Our church closed out a sermon series in Romans 8 with an extended time of worship after the sermon. We've become accustomed to having our 'time of worship' happen before the sermon most of the time in our worship services. Singing before you hear the sermon can be a great way to prepare your heart to hear from God - I'm not in any way arguing against that. At the same time, hearing the Word of God can stir true worship in you that makes you want to sing in response to what you have heard. It was a great change of pace.

How I said it during my sermon was: "Proper theology will lead to proper worship." Too often, we use worship as an avenue to prepare our hearts to hear from God (which by the way, is worship) instead of simply giving praise to God for who He is no matter what our hearts are feeling at the time. It is knowledge of God that should drive worship; knowing more about Him leads you into deeper worship.

When did worship become a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself? When did worship become a tool for us to accomplish something else? If you read through many current worship songs today, many of them focus on what we are doing in our worship. For example, we sing a lot of lyrics that go something like: Lord, I give you my heart, or I surrender to you, or I'm crying out, or I fix my eyes on you. Of course, all of those are great things to declare and I'm not in any way suggesting we stop saying those things. I just think we need a whole lot more of songs that declare truth about who God is.

After all, worship is supposed to be about exalting the One you are worshiping. Let's start singing truth about this God Who deserves all our praise, and I believe our hearts and emotions will follow. If you're singing about Jesus and His attributes, you won't have to say "I give you all I am" because it will become your natural response to the truth you are declaring. Truth will inform your heart and emotions rather than having it the other way around. After all, you can't truly sing "Lord, you're beautiful" if you haven't seen His beauty or know why He is beautiful.

By using worship as a means to an end, we often find ourselves with shallow worship. Worship must be an end in and of itself because it is in that moment that we are doing what we have been created to do: worshipping our Creator. But you can't truly worship if you don't know Who you are worshipping. So dive into His Word where He has revealed Himself and allow the Spirit of God to take the Word of God and drive you into genuine worship.

I had a conversation with someone following my sermon this past Sunday that got me thinking about our ability to understand God. This individual was thanking me for pointing out the tension between predestination and free-will and how we as Christians have to seek truth instead of finding Scriptures that support our views. They commented on the fact that this is just one of the mysteries of God that we cannot fully comprehend.

My last blog post was an encouragement to worship in the face of mystery rather than always trying to find concrete answers to things we just can't understand. But I want to point out something else on the topic of mystery: We will NEVER fully comprehend God. Not even in eternity.

God is infinite in nature; which means that there is no limit to His glory and His ways are unsearchable. He has certainly made Himself known to us through His creation and His divinely inspired Word, but there are depths that we simply will never reach in our understanding of Who He is. And if that's discouraging or disappointing to you, your perspective may need to be adjusted.

Think about it this way: have you ever been on a really long road trip with friends? You begin by sharing stories, laughing, maybe even having deep conversations, and then you run out of things to talk about? Or maybe eventually you just realize that you've lost interest in the conversation, so you tune out?

We don't have that problem with God - His infinite nature means that we will spend eternity learning new things about Him that lead us to a deeper adoration and worship of Him. We can't "figure Him out" and He will never become "predictable" to us. You can't put Him in a box, and He will always exceed our expectations of him (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Yet, at the very same time the invitation goes out to us - "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:8). God has revealed Himself to His creation and wants us to know Him intimately. He is beyond our understanding, yet He is near. His wisdom is unsearchable, yet He bestows wisdom upon us. This should make us drop to our knees in awe and wonder. We shouldn't be frustrated that we don't understand everything about Him, we should be passionate to know Him more deeply every day.

Praise Him for His infinite nature and, at the very same time, draw near to Him to know him more.

Yesterday, I preached on Romans 8:26-27. It is one of the most powerful sections in one of the most powerful chapters in all of Scripture. To think that God the Spirit would pray to God the Father on the basis of the finished work of God the Son for me is absolutely incredible. It's also a mystery - something we cannot fully understand.

Now, when I was preaching, I noted that sometimes we work so hard at understanding the mysteries of the Gospel that we neglect to worship God for the Gospel. That is truly a tragedy. Imagine a scientist only ever looking through a microscope at God's creation, but never just enjoying the beauty all around them. Or think about an astronomer only ever looking through a telescope, but never enjoying the grandeur of a clear night's sky with the naked eye. We must step back and be in awe of the mysteries God puts before us.

That does not mean we should neglect the hard work of studying and understanding these mysteries. Too often, Christians use 'mystery' as an excuse for spiritual immaturity and Biblical illiteracy. God does desire that we grow in our knowledge and understanding of Him. Take Ephesians 1:18 for example - "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

It is our very study of these mysteries that should drive us to worship and awe. Yes, there are times when we must pause, acknowledge our lack of understanding and bow in reverence. Then there are times when our passion for God drives us to know Him more and take hold of Him until the Spirit grants us a deeper knowledge of the Word. We aren't seeking new revelations, but to better understand the revelation already given to us through the Scriptures. When we do, our worship of Him will grow stronger and deeper.

The beauty of this pursuit is that we will never arrive. God always transcends our current knowledge of Him and therefore, we will spend all eternity diving into the depths of who He is. This is why I personally believe that study of theology is worship. It's not simply an intellectual pursuit - though it engages our intellect - but a heart pursuit as well. The mysteries of the Gospel leave us in awe, but they also drive us to know Him more

In Romans 8:18-25, we see a theme of future salvation running throughout. As a matter of fact, Paul points to the glory yet to come as our hope in the midst of pain. So often, we are taught that our only hope is in the finished work of Jesus on the cross for us. In one sense, that is true, but Paul very clearly says that the hope we were saved by is unseen - meaning it hasn't happened yet.

I believe that one of the reasons we are so tempted to question God in our pain is because we either don't understand or meditate on this truth of our future glory. I love the way Peter puts it in 1 Peter 1:8-9 – “Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Peter says that we have not yet fully received the goal of our faith. Jesus absolutely finished the work of our justification at the cross. He defeated death once and for all. But there is still a work of sanctification being done in us and we still eagerly wait for the work of our glorification on the day Jesus returns. This allows us to have hope because we know that even though things are not as they should be, He's not finished with us yet!

On the days that you become frustrated with your sin and suffering, hold on to the hope that God is still working on you and He WILL complete the work that He began (Philippians 1:6). When you can't understand why you are going through certain trials, place your hope in the salvation you have yet to fully see. If we can rejoice so greatly in the work Jesus has already completed, we can surely also rejoice in the work He is still doing and will do.

The secret to being patient in the midst of difficulty - I believe - is to trust the God of the process. If we continuously search for answers to our pain, we are looking to the things that can be seen. But that's not where our hope lies! Our hope is in the things unseen (Romans 8:24-25). Of course you can't see how your pain is working for you yet. That's why we are told to "eagerly wait with patience." The same confidence you have in the finished work of Jesus can be placed in the 'yet to be completed' work of Jesus.

So when you rejoice in the God of your Salvation, understand that you are rejoicing in things still unseen. Understand that you are declaring that God will finish the work that He began and one day all the pain you've been experiencing will fade away because of the glory we will experience when we are face to face with our Salvation.

If we are Facebook friends, you may have scrolled past a meme I posted a few days ago. I'll post it here so you can appreciate it again:

Maybe my sense of humor is a little weird sometimes, but I thought it was funny and true all at the same time. It's so easy to read Romans 8:1 and believe that because Jesus paid for our sin, it's not a big deal for us anymore. In one sense that's true, but in another sense it's ridiculous. I'll do my best to explain.

Let's start by talking about why sin isn't a big deal.

Romans 8:1 - "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus."

Simply put, there is not a single sin that you have ever committed, or will ever commit that wasn't paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ if you are in Him. It's not possible for us to be condemned for our sin because Jesus took all of our condemnation. To say that our sin has any effect on our standing before God now is to say that the sacrifice of Jesus wasn't enough.

This is why in 1 John 1:9 we are told to confess our sins in order to be forgiven. John tells us that when we do that, we are cleansed from "all unrighteousness." God isn't intimidated or surprised by your sin. He knows the depths of our depravity, and yet He still sent His Son to pay the price that we should have paid so that He could offer us complete forgiveness and freedom. So no, your sin (in that sense) is not a big deal. To treat it as such cheapens grace and lacks trust in the atonement Christ provided for us.

At the very same time, Paul reminds us that not only has Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin - we are supposed to live differently if we truly have been saved by grace.

Romans 6:1-2 - "What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

Not only does it cheapen grace to believe that our sins aren't fully paid for, it also cheapens grace to live as though sin still has power over us. Forgiveness and grace don't offer us the freedom to live in sin, they give us the freedom to live in the Spirit. Remember that Christ's death and resurrection didn't just wipe the slate clean, they gave us a new heart with new desires and longings.

I believe that one of the most confusing and mis-interpreted passages in Scripture helps shed light on this for us:

Hebrews 6:4-8 - "For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are re-crucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned."

It's not possible to have truly experienced grace and not produce the fruit of righteousness. The author of Hebrews isn't saying that you can be saved and lose your salvation. He's saying if your life isn't producing what grace has worked out in you, then you were never truly saved to begin with. It's impossible to experience grace and be the same - it just doesn't happen.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you don't have wayward Christians or those that live in sin for a time. True believers absolutely struggle with temptation and sin (see Romans 7). The mark of a true believer isn't freedom from the presence of sin (yet), but the power of sin. One day, we will be free from the very presence of sin, but until then we wage war against the flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

We have been saved by grace, the slate has been wiped clean, there is no condemnation, you are free. "For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love." (Galatians 5:13)

The grace of Jesus has been lavished upon you - live like it.