these are just a few that you can study and read and be blown away by the wisdom of God and how he has worked in men and women who have gone before us.

Here's another pro tip.

Okay?

They've often made a lot of these in kids' versions as well.

Pick up a kid's version, read through that with your child or give them a copy of that.

Again, another thing that my wife is so good at, getting the kids together and reading through these types of things.

It's such a great way for you to grow in understanding and marveling and appreciating the depths of the riches of God's wisdom.

Third one, again, this is very practical.

Meditate on the gospel every day.

Meditate on it every single day.

Have you ever stopped and just thought about how the wisdom of God just is so there?

It comes to the surface when you consider the gospel of grace.

You ever thought about how every other religion and irreligion, okay, all of it is the opposite of the gospel.

Every other religion would have you trying to earn your salvation.

However, that religion describes salvation, however that religion describes whatever heaven is to them.

Every single one, they're all the same when you boil it right down.

You've got to prove yourself to that deity.

You've got to earn it, you've got to be good, you've got to be mortal, you've got to check a whole bunch of boxes and do a bunch of good stuff in order to hopefully appease whatever that God is.

And you're like, that's what's so lame about religion, and and therefore I'm abandoning all religion.

Oh, yeah, that's the exact same thing.

Right?

Really, if irreligion is the same thing.

The world would have you say that money is the answer to making you whole.

Or it's finding satisfaction in a sexual relationship or orientation.

This is how you will achieve salvation or wholeness or completeness or sa or peace.

Right?

You're earning it still.

Like that, that is, that is how our our our tendencies are wired because of sin.

Only the scriptures, only the gospel, only Christianity shows us that our salvation is not, can not, will never be earned.

It's not something that you and I can earn.

Instead, God offers it to us as a gift because He earned it for you.

No human would come out come up with that.

That is the wisdom of God.

Right?

That that's been blowing my mind, even just this morning as I'm thinking about all this.

Wow, how awesome are you! You, oh Lord, no man would come up with this.

Every movie, every book that you read is about, I'm reading a book literally called Redemption right now.

And it's about how a person, how a guy, redeems himself through doing a bunch of stuff.

Everything is that way.

The gospel is different.

Christ took everything that you needed to do and accomplished it himself.

He appeased God's wrath, which is aimed at you because of your sin.

And he took all that upon himself on the cross.

And then he rose again, defeating sin, defeating death, and now offers you salvation as a gift if you would repent.

If you would admit that Jesus did it all for you, you could be saved.

Right?

That is awesome.

It's amazing.

Meditate on that.

Think about that.

You don't do that.

You're gonna you're what's up?

Who cares about Christianity?

How is it any different than anything else?

Why would I even come to church?

Why would I even open a Bible?

Why would I bring my Bible to church?

Why would I do any of this stuff?

We don't think about and meditate on the gospel.

And because of that, we're not we're not blown away, we're not astounded by the greatness of our God.

So listen, I want to pray for us right now because we all need work in this, myself included.

And so I would invite you to join me as we consider the wisdom of God and the worship team come back up.

And then just want to keep you for another four or five minutes or so.

I want to do a family chat with you before we get you out of here today.

But join me as I pray.

Lord, we thank you, God, that even as we are praying right now, our hearts attuned, Lord, that we are we are praying to a God of infinite wisdom, a God that we can trust, a God that is worthy of our worship and our praise, a God that can handle our biggest questions, a God that can handle our biggest problems and conundrums.

Lord, I pray that we would see you as you truly are.

I pray that we would be astounded by you.

I pray that we would trust you.

I pray that we would worship you.

And so, Lord, help us in the different ways that our hearts get away from this and forget about this.

Lord, we pray that you would pour out more grace because that is what we need.

And so, God, as we sing now, Father, I pray that you would be honored.

I pray that you would be lifted up.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.