God's Endgame Series

1.3 The Plan Included Paul

How you seriously consider the providential plan of God, His big plan? Paul did. Paul thought and marveled at the plan of God that even included Him: “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you…” (Ephesians 3:1-2).

1.3.1 For This Reason

Verse 1 says, “For this reason …,” now what is he referring to? I have to remind you chapter 2 is what he is referring to, where Christ and the gospel unite diverse kinds of people who otherwise could never get along in any other way. The gospel destroys divisions between human beings that can’t be eradicated any other way. And Christ brings them together in the case study that Paul uses, the Jews and the Gentiles. More on this in a minute.

1.3.2 God, the Ultimate Fed Chair

Key in on the word “stewardship” in verse 2 with me, will you? That original word there can also be translated as “management” or “arrangement.” The word was used to describe how someone would manage a household. We get our English word economy from word. Paul is looking over the shoulder of God and He see God’s economy management and notices that God even includes Paul in His plan. The Fed will lower the interest rate as the board of American financiers and economists plan the nation’s economy. Many of you have benefited just this year from payments from the Federal government as they stimulate our economy. Likewise, God manages His affairs with a greater precision than the Fed. Likewise, God manages His household with meticulous care to include the story of Paul.

Paul never “got over” the marvel and wonder of how the Lord met him on the Damascus Road. He had been a blasphemer and a persecutor of the believers. He hated Christ and he hated the cause of Christ. Paul actually thought he was serving God by seeking out Christ-followers to imprison.

But the grace of God met Him and turned his life around so that he served the Lord. The plan of God and the cross of Jesus includes many of you as well, my friends. Don’t you realize who you are sons and daughters of our God?

1.4 The Queen of England

The story has been told of the Queen of England attending a banquet with her daughter. Several hours into the evening, the Queen’s daughter began to get bored, and started to slump in her seat. The Queen looked at her and told her to sit up straight. So the young princess sat up straight, but after a while, she began to slump again. “Sit up, sit up,” the Queen whispered to her, and immediately the young girl sat up straight once again. After another hour, the young girl had experienced enough of the dull evening that she could stand, and her posture began to slump again. This time the Queen, frustrated with the situation, spoke to her sternly and said, “Sit up tall. Don’t you know who you are? You are a child of the Queen. You might not feel like it. You might not want to do it. But you will sit up because of who you are.” Friend, you might be slumped over today either emotionally or physically from issues you are dealing with in your life. We all get that way from time to time. But whatever it is that has you weighted down, I want to remind you to hold your head up and walk tall because of WHOSE you are by the grace of God. You are a daughter of the Most High God. You are a son of the Most High God. You are a child of the King.