Welcome to this weekend's In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley. Today's podcast takes us back to the basics, reminding every believer in Jesus of our true purpose for living. Join us for getting the big picture as we look to Ephesians chapter 1 for clear biblical insight that helps us see life from God's point of view. As you look at your life at this particular moment in your life, would you say, That you're trying to fit God into your plans. By answering your prayer, meeting your needs, and so forth, Or could you say that you honestly and truly are trying to fit your life into God's plans.
Are you trying to fit God into your plans? Are you trying to fit your life into God's plans?
Now, most of us would very quickly answer, oh, I'm trying to fit my life into God's plans. Whatever God wants, that's what I want. And we say that, and more than likely we're rather... Sincere about it. But as we go through this message, I want you to ask yourself the question, Lord, what is the truth about what I'm doing?
What is the real truth about whose plans Am I concerned about? Am I really trying to fit my life into your plan? Or am I saying, Lord, Here are my plans, and I want you to fit into what I have figured out. The reason I call this getting the big picture because I believe that's exactly what it's all about.
Well, it's amazing what we think about our life. But in Ephesians chapter 1, my friend, here is God's big picture for your life.
So I want us to see first of all here God's big picture of your life from His viewpoint. And there are four things I want to say about that.
So, if you just jot these words down, and as we go along, you may find something that may be applicable to you that you'll want to jot down under these words. And the first word is this. And that is God's purpose in this big overall plan of His. What is the big picture from God's point of view? The big picture begins with God's overall purpose for mankind.
What is overall, God's overall purpose for mankind? Look, if you will, in. Verse 6 to start with. He says, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Then if you look in verse 12, he says that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ Jesus.
And there are many other verses that mention the glory of God.
Now I want you to watch and listen carefully because what I want to do, I want to descend the scale to show you what I'm talking about. In God's big picture of events, God's ultimate purpose for mankind, for all mankind, is that we would glorify God, to praise Him, to worship Him, to honor Him. He says his ultimate purpose is to glorify himself.
Now listen. If God's ultimate purpose for mankind is to glorify Himself, that should have started in the creation, and it did. A perfect world. It should have started with mankind, two absolutely perfect people. God's purpose for mankind, God's ultimate purpose, His big picture for you is to glorify Him.
Now, how's that going to come to pass? If we're going to glorify God, we must reflect. By our life, we must reflect the character of God. How are we going to reflect the character of God? In Romans 8, 29, he says, That he predestinated us Before the foundation of the world, that we would be conformed to His likeness.
As God sifts and sands and shapes us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ, we are going to reflect the Lord God Himself. Did not Jesus say, if you have seen me, you've seen the Father? He says, it is my will that we would be one, even as the Father and I are one. If we're going to glorify Him, we must reflect Him. And in order to reflect Him, we must be shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
If we're going to be shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ, we must know God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So to glorify him, I must reflect him. To reflect him, I must be shaped into the image of his son. And to be shaped into the image of his son means that I must know him by personal experience in salvation, in sanctification, and ultimately in glorification. God's big purpose for your life and my life is not pleasure. It is not profit.
It is not prominence. It is not prestige. It is not any of those things. If you look around you and see what the world is grappling for, all you have to do is to turn in the other opposite direction and see the glory of God and know that the world is heading one way and God's people ought to be headed the other way. to glorify God.
But you see, not only does the lost man not know that's God's ultimate purpose for him. But oftentimes we believers do not even realize that. We take upon ourselves the countenance and the color and the shades. We take upon ourselves the attitude. The whole system of the world, the world system that the Bible speaks of, is society minus God.
And the believer and the church can take on. the shades and the color of the world, society minus God, and then wonder why God is not pleased. Why is it that our life is not being fulfilled? Why is it things aren't going just right? Because when Almighty God brought you into this world, He created you for Himself, not for yourself.
And let me show you something. Look in Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 4. He says according As he hath chosen us in whom? In him. Before the what?
The foundation of the world that we should be what? Holy and what? Without blame before him in love.
Now, listen, watch this. Before this world ever began, the creation of the world, which is God's perfect demonstration of His power and His beauty, His majesty. He says before the foundation of the world, he chose us in Christ Jesus. God's ultimate purpose even before he put into reality what was in his infinite mind was that you and I would glorify him. And he says before the foundation of the world, he chose you and you and you and you and you.
In Christ Jesus, Even before the foundation of the world, God has an ultimate purpose, and His purpose is that He might be glorified. That we might reflect His image by being conformed to His likeness, by knowing God in salvation, sanctification, and glorification. But if I should ask you tomorrow morning as you get up to go to work, why will you go? You say, well, to make a living. And I could ask you a whole series of questions, and more than likely, you'd give me a very honest answer.
And more than likely, you'd have to say, Well, somewhere along the way, I'm sure I'm to glorify God, but how do I glorify God in the job that I have with my family, the circumstances of my life? God knows all about that. You see, if He chose you. In Christ, before the foundation of the world, God has rights on your life and my life. When a fellow says, This is my own life, I'll do what I please.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Nobody could say anything that would be more. out of keeping with God's purpose than for a man to say it's my life, I'll do what I please, because God created you to glorify Him. And if your life is not glorifying Him, what you have to decide is you're out of God's big picture. And his big picture is that the ultimate purpose of your life and my life is to glorify Almighty God.
Now, that's God's ultimate purpose. But the second thing I want you to jot down is the problem. What is the problem? The problem that God has with man. Here's the problem.
When God created Adam and Eve, He created two perfect individuals and put them in a perfect environment. But Adam and Eve made a decision, and here's the decision they made: they made the same decision that people make all the time. They determined to live their life in the spirit of independence. That is, Satan said, You could be like God. having the knowledge of good and evil.
And so instead of trusting and depending upon Almighty God who provided for them absolutely and perfectly, who had an eternity of joy and bliss for them, they chose to take the route of independence and decide there are some things they could do on their own. Every time you and I deliberately disobey God, what we are doing is we're exercising independence of God. We are saying, at this point in our life, I can do it my way. At this point in my life, I think I'll make this choice. Independence, my friend, God doesn't want his people living independently.
Now, watch this. If God created you for himself, And he says, you're not your own, you're bought with a price. And his purpose is that he might be glorified to the praise of his glory. That we're to glorify him, how can I live independent from the purpose and plan of God and at the same time glorify God? God's concept is that we are down here to reflect him.
That when somebody meets you and me, they meet at least some reflection of Almighty God. Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ. If our life is not glorifying Him, we don't have the big picture. We're out of the will of God, out of God's ultimate purpose, doing our own thing, independently making our way, and God will allow you to wreck and ruin your life if you choose.
And let me say this. You may not wreck your life as far as the world is concerned. If you and I live our lives independently of God, and one of these days we stand before Him, even though we were saved. What is God going to say when you've spent your life? We've spent our lives doing religious things and carrying out religious activities and doing some things that are good, and we were saved.
But the question is, did we glorify God? You see, when we start peeling off the layers of our own self. peeling off the layers of our own deceit. Peeling off the layers, the caked layers of time. And thought processes colored and shaded by the world.
When we get out onto the inside, sometimes we'll be shocked at what we find. Motivated by self, the direction of self, an independent streak, rebellion toward God, having it my way, all plastered over and beautified with religion. But on the inside, it was me having my way. Giving God just enough time and money, enough service to please him, placate him, keep him off my back while I do my thing and enjoy it under the guise of being a Christian, having been baptized, sprinkled, poured on. Then remember four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten different churches being a very religious man, accepted as a religious man, but not glorifying God, he says, wood, hay, stubble, combustible materials, when you and I stand in the presence of God.
Were the works for us and for Him? Was the real seeking for ourselves, or was it for Him? Was the driving motivation of my life and what it would bring me, or was it for the glory of God? Third thing I want you to notice here, and that's God's plan. In his great, great big picture, what is God's plan?
We see his purpose is to glorify. The problem is man's independence to do what he chooses, when he chooses, as he chooses. But what is God's big plan? God's big plan, listen. included the creation of the world.
God's perfect environment for God's perfect man. But man failed.
Now, listen, if you'll go back to Ephesians chapter 1 and look, if you will, in verse 7. He says, in whom that is in Christ. We have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sin.
Now, watch this. He says, before the foundation of the world, he chose us where? He chose us in Christ. It is at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that all of us have had the privilege of getting into God's big picture and getting into His plan. The cross is man's opportunity.
It is the only place, it is the only event in time that makes it possible for sinful, independent, vile, wicked man to get into God's big picture of glorifying Him. God created you in His ultimate divine, supernatural, divine omniscience for the whole world. He says, to glorify Him. And in his plan is the cross. That makes it possible for every single person who ever lived on the face of the earth to come in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to have their sins forgiven.
And the word redeemed means He bought us back. He brought us back unto Himself because, having created us, we belong to Him. But He brought us back spiritually from sin that we might be a new creation. Old things passed away. Behold, everything's become new.
But likewise, under his plan, there's the church. Listen, there's the creation. Then the cross, because man fell, and then the whole body of Christ.
Now, look if you will, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He says, beginning in verse 18.
Now, watch this, because you see, all of us have the purpose of glorifying God. And all things are of God who hath reconciled, that is, brought back into fellowship with him, reconciled us to himself. That is, God reached down in our sinfulness and brought us back into a new relationship with him, new creatures in Christ. Reconciles unto himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the what? The ministry of reconciliation.
Let me ask you a question: Upon whom does the ministry of reconciliation fall? The whole body of Christ. To whom has he given the message of reconciliation? The whole body of Christ. I'll keep reading.
Now then, we are ambassadors, that is, sent with credentials, representatives sent with credentials. For he says, For Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ that be ye reconciled to God. Which means this, listen. Watch me now. He says his ultimate purpose, glorify God.
How do we glorify him? Reflecting Him. How to reflect him? Conform to his likeness. How do we conform to his likeness?
Knowing who he is. The problem is sin. But the cross has made it possible for us to get in God's big picture. In God's big picture, he says, as a part of the body of Christ, which every believer is, we have the ministry of doing what? The ministry of reconciliation.
We have the message of reconciliation, and he says in this chapter that God has chosen you and you and you and you and you and all of us in his stead, as his substitutes in our society, in our home, in our church, in our city, in our nation. He's chosen that what? God, in Christ Jesus, through us, we would be the vessels of reconciliation to the unsaved. that God through us, bringing them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, that God would use us to reconcile them, bring them back into fellowship with God.
Now that's God's ultimate plan, and that's the big picture for the church. The big picture for the church is what? The same as it is for the individual, to glorify God. The minister of the church reconciling men to God that he might be glorified. The minister of the church is what?
Reconciling men to the Lord God Almighty in order that those who reconcile by their life would glorify God in eternity. You see, if we do not see the big picture, we'll spend our life. Churches will have programs and organizations and staffs and spend money and do many other things and miss God's ultimate picture and the whole thing will be one total waste. God's plan for the individuals to glorify Him. God's plan for His churches to glorify Him.
And he says the last part of that is that ultimately the ultimate consummation of all of life and all of time and eternity will be to honor him and glorify him. Look back, if you will, in Ephesians chapter 1. He says in verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. What is the mystery? according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation, Divine segments of time, the way God operates them, in the fullness of times, He, God.
Might gather together in one, Christ Jesus, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. The big picture is. From God's point of view, that there will one day all of us will be one in Christ Jesus. Remember what he says in Philippians chapter 2? He says, in that last day, He says, there will come a time when every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of whom?
To the glory of God the Father. God's big picture is that all of life and creation and humanity in the body of Christ, that it all glorify God. But you and I live in a world system. That is anti-God. It is Christian humanism on the part of some.
Religious, saved, but going about their life as if all of life centered around them. And you see, the world system says that life centers around me. And the Bible says that the world revolves around Almighty God's glory. And the church of the Lord Jesus Christ ought to be living, pulsating in our society in such a way that the world may know in this unbelieving, evil age, Almighty God is God. He is to be glorified.
He will not be glorified any other way except through his church. But some people will take all of eternity and wrap it up in one little lifetime of 60 or 40 or sometimes 30 years and spend their life gratifying the flesh, getting this, doing the other, doing all these things, so they can get all the pleasure they can, and all of a sudden one day they die and go straight to hell and they miss the whole point of being alive. I'll tell you something almost as tragic as that is how many Christians have missed the whole point. and they'll stand before God with empty hands and an empty life. Because they were motivated by everything that came down the track besides Jesus Christ.
It's just real simple. His goal for you and me is this. that we would surrender all of our plans. All of our goals. All of our desired achievements, and to say, Lord.
Here is my life. Do whatever is necessary to fit this into your big picture so that for eternity, my life would glorify you and reflect your Son. who is the perfect reflection of who you are. My friend? if we miss that.
We have lived their life. and missed the whole point. Thank you for listening to today's podcast titled Getting the Big Picture. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
