I preached this morning from Paul’s doxology that bridges the doctrine (chaps. 1-11) and duty (chaps. 12-16) sections of Paul’s letter to the Romans. I wanted to preach a “big God” text. And they don’t come too much better than this one.

In this doxology, Paul reminds us that God is worthy to praised even when we don’t understand what God is doing. Sometimes our faith, worship, and obedience turns into doubt, complaining, and rebellion when we don’t understand what God is doing in our lives. But this ought not be the case. God is worthy to be praised for the very fact that God knows what he is doing, even when he does not make sense to us.

Here is the sermon skeleton from this morning’s message.

Title: “God Knows What He Is Doing”

Text: Romans 11:33-36

Point: God is worthy to be praised because God knows what he is doing even when he doesn’t make sense to us.

Outline:

I. The supremacy of God’s ways (11:33)

    A. God’s thoughts are beyond our understanding.

    B. God’s decisions are beyond our understanding.

       1. God’s punitive judgments are unsearchable.

       2. God’s gracious judgments are unsearchable.

    C. God’s ways are beyond our understanding.

II. The sovereignty of God’s ways (11:34-35)

    A. No one knows the mind of the Lord (v. 34a)

       1. We can clearly know the mind of the Lord (2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Co. 2:12)

       2. We cannot fully know the mind of the Lord.

    B. No one has been the Lord’s counselor (v. 34b)
   
    C. No one has given to the Lord that he might be repaid (v. 35)

III. The sufficiency of God’s ways (11:36)

    A. Give glory to God because he is the source of all things.

    B. Give glory to God because he is the means of all things.

    C. Give glory to God because he is the end of all things.