Sermon Cloud

Over four years ago, my world got turned upside down. Laura and I had been married for just a couple of years. We were living the high life as a young married couple. We were young and in love. We were a double income couple with lots of loot to spend on whatever we wanted. We were going out to eat all the time, taking vacations, buying without thinking, staying out all night and then... suddenly our world collided with a pregnancy test.

Story of Laura trying different pregnancy test (first pink and then blue).

For nine months, Laura and I talked and planned and rehearsed what life would be like with a new child. We dreamt about that child's future. We talked about how that child would change our lives and just even the impact that this would have on people around her. We bought baby furniture, painted the room, had baby showers, bought diapers, wipes, diapers, wipes, and more diapers and wipes. We had all the latest gadgets so that we were ready for this child.

However, there is no amount of planning or thinking that could have prepared Laura and me for the moment that we met Grace Anne Vroom. Our worlds were shook. She was beautiful. There was not one thing wrong with this beautiful baby girl. As she has developed, we are constantly blown away with how much God has blessed us with the precious gift of Grace. Just recently we were blessed with Isaac Allen and we are going through it all again

Starting points. Beginnings. Birth.

As parents we would talk about what are those things that we have experienced from our own family that we want to make sure that we pass on to our kids. How are we going to discipline, how are we going to encourage, how are we going to care for these kids? How are we going to show them Christ?

I imagine that some of you have experienced this very same thing. If not with a child it was with a new relationship, or going off to school or getting engaged or married. You wonder "Where do I start?" You say to yourself, "Self, I have never done this before, so what is my starting point?"

Well, this has been a day that has been on the horizon for many of us. We have been dreaming and thinking about this moment. We have been praying for this very moment. Waiting. Planning. Sweating.

And now it is a reality. So with all of this excitement about Missio Dei Church, I have been wrestling with what are the opening words that I should have? It is my prayer this morning that these words carry weight with you because it is my hope that as we worship together in this building for the very first time that our eyes and our hearts are all pointed in the same direction

To be on this mission together, we all must start right. All of our heads need to be pointed in the right direction and walking in step together. We need to start with God in mind.

We need to begin MDC with making much of God and not of man. If we do this with all of our lives, people will give themselves to it in a significant way. We need to paint a huge picture of God, so that people will break out into a doxology. And this is where we find the Apostle Paul in Romans.

The book of Romans has been viewed by theologians and Christians as one of the most rich and complex books of the Bible. John Calvin said of it, "When anyone gains a knowledge of this Epistle, he has an entrance opened to him to all the most hidden treasures of Scripture."

Romans answers many questions concerning man and God. Some of the more significant questions are: What is the good news of God? Is Jesus really God? What is God like? Will the world ever be different? What really is the meaning of this life that we live? What is genuine love and how does it work?

So by chapter 11, Paul was in the middle of this huge theological treatise, wrestling through the great realities of salvation. I can just imagine this man wrestling and wrestling with just how to communicate the complexities of God. Wondering if this is the best way of communicating to this young church, suddenly he just cracks. It hits him like a ton of bricks and he breaks out into a doxology or a "Wow, you ARE God moment." He says:

33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
35"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
36For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

He just has this break through moment of the immensity of God. Through his writing this letter, he was just nailed right in the chest with the incomprehensibility of God! He had just affirmed God's sovereignty, integrity, and generosity and he finds that he has nothing more to add other than to just make much of God.

He praised the depths of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge. Like a mountain climber who has reached the summit of Mount Everest, Paul can only stand awe-stuck at God's beauty and majesty. Unable to explain away an infinite and holy to finite and sinful people, he can only acknowledge that God's judgments are unsearchable and His ways are unfathomable!

He asks three questions that are meant to honor and exalt God, and the answer to each is obvious and the same. Three questions are asked:

• Who has known the mind of God?
• Who has been his counselor?
• Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?

Paul realized that we can never fully know the mind of God nor act as his counselor. How can the created or creation know more or offer advice to the Creator? It is impossible! It is just plain impossible. This is God here folk! This just rattled his cage.

From this he goes on to say in Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.

Paul says, listen up! I beg you, I urge you... offer yourself, your soma. In the Greek which meant your whole self. Not just an hour or two on Sunday, but your mind, your body, your soul. Everything that you are, in light of who God is, offer that it all to God. If this is who God is then we need to be people who are constantly position ourselves, stilling ourselves and saying, "Here I am! All of me! I am yours because you are worth of all of me."

So, as we begin Missio Dei Church, as you live out your faith in your school, your job site, in your marriage, your dating, I want you to ask yourself, "Am I really comprehending the immensity of this God? In my life, my speech, in my work place, in how I handle my finances, in how I love people, am I really portraying the beauty and magnitude of God?"

Are you on a daily basis saying, "God, here I am as a living sacrifice. All of me."

I want to be like the Apostle Paul who is just constantly blown out of the water with the incomprehensible God. I want my children as they watch their parent's marriage relationship and listen our conversations to be blown out of the water about Jesus.

I want MDC to be a community who makes much of God, who is constantly searching the depths of the riches of his knowledge and wisdom. I want to be a part of a people who are constantly breaking out into a doxology to God in our musical worship, in our words, in our actions.

Imagine:

• Imagine what would happen in our community if Christians would make much of Jesus instead of worship style or theological minutia. Where we model not only the love and mercy of God but also his justice.
• Imagine what would happen in our relationships whether they be dating or marital if we made much of Jesus! Where our partner senses true love instead of the love of the world.
• Imagine what would happen in our families if we made much of Jesus! Where our children at an early age are enamored with this great God.

So we start today with the question, "How do we start?" My answer is may we make much of God. May we paint a huge picture of Jesus. May the people that we come in contact with on a daily or weekly basis sense that there is something strangely attractive about you because of this Jesus that you love.

The early church father and martyr, Irenaeus [pronounced Ur-en-aeus] (130 A.D. - 200 A.D.), the Bishop of Lyon, Gaul (now, the nation of France) once said, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive!" To be fully alive, my brothers and sisters, is to bring God the glory by worshipping Him! That, church, is our primary responsibility! The late great English novelist and essayist, C.S. Lewis, once said: "In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him."