What Do You Look For In God's Purpose? Series

What do you look for in God’s purpose?

Text: Eph. 3:10-11

Intro:

1. If you were to describe God’s purpose to someone what would you say?

2. Generally we think of salvation and punishment, heaven and hell

3. Jesus uses various terms and concepts to describe his mission:

seek and save the lost Lk. 19:10

give abundant life Jn. 10:10

Mt. 20:28 be a ransom for many

Lk. 4:44 preach the good news about the kingdom of God

4. Not only that but later writers like Paul, Peter and the author of Hebrews presents a multitude of pictures and terms that only serve to further confuse

5. I believe it is important to consider:

1) we need to know for our own faith and life

2) we need to be able to share it with others

6. So what do you look for in God’s purpose?

I. GO BACK TO GEN. 2-3

A. God had created the world, then planted a garden and placed

man within it.

1. all the trees “looked pleasing to the eye and were good for

food.” 2:9

2. he instructed Adam and Eve all were ok to eat except the

tree of knowledge of good and evil

3. to eat of this tree would result in death –an interesting

result which we understand to be a spiritual death

B. The serpent/Satan comes in, tempts the couple with the idea

that they would be like God, knowing good and evil.

1. they eat,

2. their eyes were opened—they realized their actions, and

felt guilt, fear, shame.

C. True to his word, God removes them from the garden, curses

their lives with pain, toil and heartache

D. At that time, God begins announcing and unfolding his plan

to restore what was lost in that first encounter

E. God created the world and man with the desire to live in a

trusting eternal relationship—this was spoiled by the selfish

choice of desire to “be like God, knowing good and evil”

eating of the restricted tree.

II. GOD’S ETERNAL PLAN

A. Note later writers:

1. Eph. 3;10-11

2. II Tim. 1:9

3. I Cor. 2:7

4. Titus 1:2

5. I Pet. 1:18-20

B. God had planned a plan before he created the world to

overturn Satan’s efforts and results

1. It was a plan that manifest his wisdom

2. it was a plan that involved the death of Jesus

3. it was a plan that brought death and immortality to light

through the gospel—according to his purpose and grace

C. Satan had introduced sin and death into the world, so these are the two things that God had to deal with on our behalf

III. GOD JUDGED US IN CHRIST

A. God dealt with our sin:

1. I Pet. 2:24

2. Heb. 9:28

3. II Cor. 5:21

4. Rom. 8:28

B. In Christ, God judged our sin; sin need to be punished, wiped

away, and forever removed so we could be reconciled to God

C. Jesus was our scapegoat, our payment, our ransom—the life

which was demanded as payment for our selfish choice of

distrust of God

IV. GOD GAVE US LIFE

A. the first Adam brought sin and death into the world, the

second Adam—Jesus through his obedience and resurrection

brought life

1. Rom. 5---the contrasts of the two Adams—one flesh, one

spirit.

2. Heb. 2:14-16---we have no need to fear death

3. I Cor. 15:20-23---we will be raised with Jesus

4. I Pet. 1:3—we have a living hope through the res. of Jesus

B. Jesus’ empty tomb is significant

V. WHAT IS LEFT FOR US?

A. s the song says: “trust and obey”

B. What God wants and has worked for is a trusting relationship

with us—Adam and Eve didn’t trust.

C. Our acceptance of What God has done is and can only be a

response of faith.

1. Accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for ours, trusting God will forgive,

bless, provide, do all for our best (Rom. 8:28)---is all by

and through faith.

2. nothing we do can be considered works, actions that will

merit our relationship with God

D. What we have stressed for years makes perfect sense in this

context:

1. what we call the plan of salvation is not really a plan of

salvation

2. hear, believe/faith, repentance, confession, baptism and a

faithful life is our God given, God desired response to God’s

plan of salvation which is His sending his Son to die for our

sins, be buried and rise from the grave so that we can

have life with God

D. This is the good news!!! God has done for us what we could

never do for ourselves

1. pay the price for sin, thus removing it from between us

2. conquer the effects of Satan with the fear of death

Concl.

1. God’s purpose is very simply to restore his creation back to its pre-sin glory.