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God's Wonderful Plan Part 3 By Greg Lee

Make your lives extraordinary.
If ever a movie has inspired me, it's that one.
Dead Pilot Society.
Seize the day.
Take hold of your life.
I always love the poem that they used at the start of their meetings.
It's one by Henry David Thoreau.
He says, I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to suck the marrow out of life.
That's such a cool phrase.
I wanted to suck the marrow out of life.
To break life open and to suck out everything that it's got inside it.
It's such an inspiration.
To make the most of your life.
To grab hold of it.
To not settle for mediocrity.
To make the most of your life and never be satisfied until you've lived life to the full.
And if you've never seen the movie, that's what these boys do.
There's such a joy in it.
When Knox Overstreet rides his bike down the hill and the birds just take flight as he's screaming on his way down.
We just want to take flight with them.
We want to soar into life and experience all of the dramatic highs and to paint and to sing and to dance and to love and to cry.
And there's such a determination in it as well.
To break out of the mould.
The boys are at this stuffy old New England school but they break out of all of the things that the school says that they must be.
Charlie Dalton, one of the characters, changes his name to Nawanda and smears his face with Indian war paint.
Which admittedly was lipstick.
But it doesn't matter.
It's just the way it was.
It's that determination.
To defy the status quo.
To defy the sheep.
To forge a new path.
The whole point of the movie is to devote ourselves to living authentically, to living boldly without compromise so that in that fleeting moment while we're alive we might truly live.
Not the poor facsimile that most people have.
They're such inspiring thoughts, aren't they?
Such uplifting and challenging thoughts.
But the more you look at them, such empty and hollow thoughts.
You see, Dead Poets Society tells us to seize the day.
But its reason for seizing the day is that we are food for worms.
The end result of life is nothing.
Decay.
Emptiness.
Meaninglessness.
I might be alive today and I might be seizing the day today but tomorrow I'm fertilizing daffodils.
After too brief a space of time we will all die.
Never to be heard of again.
And once you're dead it's over.
One generation of boys comes to the school only to leave and die and the next generation sees their picture on the wall and doesn't even notice it.
Life's meaningless.
It's swallowed up in death.
And Dead Poets Society puts the best Hollywood spin on it.
Seize the day while you can.
Make something of your life, anything of your life, make it while you've got the chance, create your own meaning.
But why?
Why should I seize the day if all that awaits me is death?
Nothing I do has any ultimate meaning.
If I seize the day I'll be food for worms.
If I don't seize the day I'll still be food for worms.
You see if there's no meaning to life, if there's no meaning to the world and to history, if all there is is death, well I might as well die now.
There's no point seizing the day.
You see if my life is truly meaningless then what have I got to live for?
Oh friends, tonight we're going to see what we've got to live for.
On Monday night we saw that God controls everything.
Last night we saw that God guides through his word and in the gospel.
Tonight we're seeing where God guides us to.
What is God's wonderful plan for my life?
How should I seize the day?
What have we got to live for?
Well, let's pray and we'll find out.
Let's pray, shall we?
Our dear Father, our Father who controls everything.
Our friends have no clue what they're living for.
The people around us have no idea what's worth seizing the day for.
But we pray that tonight you'll show us.
We pray that tonight you'll set a fire burning in our hearts that will never be quenched.
That we might know what our lives will be about.
That we might know how to seize these few years we have and make them truly worthwhile.
And Father in them we pray that we might glorify you.
Amen.
Tonight we're going to do a whirlwind tour of the book of Ephesians.
Not a lot of Bible flipping tonight because you see Ephesians 1, 1 to 10 gives us the great panorama of God's plan.
It starts from before the creation of the world and climaxes at the very end of the world.
And what may surprise you is the very heart of God's plan is to bless you.
Have a look in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3.
Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
You see God's eternal plan is to bless us.
Now stop and think about that for a minute.
Don't you find it extraordinary that the God of eternity, the God that we met on Monday night,
the God of the cosmos, the God who is sovereign over everything in the world,
that His plan for eternity is actually to bless you.
It's amazing isn't it?
Our Copernican revolution that we looked at says that God is at the very centre of the universe.
And yet what is the centre of God's plan but you?
God's plan is to bless you and makes you feel like David in Psalm 8.
God when I look at who you are and when I look at what you've done, who am I?
That I should be at the centre of your plans.
Who am I that you would bless me?
What's so important about me?
And yet He does.
In fact He gives us every spiritual blessing.
Look in verse 3.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who's blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Do you ever feel like a second rate Christian?
We all do sometimes don't we?
We all have those days when we see people who are more gifted than we are.
When we see people who are more full on Christians than we are.
We see people who have more amazing experiences and the dreams and the visions
and we can feel like such second rate Christians.
My friends never feel that way.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
That's God's plan for you.
In fact He's already done it.
If there is a spiritual blessing to receive you already have it.
You could not be richer in Jesus Christ than you already are now.
Every spiritual blessing and our passage tonight shows us what those blessings are.
It shows us the big four that start from before the creation of the world
and end after the very end of the world.
Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 to 10 are the blueprint for your life and all of the universe.
And the blueprint starts before the creation of the world.
Look in verse 3.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ
for He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ
in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace
which is freely given us in the one He loves.
Before the creation of the world God had a plan and His plan involved you.
God blessed you in two ways.
He chose you and He predestined you.
Now if you're looking for words about who's in control
you can't go much further than those two words can you?
Before the very creation of the universe God chose you.
He picked you and He predestined you.
You see God's power is so great that He can look forward through time
through generation after generation of people none of whom have even been born yet
and He can choose who His people will be.
That's power isn't it?
And God did this for us before the creation of the world.
He picked you. He predestined you.
Now for most people predestination is a sterile word isn't it?
It's not really a relationship word.
We think of God's predestining as some sort of cold choice
almost like an assembly line.
God pushes some people some way and other people another way
but look what we've been chosen and predestined for.
Verse 4,
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy
and blameless in His sight, in love.
He predestined us to be adopted as His sons.
Do you see what God chose us for?
To be holy and blameless in His sight.
Do you remember what holy is?
Fairly quickly who can tell me what holy is?
Set apart, yep that's the old definition.
Sanctified, it's very good it's actually the same word yeah.
Treasured possession.
Put up your hand if you've never met this little fellow.
Some of us haven't.
This is Pandy.
Pandy was their child.
Pandy was given to me on the day I was born by my mother's sister
and he was my treasured possession.
Everywhere I went for the first five, well let's face it ten years of my life,
Pandy went with me and he was my most treasured possession.
I even brought him to Winter Con, he hogs less of the doona than Emma does.
He's tough.
He's a manly bear.
Pandy exemplifies holiness.
In Exodus chapter 20, in Exodus 19 sorry,
God on Mount Sinai says to Israel,
you will be my holy nation, my treasured possession.
To be holy is to have God treasure you.
To have God adore you.
And if you're a Christian, before the creation of the world,
that's what God chose you to be.
His beloved treasured possession.
And what are we predestined for?
Well look in verse 4, it's to be adopted as God's sons.
Before the creation of the world, God predestined us to be his children.
To be welcomed into his family, to share God's name,
to inherit God's kingdom, to call Jesus our brother,
to call God our father.
You see predestination is not a sterile word.
It's the most warm and wonderful word.
Before the creation of the world, the great hearted God
looked down through time and said,
you, I want you in my family.
I want you to be my daughter.
I want you to be my son.
That's God's plan.
Which is really worth living for, isn't it?
I don't know what your ambition in life is.
But beside being the beloved treasured child of God,
your ambition is nothing, isn't it?
You could be the president of the United States,
you could win every gold medal at the 2004 Olympic games,
you could be the head of Microsoft and have your own single
and your own movie in the theatres and compared to God,
compared to God's treasured possession, you'd still have nothing.
See friends, we aim too low in our ambitions.
We aim for peanuts.
But God knows better.
His plan for you was to be his heir.
But to truly understand the significance of that,
we need to understand the path we've taken.
Because you see, we haven't always lived as God's children.
Come with me to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12.
And you'll see how we lived before we met Jesus.
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12.
Paul describes us as Gentiles,
the sinful nations who worshipped the other gods, verses 11 and 12.
Therefore remember that formally you who are Gentiles by birth
and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision,
that done in the body by the hands of men,
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,
excluded from citizenship in Israel
and foreigners to the covenants of the promise,
without hope and without God in the world.
You see, even though God predestined us for adoption
before the creation of the world,
we haven't always lived as God's children.
Before we heard about Jesus, we were the unclean Gentiles.
The Gentiles are the sinful nations who were excluded from God
and excluded from the promises God made to Abraham
and being without God, we're without hope in the world.
In fact, our God was Satan.
Have a look in chapter 2 verse 1.
Ephesians 2 verse 1.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live,
when you followed the ways of this world
and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,
the spirit who's now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature
and following its desires and thoughts
like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath.
You see, we haven't always been God's children.
We used to be Satan's captives.
We followed the ways of this world and we followed Satan.
It's funny, you watch TV and shows like Buffy and Charmed and those sorts of shows
and the big thing that people are afraid of is Satan
and being possessed by Satan and being attacked by Satan's forces
that really the whole genre trades off our fear that Satan might somehow gain control over us.
But what we don't realize is Satan doesn't need to send vampires.
Satan doesn't need to send ghouls after me to gain power over me.
I follow him willingly.
The whole world is under Satan's power because we follow his lies.
Ever since Eve, Satan has been lying to us,
telling us to rebel against God because God's way is boring
and the last thing you'd ever want to be is a Christian and so we follow Satan.
How much do you think Satan needs to send vampires to enslave us?
Not at all.
I'm sure Satan loves TV shows like Charmed
because when we watch it, we forget that Satan already owns us
and as we follow Satan, what's the result in our lives?
Well, you see it in verse 1.
We're dead.
Not dead physically but spiritually.
We're dead to God.
We're dead men walking as day by day we're led around by Satan,
led around by the nose which again friends is why free will is such a lie.
Satan would love us to think that we have free will
because it takes our eyes off our captivity to him.
But non-Christians don't have free will.
Non-Christians have a captured will.
They're led by Satan.
They're dead in their sins.
Dead people don't have free will.
Dead people are dead and in our spiritual death, we do all sorts of things.
Come over to chapter 4 verses 17 to 20 and look at the life of the Gentiles.
Chapter 4 verses 17 to 20.
So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do
in the futility of their thinking.
They're darkened in their understanding
and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them
due to the hardening of their hearts.
They've lost all sensitivity.
They've given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge
in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.
Now friends, that passage is the perfect description of our society.
Notice how sin works in our lives.
Verse 17, it starts with our minds.
Our thinking is futile.
Our understanding is darkened.
We're ignorant.
You see, sin begins with the way you think.
So how does our culture think?
Well, for 200 years, our culture has been dominated by the works of a man named Immanuel Kant.
Immanuel Kant taught the idea that there is a gap,
a break between the physical world down here and the spiritual world.
There's an impossible and impassable divide.
Between the world of sense and touch and sight
and the world of morals and religion and God,
there is this impenetrable barrier.
We can know this world.
We can see this world and we can touch it and feel it
and we can know the world of the physical but we can't know that world.
We can't know about God.
We can't know about morals.
We can't know about spiritual things because we can't reach it.
We can't get there with our senses.
For that world, we just have faith.
Now of course, that's all nonsense.
It's nonsense because Jesus came from that world into our world and showed us God.
We saw that last night and God himself has spoken to us and given his word.
It's all nonsense that Kant taught but the world has bought it.
So that nowadays, people think that science and biology and physics,
these are things we know but religion, God, morality, right and wrong,
we don't know those things.
For them, there is only opinion and my opinion is as valid as yours.
You can't tell me that I'm right or wrong in the modern world.
There's only your perception and my perception.
You think sex outside of marriage is wrong but I think it's perfectly alright
and who are you to judge me?
In fact, if you tell me my behaviour is wrong, then you've crossed the line.
You've become intolerant.
People who tell others they're wrong are the only real sinners.
They're intolerant.
The biggest sinner in our society today is the intolerant Christian
who tells other people they're wrong.
You see, our world is darkened in our understanding
but notice where it leads in verse 19.
Having lost all sensitivity, they've given themselves over to sensuality
so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.
Once you remove the concept of right and wrong, there are no limits to people's sin.
There is no boundary to decency once everything becomes opinion.
Note we give ourselves over to sensuality with a continual lust for more.
If nobody can tell me that I'm wrong, then the only boundary to my sin is now my stamina.
Not long ago, I had the great misfortune to watch the Jerry Springer show
and they had a girl on there who claimed to have broken the world record
for sex partners in one day.
She slept with more than 500 men in Houston in Texas and they filmed it.
And the crowd in the audience, they sat back in judgment.
They hissed and they booed but secretly they reveled in it.
They loved the spectacle.
The men in the audience wish they were there.
In fact, they had some men who'd been there and they were welcomed as heroes.
You see, having removed our framework for thinking about sin,
stamina is our only boundary.
But we don't need to look at the TV.
Come a little closer to home, spend a day in the colleges
to see who's jumping in and out of bed with whom.
Who is it that got so drunk last night that they threw up over themselves in the hallway
and then slept in their own vomit?
I understand people don't even bother looking up internet pornography in the colleges anymore.
They simply trawl through the network to look at what the last 10 people have downloaded.
Well, let's not stop at the colleges.
What about us?
You see, you might be thinking, well, that's not me.
I mean, I never did that, not even as a non-Christian.
Well, friends, we may not have been in as deep but we're all swimming in the same pool, aren't we?
We just went in as far as our opportunities and our taste and our stamina allowed but we still lied.
We still hated. We still lusted.
We still used people and then discarded them.
You see, as Gentiles, we were dead to God in our transgressions and sins, captives to Satan.
But after we sing, we're going to see how God fulfilled his plan from before the beginning of creation
and freed us to be his children.
Why don't you stand and we'll sing.
God chose us and he predestined us to be his children but we are the captives of Satan.
So how is it that God fulfills his plan?
How does God rescue us from captivity to Satan to become his children?
Well, the third of the great blessings in Ephesians 1 is the rescue.
God rescues us by Jesus' death on the cross.
Have another look in Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who's blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will
to the praise of his glorious grace which he's freely given us in the one he loves.
In him, we have redemption through his blood.
The forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
We were slaves to sin and to Satan but in Jesus we have redemption.
Redemption is rescue.
In the ancient world when two countries would go to war, they would take prisoners and most of the prisoners would just be left to become slaves
but just occasionally you would lose someone who was just too important.
A prince or a general and so that general's nation would pay a ransom to rescue him from captivity and to adopt us, that's what God has done.
We were slaves to sin and Satan and God paid a ransom to redeem us.
He didn't pay it to Satan, if anything, he paid it to himself, to his own sense of justice but God paid a ransom to rescue us from sin.
The ransom price was Jesus' blood.
Look in verse 7, in Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
You see when we were slaves to sin and Satan, God rescued us through Jesus
but God has done more than that.
Jesus has made us alive and taken us into heaven itself.
Come over to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4, we used to follow Satan, we used to be dead.
Ephesians 2 verse 4, but because of his great love for us, God who's rich in mercy made us alive in Christ.
Even when we were dead in transgressions, it's by grace you've been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Do you see what's happened to you if you were a Christian?
You used to be dead in sin but God has made you alive in Jesus and more than alive,
God has actually raised you up with Jesus and seated you in heaven.
Look at verse 6, it's extraordinary.
God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
It's amazing.
If you were a Christian somehow as well as sitting here tonight, right now you are in heaven with Jesus.
You've risen from the slavery to sin, you've risen from death and right now you sit in heaven with Jesus.
It's extraordinary.
In fact, this passage talks about you and I in the most extraordinary terms.
Christians have an incredible relationship with Jesus.
We seem to be connected to Jesus.
Look in verse 4, we're alive with Jesus.
Or look in verse 6, we've been raised up with Jesus and seated with Jesus in the heavenly realms in Jesus.
Paul keeps saying that we're in Jesus, we're with Jesus.
Somehow Christians are connected to Jesus, that he rose from the dead so we rise from the dead.
Jesus sits in heaven so we sit in heaven.
In fact, we have even been made God's sons because of our connection with Jesus.
Look at Ephesians 2 verse 11.
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision,
that done in the body by the hands of men, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,
excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
You see, we were without God, we were without hope in the world, we were uncircumcised Gentiles, the followers of Satan.
But verse 13, now in Christ, through this connection with Jesus, we who are far away have been brought near to God.
In fact, more than brought near. Look in verse 19.
Consequently, you're no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household.
Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
If you are a Christian, you're a member of God's house.
You're a child of God.
You've been adopted into the family just as God predestined you to be.
Because you see, you have been joined to Jesus, to God, Son Jesus.
Christians have a new identity.
We used to be Gentile sinners, alienated from God, but now we're sons, we're daughters.
We share Jesus' identity, we're raised with him, we're in heaven with him, we're sons and daughters with him.
We've become everything God predestined us to be by being joined with Jesus.
You see this?
This is Michael Scali's driver's license.
It's his identity.
It tells you who he is.
He is Michael Wendell Scali and he takes a terrible photo.
Actually, he does. He looks like a criminal.
But this license tells you who Scali is.
It tells you that he's a Gentile.
It tells you that he's an Aussie, that he's separated from God, that he's futile in his thinking, that he's dead in his sins.
But this license is no longer up to date.
Scali's identity has changed.
He's been joined with Jesus, he's been raised with Jesus, he sits in heaven with Jesus.
He is God's predestined chosen child.
Which means that God is doing amazing things in his life.
Now that Scali's been adopted, now that Scali's joined with Jesus, he is a new man.
God is changing him to look like a son should look.
God is making Scali into the holy and blameless son he chose him to be.
Turn over to chapter 4 and look in verse 20 to 24.
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way, the sin we talked about earlier.
Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that's in Jesus.
You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its evil desires,
to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self.
Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Do you see what God is doing in you?
Now that you've been adopted, now that you've been joined to Jesus, God is changing you to look like Jesus.
God's renovating you to look like your brother.
He's putting off the old self, the self that was sinful, the Gentile, the self that's been corrupted,
and he's putting on a new self, the getting rid of the old self of the lust and the hatred and the greed and putting on Jesus.
I went to a Bible college called Moore College and right out the front of Moore College there used to be this grubby old pub.
It was called the White Horse Inn and it was an evil place.
It was a place where all sorts of shady characters would hang out.
The little lane next to it called Little Queen Street used to be nicknamed Blood Alley by the locals
because people used to be bashed and murdered in it. It was a horrible place.
But one day its owners sold it to Moore College. Now there's a change for you, isn't it?
The sign out the front of the place was changed from the White Horse Inn to Moore Theological College.
You see there was a change of identity and after the change of identity the college slowly went about renovating the place.
They took out the bar and they put in a bookshop. There's irony for you, isn't it?
They changed the gaming rooms to lecture theatres. They turned the beer garden into a playground.
You see with the change of identity comes the renovation and that's what God is doing to us.
We have been adopted by God and now we're being renovated to look like Jesus.
Look in verse 24. We're being recreated to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
And just as with sin it starts in the mind. Look in verse 20.
You however did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in accordance with the truth that's in Jesus.
You see God's changing us actually starts with our minds. Verse 23. We're being made new in the attitude of our minds.
Whereas we used to be darkened in our understanding, now we have new minds to go with our new identity.
You see the Bible always starts with the mind. A lot of Christians are very negative on the brain these days.
As if you can't go about using your head and still be a spiritual Christian.
And in fact NCS is occasionally criticised for being too cerebral.
But friends you can never be too cerebral as a Christian.
Christianity begins with your mind. It doesn't end there but it must always begin there.
Jesus comes as the Word. Jesus preaches a message. Unthinking Christianity is not Christianity at all.
We've been made new in the attitude of our minds and this is the work of the Holy Spirit.
You see the Holy Spirit is the one who changes our minds.
Come back to Ephesians chapter 1 and look what Paul prayed for the Ephesians in verse 15.
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
I haven't stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
That you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he's called you.
The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
You see what the Spirit does? The Spirit transforms our minds.
He gives us spiritual wisdom. He enlightens us. He changes the way we think.
Friends, knowing this helps us with two huge issues.
Firstly, it helps us to see why it is that God doesn't give us commands for every little thing in life.
The reason is friends, he wants grown-ups as children.
See, the reason God has given us the Spirit is that we might be transformed in our mind that we will think the way God thinks.
That we'll learn and understand God's view of the world that will be mature, that will be wise.
So then, in God's wisdom, we know how to make God's decisions.
You see it really well, I think, in Romans chapter 12.
So why don't you come over to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12.
And look in verse 1.
Therefore I urge you brothers, Romans 12 verse 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.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.
His good, pleasing and perfect will.
You see what he tells us to do here? It's exactly the same as Ephesians.
He says don't be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world.
Don't think the way they think, but instead be transformed.
Have your mind renewed, learn to think the way God thinks, and what's the result of it?
Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.
His good, pleasing and perfect will.
You see as God changes you through the spirit to think as he thinks, you don't need to be told every little detail of life by God.
It's like raising a child.
When a child is three or four, you need to tell them to do everything.
You need to tell them when to have a bath. You need to have the bath with them.
You need to tell them when to go to bed, but as they get older, they learn to live for themselves.
What God wants, friends, is mature Christians.
People who don't need guidance, don't need a special word on every issue in life, but learn to think as God thinks.
Friends, but this also helps us to understand wise counsel.
You'll notice I haven't talked this week about guidance through wise counsel.
I've been pushing you towards the Bible, but what is the role of wise counsel?
Friends, I'm a big believer in it.
Why? Because I believe that God changes Christian minds.
As you've got a question in life, what do you do?
You go to the scriptures because the scriptures will give you guidance for every issue in life.
The scriptures of God breathe and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So go first to the scriptures, but also go to your brothers and sisters because your brothers and sisters, like you, are being transformed.
Like you, they have the Spirit working in them to make them wise.
So just because I'm saying go to the scriptures, don't discount wise counsel from brothers and sisters.
It's just that whereas you know the scriptures are always God's will for your life, your brothers and sisters may get it wrong.
Just because a brother says that you ought to do it doesn't necessarily mean that's what God wants, whereas whatever the Bible says, that's what God wants.
But as God changes our minds, then we give each other wise and spiritual counsel.
So friends, what have we seen?
Where is God guiding us?
What's God's eternal plan for you, for your life?
What does God want for your life?
Well, in Ephesians, it's simple, that you will be His child.
Before the creation of the world, God chose you to be His child.
And then at just the right time, God sent Jesus to rescue you from sin and from Satan, and now God is at work in you to make you just like Jesus.
God is renovating you and transforming you to look like Jesus.
That's God's will for your life.
That's what God has planned for you for the rest of your life.
And in case you're thinking, well, that's actually a little bit broad, I was hoping for something maybe a little bit narrower.
Well friends, looking like Jesus means radical changes to every part of your life.
Come back to Ephesians 4 and see the effect that this has on your life in 4 verse 25.
4 verse 25.
Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour.
For all members of one body, in your anger do not sin.
Do not let the sun go down while you're still angry and do not give the devil a foothold.
He who's been sinning must steal no longer.
He who's been stealing must steal no longer but must work, doing something useful with his hands that he may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only that which is useful for building others up,
according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen and don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger and brawling and slander along with every form of malice.
Be kind and compassionate, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
You see, looking like Jesus, the renovation going on inside you touches every area of your life.
It touches your work.
He who steals must steal no longer but do something useful with his hands so he can give it away.
It touches our speech, no unwholesome talk, only that which is useful for building each others up.
It touches conflict.
Don't let the sun go down on you while you're angry.
Get rid of bitterness and rage and anger and brawling and slander.
You see, looking like Jesus, the renovation of the Spirit at work in you touches every area of your life.
You say, but hang on a minute, you're not telling me who I should marry.
You're not telling me what job I should get.
Well friends, I have a secret for you.
Those things don't matter.
You don't need to know them.
As long as your marriage helps you look like Jesus, I don't think God cares particularly who you marry.
Whether it's Wanda or Wendy or Wilbur or whoever it is, who you marry is really only important as to whether or not it helps you to look like Jesus.
Why is it, do you think, that God doesn't tell us who we should marry?
Why is it, do you think, that in the back of the Bible there isn't some extraordinary list so that we can just look down and find our name and then go and find the person and then marry them?
Friends, it's because it's just not important who you marry.
Looking like Jesus, that's what's important.
How you marry is what's important.
Will you look like Jesus in your marriage?
Will you look like Jesus in your marriage?
You see, God's great hope from the beginning of the world is not that you would marry Gwendolyn.
God's great hope from the beginning of the world is that you would look like Jesus.
That's what God's been working for all these years, which of course means that some marriages will be out, won't they?
Someone who's already married.
That won't help you to look like Jesus, will it?
If you're related to the person, if they're not of the opposite sex, if they're not a Christian, they're people you can't marry because in marrying them it won't help you to look like Jesus, but apart from that marry whoever you like.
Wanda or Wendy, they're both Christians, neither of them are married to already.
You're not related to them, they're both female, well marry one of them.
As long as you can be godly, you can't marry both of them, but as long as you can be godly, who cares which of the two you marry?
The question is, will this marriage help me look like Jesus or not?
You see friends, the Bible tells us what matters matter.
The Bible guides us for every minute of our life, the Bible guides us in what matters matter, and that is what will help us to look like Jesus.
God's ambition for you is that you will look like Jesus.
Every other question is irrelevant.
So let me ask a few challenging questions.
Where are your energies focused?
Are they on holiness? On looking like Jesus?
Friends I want to say to you, if they're not there, you're wasting your life.
You're playing the wrong game.
Is all of your energy going on finding that perfect job?
Getting enough marks to get the right sort of job, to get the right sort of house and live in the right sort of suburb and set yourself up financially for life?
What a waste. The Bible's not interested in those things.
They're the things that moth and rust destroy, but the kingdom of heaven, looking like Jesus.
Is all of your energy going into finding the right partner?
You've set your eyes on her. She's the one.
You're going to do everything you can to win her.
No matter what it takes, you're going to bend so that she loves you.
Friend, give her up.
Is it saving for the overseas trip?
Is it squeezing the marrow out of life?
Is it getting all of that last drop of enjoyment and fulfillment and satisfaction, even relationships?
Friends, those things are small beans.
You're wasting your time.
Those things aren't sucking the marrow out of life.
Those aren't the things that God looked down throughout creation, before creation, throughout countless generations and predestined you to.
No. Those things are just what the Gentiles do.
Really sucking the marrow out of life, really seizing the day is looking like Jesus.
That's what God chose us and predestined us for.
I want to say, make your ambition in life to look like Jesus.
That's God's ambition for you.
That's God's great will for you.
That's God's great desire for you.
But funnily enough, that's not the whole picture.
You see, the final part of Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 to 10 takes our eyes off us and puts it onto the giant climax.
Before the creation of the world, yes, God chose and predestined his people.
Then at the right time, he brought them on the cross and now he's renovating us.
But where is God finally taking us?
Well, come back to Ephesians 1 and look in verses 9 and 10.
This is the fourth blessing.
Ephesians 1, 9 and 10.
And God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
Or that is Christ is a better translation.
Having chosen us and predestined us and redeemed us and renovating us, God's final blessing is he's told us his big secret.
He's told us his big goal, his big plan.
God's big plan for the end of the world was actually a secret up until the first century.
The NIV's translated it mystery there, but really it's the mystery is in the secret in verse 9.
And God's secret regards the very fulfillment of time.
Look in verse 10.
This secret is to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment.
You see, God's great plan concerns the final summing up of everything in the world.
This is the great climax of history.
What is it?
Verse 10.
God's plan is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head which is Christ.
God's great plan from the before the beginning of the creation is that Jesus will rule the creation.
That's God's plan.
On the last day when Jesus returns, he will be the head of creation.
Paul actually uses here an image from mathematics.
Mathematicians, this is your one moment of glory.
James Foster, this is your time.
Stand and be proud.
Maths is in the Bible.
It's a Godly pursuit.
You see, in ancient Greece when little children did their sums, they would put the final sum at the head of the column.
We put it at the bottom, but they put it all at the top.
And the final sum, the final addition to the world, the great thing that the whole world is going to add up to,
the thing at the top of the column is Jesus.
That's God's plan.
That all things in heaven and on earth will be gathered together under the one head, the one result, which is Jesus.
And that's what God's plan has always been.
Why did God choose us that we would be the people who would be holy and blameless for Jesus?
Why did God predestine us that we would be the brothers and sisters of Jesus?
What is God changing us to be?
The people who will look like Jesus.
And at the very end of the world, what will we be?
The people who are brought under Jesus.
And so passage after passage in the New Testament says that the great purpose of the world is Jesus' glory.
We're going to go on a tour towards the back of the Bible, then we're going to come towards the front.
So turn over one book to Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 and 10.
Philippians 2, 9 and 10.
Therefore, God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth,
and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You see, what's God's great plan for the earth?
That every knee will bow to Jesus.
One more book come to Colossians chapter 1 verse 15.
Colossians 1, 15.
Colossians 1, 15.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him.
He's before all things and in him all things hold together.
And he's the head of the body, the church, he's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead,
so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
You see, everything was created by Jesus and for Jesus.
He's the firstborn over this world and the next world
and God's great plan is that in everything Jesus might be supreme.
We'll come over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 8.
2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 8.
This passage talks about Jesus' return.
2 Thessalonians 1 verse 8.
When Jesus returns he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They'll be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord
and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people
and to be marvelled at by all those who've believed.
You see, what's the great purpose of the world?
That we will stand agog at Jesus.
That we will marvel at Jesus.
That when he returns we'll be dumbfounded at the majesty of his glory and splendor.
Why were you created?
Why were you chosen and predestined to marvel at Jesus' glory?
Of course, what greater passage could you ever have than Revelation 5?
Come to the very last book of the Bible, Revelation 5.
At Revelation 5 Jesus has come and he's taken the great scroll from God's hand which he can do because he died for us.
And Revelation 5 verse 11.
You see, what's the great song that sings out in heaven?
Jesus.
Worthy is Jesus to receive glory.
Why were you born? Why were you put here? Where's God guiding you?
This is where God's guiding you.
To spend an eternity offering Jesus power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise.
That's your great eternity.
Now can you see how next to this what you do now for a job is a nothing?
Who cares what job you do?
When for an eternity, for all eternity, you will be a gawked Jesus, glorifying Jesus, singing to Jesus.
Who cares who you marry?
Who cares where you live?
Who cares what car you drive?
Who cares whether or not you've got a pool or a holiday house?
God chose you before the creation of the world to stand there on that last day and be the one who sings to Jesus.
That's what all history is about.
That's what all of history and creation has been leading up to.
The rest are just trivial, trivial details.
Friends, that should be our ambition.
Never mind being a doctor.
That's nothing.
Never mind whatever it is that your ambition leads you to focus on here.
No, the great purpose of life, the great purpose of the universe is to honour Jesus.
But more than that, that's to glorify you.
We're going to work backwards this time.
Come to Revelation chapter 1 verse 4.
Revelation chapter 1 verse 4.
Grace and peace to you from him who was and who is and who is to come.
And from the seven spirits before his throne and from Jesus Christ who's the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom.
And priests to serve his God and father, to him be glory forever and ever.
You see, when Jesus is glorified forever and ever, what will we be?
We'll be his kingdom.
We'll be his priests.
In heaven, you and I will rule with Jesus.
You see it even better in 2 Thessalonians 2.13.
Come to 2 Thessalonians 2.13.
2 Thessalonians 2.13.
But we ought always thank God for you brothers, loved by the Lord.
Because from the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth.
He's called you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, from the very beginning of the world when God chose that Jesus would receive all glory and honor,
he chose that you would share in his glory.
When Jesus returns, you will share in the glory of Jesus Christ and then the transformation will be complete.
Come back a little further now to Philippians 3 verse 20.
Philippians 3 verse 20.
Philippians 3 verse 20.
Philippians 3 verse 20.
But our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so they'll be like his glorious body.
You see, in heaven the renovation will be complete.
The transformation will be complete.
We will be just like our great brother, perfect and whole and glorious and this is God's will for you.
In fact, this is the key to life.
When you see what God's got planned for you and for Jesus, we begin to see what matters matter.
Friends, what matters is Jesus, that he will be glorified in your life.
What matters is being changed to look like Jesus.
What matters is that Jesus will be glorified when he returns.
What matters is that you are there to be glorified with him.
Those are the matters that matter.
That's why the Bible spends so much time on them.
We spend our whole lives thinking through the trivialities of houses and careers and marriages
and where we should live and what we should do and we give nary a thought to looking like Jesus.
But friends, those things aren't the matters that matter.
If they were, God would have put them in the Bible for us.
What matters matter is how will I do those things?
How will I do my job in a way that needs me to look like Jesus?
What sort of wife or husband will I be?
The sort of husband where I look like Jesus and I lead my wife to look like Jesus?
What sort of parent will I be?
The sort of parent who raises children to look like Jesus?
The great question that stands before you tonight and every day of your life is this.
Will you live to bring glory and honour to Jesus?
Outside of that, you're wasting your time.
It's trivial.
What matters matter?
Jesus.
He's what matters.
On Monday night, we saw that God is the ruler of the world.
Last night, we saw that the Bible is everything we need for guidance.
Tonight, we've seen where God is going.
He's going to Jesus.
Tomorrow night, we're going to apply all of this to the idea of work.
But for now, let's pray.