The Purpose of God

Thank you. For those of you who might be guests, my name is Brian. I'm the lead pastor here, and I appreciate the great job our worship team did this morning. We're going to be in Ephesians chapter 1. We've been studying Ephesians.

Last week, our director of vocation and pastoral care, Lynn Robinson, gave a great message turning our hearts. Toward gratitude and the opportunity we have to be the Lord's witnesses. Out of thankfulness for the gospel. It's a great message. If you get a chance to go online and listen to it, you'll benefit greatly from it.

We've been studying Ephesians for the last several weeks, kind of picking our way very slowly. And this morning we're going to be in Ephesians 1, verses 11 and 12. And we'll spend our whole time in just those two verses this morning. Let me read the verses to you. And uh tell you a story.

In him We have obtained an inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things. according to the counsel of his will.

so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Now depending upon what you're going through in your life These verses are either a kind of glorious Beautiful salve that you Put on, and you are reminded that God cares for you, that He has a great purpose, a grand plan, that He is working things out in and through in your lives, and you are able to celebrate. and worship. And be absolutely ecstatic because of God's sovereign wonder and care. Or You read those verses and you think about what you're going through. and you wonder what kind of God would put you through that.

And I suppose That both kinds of responses are elicited. From all of us in various stages and places of our lives. And I suppose that the former. We're a little more prone to talk about and share. The former we're a little more prone to um get with people and speak about our confident trust in God.

The former we're probably even more prone to talk to God about. The latter We feel like there's something wrong with us. We feel sometimes a little bit ashamed. that maybe we even feel that way. And we sort of Figure out how we count up all our blessings.

Put them on the scale. Look ourselves in the mirror, tell ourselves to grow up a little bit, and remind ourselves that we're too blessed to be stressed, and we've got to get over our little problems and knock it off. Right? October 2nd. Uh 2015.

I was in my office before this building was built, and my office was over. here next to in in this old section that we have over here. And I got a call from my wife. who was in Cedar City, Utah. with my oldest daughter at a Shakespeare festival.

My oldest daughter was an uh actress in high school and she was down there doing a Ophelia monologue for the Shakespeare Festival. And she said, Brian, I need you to go and check on my sister. Her next oldest, my wife's the oldest of six, her next oldest sister had moved out in 2012 to be near us. And two, uh Just come out and she was single, never married. She was a great nurse.

She was a nurse at Primary Children's and then at Jordan Valley Hospital over here. And so She said, I need you to go check on her. She didn't show up for work. Jennifer was the emergency contact for Stephanie on her work paperwork.

So I drove over into South Jordan. Off of Redwood to a house that she had just moved into the basement apartment underneath a single woman. And I went over there and I had actually not even been there before, but some people had helped her move in, and so they actually from this church came and met me there, because I wasn't even familiar with the apartment at all. And I knocked on the door of the house and there was no answer. And I kept knocking and knocking and there was no answer.

Um so I thought maybe she's asleep and so I went downstairs uh well I actually went around the back of the house And another person from this church and myself started feeling the windows and one of them was open and so I slid open the window and hopped down in the basement. And I went over to her bedroom door and began to pound and yell: Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie. No answer.

So I opened the door and there she lay. And my wife was texting me frantically, is she okay? If you checked on her. My father in law, who's an anesthetist on the East Coast, was in the operating room. Getting ready for surgery, and he's texting me from the operating room.

Have you is she okay? Is she okay? Is she okay? So I felt her and she was cold to the touch. And she had been gone They said for probably three hours or so at that point.

Tried to bring her back, being coached by the EMTs on the phone. And then I had to call my wife. And I had to call uh my father-in-law. Things you never want to do in your whole life.

Okay. That sounds like, wow, that's a hard place to begin. And it is. It is. Because that's Emblematic.

of the kinds of varied traumas. that we experience in our lives. And I am keen to the fact. That often the celebration of the sovereign goodness of God. Rings hollow.

To people who look in the mirror and say, Do you know? what I've been through. Do you know how dark it's been? Do you know? what it's like.

Day after day. Do you know That when you say, all things work to the counsel of his will, that makes me suspicious of him. I I I'm all. Too keen to that. All too keen to that.

So what I'd like to do is face a text head-on. And let's not skirt it. Let's not pretend like it doesn't walk on all fours in real life. Because if we're going to say that God is sovereign and good, that means that he has to be sovereign and good in the darkest moment you've had on this earth.

So what I want to do Let's jump into our text. I'm going to remind you of its context, and then we're going to look. at five observations about God's purpose. I have no interest this morning. in getting God off the hook.

I'm exhausted by people writing books to get God off the hook. It's nauseating, quite frankly. Attempts to somehow make it as though God is sort of a big brother in the sky. He's your consummate champion. He comes along, rides on the wings of the wind, and is always at your aid for your advantageous help.

And when something goes south, darn it all, there are evil forces and God is nowhere to be found. That is not a biblical theology in the least. Yes, there are evil forces, there's no question about that. But the idea. That God has somehow taken time away during the hard edges of life is tacitly, theologically, philosophically and practically absurd.

And none of us do well to think otherwise. In fact, I'll submit to you in this message that the only way you're going to get any meaning from any of your life is from embracing the sovereign goodness of God. That's all you got.

So in this text up to this point. Paul has said Christ Was given for you, and in being given for you, you receive certain benefits, spiritual benefits or blessings. He mentions that in verse 3. of chapter one of Ephesians. And then he lists them.

And we looked at what it meant to be chosen. We looked at what it meant to be adopted. We looked at what it meant to be redeemed and forgiven. And now he sort of steps back. And lets us know of another benefit.

And that benefit is that God Has an overarching, specified, particularized. purpose That he is enacting in the meta. But then, like a great thematic anthology, your little essay and my little essay and your neighbor's little essay and your husband's little essay and your wife's little essay and your child's little essay all fit in. To the big anthology. Nothing is outside its thematic wholeness.

But it all has a cohesion. in some way.

Now That does not mean That from where I sit, I can somehow read my story, know your story. Know your story. and put them together and go, oh, okay, I get it now. I'm not I there's there's no sense in which I get How the anthology all strings together. But my inability to understand, if you want to get all philosophical, my limited epistemology, my limited capacity to know, doesn't mean.

That somehow God It's now. hampered by that. I'm thankful that he's not limited to my perspective. And that I have to be drawn up to his landscape. He doesn't.

condescend and limit himself to mine. We read the verses.

So let's just begin. In him we have obtained an inheritance. Five observations about God's purpose. The first comes just from this phrase. In him we've obtained an inheritance.

His purpose, and like there's going to be more peas in this thing than you ate at your Thanksgiving table. All right? His purpose includes a purposed people and their purposed possession. A purposed People. And their purpose possession.

Now, I want you to see there's two things there, you see it? There's a purpose people And there's a purpose possession, and yet what I read to you. really only tells you one of those. In him we have obtained an inheritance. That's because that phrase in Greek has a few, and primarily two, viable interpretive options.

There are two ways you can take it, and I've studied it, I've studied it, I've read, I've studied, I've studied, and guess what? I don't know which one is which. I don't know. You can take it either way, and I can make good arguments either way. Let me show it to you.

Here are the two options for that phrase. The ESV that some of you have, that's the Bible that you've got down underneath the racks and stuff. If you don't have a copy, by the way, just keep it. It's our gift to you. It reads what I just read: In Him we've obtained an inheritance.

In other words, we have a future possession. In a sense, we have it, and it's said in such a way that it's implying that we have it secured now. It's ours now. It'll be cashed out in the future, but it's as good as ours. kind of a thing.

The deed is signed in that way. But then you have other versions that word it differently, and that's because in the Greek text, it's legitimate to interpret it a different way.

So the there's an old version, the American Standard Version, it was done in 1901. And that says it this way, in whom also we were made a heritage.

So Wh what's the difference?

Well, and the first We have a possession. In the second, We are the possession.

So is God giving me an inheritance or Are we as the church God's inheritance? And the answer theologically is yes. That's the answer.

So I thought, well, why make up like I know which one of these is right? I don't. But they're both true. They're both true. Let me just kind of show you how they're both true.

Go down to verse 14. Actually, verse 13. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance. Until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

So if we took the strict context right here, you'd go, well, maybe that is informing verse 11, and maybe you're right. In other words, maybe it is the fact that the Spirit is given to us to guarantee that we will have an inheritance one day from Him.

So maybe the first reading here, we have a possession is right.

Now, just skip down to verse 18. Verse 18. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? Whose inheritance is that? It's God's inheritance, and what's his inheritance?

It's y'all. than the saints.

Well, it gets further complicated because we have all kinds of scripture that'll go either direction. Because both are theologically the case. The latter, the bottom one, has more Old Testament background. This one has a greater, the upward one has a greater New Testament emphasis, but not solely a New Testament emphasis. Let me just read to you a few scriptures.

in support of the first Point up there, the first interpretive option. Listen to a few scriptures. Acts 20, verse 32. And now I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance. Among all those who are sanctified, something that's waiting for you, those who are sanctified, those who are set apart.

Colossians 1:9 through 12. And so from the day we heard it, we've not ceased to pray for you. Asking, Paul says, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in his The inheritance of the saints. In light, later on in Colossians, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance. As your reward.

1 Peter 1:3 and 4 speak about us getting an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven. For you, what's that inheritance? The inheritance is life with Him. Life with him. There's actually a theology that's taught, by the way, in some churches, that the inheritance is like a second-level blessing sort of a thing.

That you could be a believer and you might be a believer, but you won't inherit the kingdom. You'll be a believer and you won't inherit something from God. It's sort of the inheritance is like added rewards. It's a complete misunderstanding. Inheritance is utilized in the text.

You see it in 1 Corinthians 6 in particular. You'll see it. It's utilized as the kind of thing that is for believers that people who are not believers will not obtain or will not have.

So this first thing is true. God has something for you because he purposed something for you. Yes, he brought you to himself. But in bringing you to himself, he has what he wants to give you, which is life with him. Forever.

Forever. Now, life with him forever. flows right into the second point though. That means that You Me? We are his.

We're his. Listen to Exodus 34, 9, and he said, If now I found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, Moses says, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity. And our sin, and take us. Take us for your inheritance. It's this Old Testament background of the nation of Israel as a people.

The Lord. Deuteronomy. 4:20, but the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. Later on in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

And this is the language that Peter picks up on in 1 Peter 2 and applies it to the church. But you are a chosen race, a royal priest to the holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once. You are not a people, but now you are. Gods.

People. Once you'd not received mercy, but now you've received mercy.

So both these pieces are true. On the one hand, We have something waiting for us, namely life forever with him. On the other hand... We are His. And we are His heritage.

in that way. He wanted He could have, God would have been just as God as God is God. if he didn't pull us to himself. But he wanted you. One is it.

And so he did. There's an old hymn written in 1890. called I Am His and He is Mine. And the fourth verse of that hymn reads this way, written by a guy named Wade Robinson. His forever, only his, who the Lord and me shall part.

Yes, the question. Who's going to separate us if I'm his? Ah With what a rest of bliss Christ can fill the loving heart. Heaven and earth may fade and flee, firstborn light in gloom decline, But while God and I shall be, I am his and he is mine. While God and I shall be, what's that mean?

Forever. Forever. Will God ever cease to exist? No. You'll be his forever.

is the idea.

So God has this purpose. purposed People and he has a purposed possession. Look at your text. Second observation In Him we've obtained an inheritance. having been predestined according to the purpose Yeah.

of him. The purpose is a purpose possessed By God.

So, well, that's kind of obvious, Brian. I know, and I want you to think about it. I want you to think about briefly. But as you do, I want you to hear two scripture verses. Two scripture verses.

Malachi 3.6, listen close. He is speaking in context to a people. who are rebellious. He's speaking to their religious leaders. And he is accusing them prophetically of robbing God.

Okay, that's the context. For I, the Lord, do not change. I, the Lord, do not change. That in theology is what we call the immutability of God, He doesn't mutate. He doesn't mutate.

He doesn't shift or change. I, the Lord, do not change, and then listen. Therefore, in light of the fact that I don't change, You, O children of Jacob, are not Consumed. Catch that? What is it?

That makes God not look at me and my sometimes rebellious, selfish, narcissistic, navel, gazing, manipulative, maniacal, conniving heart. He should be a pastor. And not just squash me like a bug. What is it? His character that doesn't change.

If he was arbitrary, I'd be done. If he was capricious, you'd be dead. Let's pray. Do you understand? That the fact that God has a purpose And that he can be fully relied on to walk out his purpose irrespective of your behavior and my behavior and your attitude and my attitude and your disposition and my disposition and your anger and my anger and your upset and my upset and on and on and on.

That's the only reason you and I aren't concerned. That's the only reason you're still breathing. That's the only reason we're still getting Writing in the anthology. Because he is not dependent upon anything. But rather he just is and he's always self-consistent.

He never cannot. Be not just and not merciful at the same time. Right? And that's why we land on that gospel that satisfies his justice and yields to us his mercy. James 1.17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

There's no isolation. There's no sense where I have to look over my shoulder with God. There's no sense. Wherein I have done really well this week. Must be living a life of the blessed.

The Lord loves me, I feel it. I didn't do so well this week. It's been hard. I think the Lord's out for me. God does not have a beans and brews karma tip jar.

He doesn't. So you showing up at church today is wonderful. But no. The Lord is not somehow in the back going. Good to see.

Well done. There's no brownie points. with the Lord. His purpose. is unmitigated.

And the beauty of that is that means it's secure. That means it's secure. That means that the purposes of God in both the grand scheme of his cosmic operation. and the specificity. of my wife collapsing on a sidewalk in Cedar City.

and us piecing back things with the family. and my father-in-law being wheeled out of the OR. in a wheelchair. His purpose. In the macro.

and in the micro. is not thwarted. That's important. We'll come back to that. Look at your text.

His purpose is a purpose with divine power. His purpose is a purpose with divine power. In him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him. who works all things. According to the counsel of his will, works all things.

We get the English word energy. From this Greek word energeo. The verb to energize. Real quick. The word shows up four times as a verb in Ephesians.

It shows up a couple more times as a noun. I'm going to give you just a couple of those uses. Ephesians 1, because they illustrate the point. Ephesians 1, 19 through 20. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working?

That's a noun form. of his great might. That he worked. Verb. In Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly place, is Ephesians 3.20.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work. within us. Ephesians 3:7. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working. of his power.

So, whether it's His grace that's given to me, whether it's Him working through me in some way, or through you in some way, whether it's Him working in what Christ accomplished, what I want you to see is that His power, His energy, is the real sustaining Apparatus by which his sovereignty lands in your life.

Now this becomes a point. of deeper wrestling that we'll get to. And that is that God sustains the world. In the midst of the middle of the middle of the hardest circumstances of your life. He sustains the world.

in the midst of the hardest circumstances of your life. And I think that is so imminently important and crucial. For you to lay hold of. I dare say that if you cannot get your mind or your heart ultimately there, which is a challenge, I will tell you, and it needs to be recycled again and again because things will press you away from that. That you will become one of the most Bitter people.

With a Jesus fish on your car. that the world's ever seen. Because you will always feel like you've been done wrong. One way or another. You'll always be tempted to place yourself at the center of the story.

But you're not. Mm-hmm, and I'm not. And that's why we need to spend a little time on point four. And we will. Who works all things Energizing All things according to the counsel of his will.

And we need to think about this phrase.

So here's our fourth point. His purpose is a premeditated purpose. Premeditation means, and this is what the word means, you see the word counsel? Yeah. The word speaks of deliberation.

That is that he deliberates Concerning The plan. The purpose. The decision. If you will. All things All things he works.

All things. In the Greek, you know what that means? All things. As in, not one thing excluded from the phrase all things. And he works them.

to the counsel of his will. That doesn't mean he's the primary cause. of every single thing. Let me show you, let's do a little theology real quick. Here's our verse, according to the council of his will, and you see these circles.

Imagine that every single thing that has ever happened in the universe is inside. the broadest circle. Everything.

So think of your greatest joy.

Somewhere in there. Your greatest pain somewhere in there. The most wonderful thing that humanity has ever accomplished is in there. And the hardest edge. of anything dealt to humanity.

He's in there.

Now not everything is in the middle circle. Not everything is. In the middle circle are things that map on to the moral will of God, which is another way of saying things that map on to God's character, things that happen that reflect and resonate with. the nature of God.

So when I get angry, That's someone. And I hold that anger in my heart, or I lash out with that anger. Where am I and where is that act? up there on that screen.

Well, it's not in the middle circle. And yet, could God stop me from getting angry? Could God stop me from shooting off my yapper? You Bet your biscuits. That's how we say it in church.

You bet he could. In a moment. If you wanted to. Yeah. Peace.

Mm, give me a little rope. He permits. He permits. What's the alternative, by the way?

Well, you've got a couple, I suppose. One is that Um he Simply ignored in some way that you would do it, or that he was unaware of and didn't know that you'd do it, and he's just trying to catch up with you. But you're a slippery cuss. You know, you g you're a wily one. And the Lord's having a hard time roping you.

You're like roping the wind. That's not the case. Instead, I breathe. As I let out my vitriol. And God sustains my breath while I let out my vitriol.

Otherwise I wouldn't breathe. Neither would you. And it falls within his permissive will. And he permits me to do it. That doesn't mean that it brings him glory, and it doesn't mean it maps onto his character.

God permits a lot of things. In fact, a ton of things that don't fit his character. And yet. There are things that do fit his character, and they fit within his moral will.

So what you have to have is an understanding of the sovereignty of God, not that he's the primary cause of all things, but he is the sustainer of all things and the causative element of particular things. in that way. Thus he's sovereign over all things. And he works everything to the counsel of his will. In some way, even my sin.

is not somehow make him go, oh no. We gotta go to plan B, C, D, F. But with me, he's in like quadruple infinity Z. No, he doesn't have to. He's not a defensive coordinator.

Going out, I didn't know they were gonna do that calling in the next play. Changing gotta go to nickel on this guy. He's tough. Instead, He is prepared, and all things happen by his permission.

Some things happen by his direct causation. With that in mind, I want to give you some implications of this idea of all things working. to the counsel of his will. Five implications. I'm just going to put them up here for you.

Here's the first one: nothing happens that is arbitrary. Therefore. Therefore, it's meaningful. Therefore it's meaningful. There's a scene in the movie The Apostle with Robert Duvall that I love.

I've shared it before, but He is praying sort of. with the Lord. And he's a shifty guy, lacks integrity, and yet seems like he wars within himself. And he seems like he has at one and the same time an authentic relationship with the Lord and yet utter and deep duplicity at the same time. It's an interesting study case, maybe because we see a lot of ourselves in him, if we're honest.

But he's praying, and there's this time when he's upstairs, and his mother's downstairs, and Somebody hears him. The neighbors hear him and they're like, can you tell your son to shut his mouth? And the mother says, well, he's talking with the Lord, and sometimes he talks to the Lord, and sometimes he yells at the Lord. Have you ever had a time where you were yelling at the Lord? Man, about a week ago, I went for a walk and I just.

So frustrated. Just frustrated. Just just stripping back the inhibitions. For a moment. of transparent frustration that he knows all about.

L let me share something with you. You might find That lament. is how you keep your faith. Lament might be how you keep your faith. Because when you go to God with your lament, It's as though you're coming to your Father with your sorrow.

And it's not that you need all the answers. In fact, if you got the answers, you wouldn't even know what to do with them anyway. Wouldn't help you at all. But You need presence whether you realize it or not. You need space.

to be held by God. in a way that is completely intrinsically Even How bubbly. Healing. Nothing happens by chance. There is no such thing.

Oh, I just have dumb luck. No, you might be dumb, but you're not having dumb luck. I'm just kidding. There is no such thing as luck. Not there's no such thing as that.

Like there's there's no happenstance here. That means everything's meaning is meaningful.

So when Stephanie died We had to go on a quest. The hard one. One in a cave. One that felt like for a while it had very little light. But we had to grow up and we had to look.

Where to find meaning? Because It was there. We weren't hunting. For Bigfoot. We weren't looking for Loch Ness.

We weren't trying to find mystical treasure. But it was the real narrative. that had become so blurred By the way that we typically look at our lives. That we had to find a way to sort of scrub the manuscript and find out what was written underneath. That the Lord was riding all along.

Nothing happens that is capricious. Therefore, God is trustworthy. That is capricious, different than arbitrary, arbitrary, random, capricious. Kind of insensitive. Kind of with a hard edge.

Thanks. Nothing happens like that because God is trustworthy. Nothing happens that's myopic. Therefore, it maps onto a greater plan. Nothing happens that now you go, well, that doesn't make any sense.

You can say it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense to me. But it's not as though God leads his plan just off the hood of the car. My problem is my vision. is limited. Yeah.

I'm unable to see. Nothing happens that is obtuse. That really means insensitivity. Therefore, our pain is within the purview of God's compassion. Listen to Nicholas Waltersdorf in a book he wrote called Lament for a Son.

If you have lost anyone, I would recommend you get the book and read it. He wrote it after his son died in a mountain climbing accident, and Waltersdorf is a Yale scholar. God is not only The God of the sufferers, but the God who suffers. It is said of God that no one can behold his face and live. I always thought this meant that no one could see his splendor and live.

A friend said perhaps it meant that no one could see his sorrow and live. Or perhaps his sorrow is splendor. Instead of explaining our suffering, God shares it. Think about that. What did he do?

He condescended Hmm? That's what this is about. He condescended. In the form of a human. and took upon your sin and endured suffering.

to become a co-sufferer With you. To free. You. Finally, nothing happens that is reactionary. Therefore, we can find solace in God's calculation.

God isn't responding. He's initiating. He's not. reactionary. The other day when I did my mile and one quarter walk that I do sometimes at night.

And I am. Talking to the Lord in and out of frustration. He isn't offended by me. He doesn't look and say What's wrong with you? At that point, it would have been in 10 days you're going to preach on Ephesians 1, 11 and 12.

Clean up your crap. Get it together, you hypocrite. Don't you know I work everything out to the council of my will? Shut. Your He doesn't.

The study listens. Instead, he can empathize with lamentation. Because he condescended. to suffer. Instead, he can engage my suffering.

Because he sat outside Lazarus' tomb and wept. Instead, he can know the angst of my soul when I want something so desperately to be different, I have no means immediately to reach out, grasp it, and change it because he can say, Not my will in the garden of Gethsemane, Father, but yours be done. He is not aloof in those ways. We go to our fifth point. Verse 12.

So that we who were the first to hope in Christ Might be to the praise of his glory. The purpose of God's purpose is God's praise. You say, well, why are you being redundant? I'm not. Yeah.

His purpose has its own purpose. He's working out a purpose and a plan, and what's the point of all that? The point of all that? is not so I get all my questions answered. That's not the point of it.

If you want God's purposes to include Uh answering all your questions. questions and making sense of everything to you. Or maybe you'd like God's purpose purposes. to include the present relief. of your suffering in your pain.

Um You will be Sorely. and perpetually disappointed at first. And as that disposition maintains itself in your soul, listen to me carefully, you'll probably be on a slow move. to deconstructing Your faith. That's what I meant when I said that lament helps me keep my faith.

I can't bottle it up. Bottling it up just means that I turn it around and I grow in suspicion and I grow in cynicism with God. Instead, I need to lament before him. And I need to bleed a little bit. And I need to yearn a little bit.

And I need to let the Lord know, not because he needs to be informed, but because I, as Kierkegaard said, sometimes need to pray more for me who prays. Right? That's part of it. He works things out.

So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of God. Who were the first to hope in Christ? I think this phrase. It simply means who already Our hoping in Christ is the idea. That's to for Paul, that's the Ephesians here that he's writing to, and that's him and his band of people.

That's us. We're hoping in Christ. We're saying there's an inheritance and we're your people. This is not it. You're working all things one way or another out, darkest to the most delightful, everything in between on the spectrum.

You're working it out, and our hope is in you. And God says, Well, that's a good thing because you know why this whole thing exists? Why? He tells you.

So that he gets glory.

So that he's praised. And if you step back from that and you think, well, that seems sort of narcissistic, you don't know God very well. The greatest thing that can be done in this world. is that the only necessary being upon which all other beings subsist and contingently exist would be magnified exponentially. Everybody wins.

I'm going to take you to a text in closing, and it's Isaiah 48. I'll put it up on the screen, first part of it. Of course, Isaiah is prophesying about future exile from his vantage point. Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord, and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts is his name.

The former things I declared of old. They went out from my mouth, and I announced them. Then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate. Look at how he identifies the nation.

These people who probably read this in exile. And your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead brass. I declared them to you from of old. Before they came to pass, I announced them to you, lest you should say, My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them. In other words, the things you see happening around you, don't get it twisted and start attributing them.

to some pagan god. You have heard.

Now see all this. And will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things. That you've not known. They are created now.

Not long ago, before today, you have never heard of them, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them, and I want you to pay real close attention to Verzaid. You've never heard, you've never known, from of old your ear has not been opened, for I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel. I knew that if I disclose things to you. They wouldn't land well. with your wicked heart.

With your rebellious Nature. I knew that you'd kick against it.

So why didn't he just squash them? Those people who kick against the council. of his will. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you.

That I may not cut you off. Behold, I've refined you, but not as silver. I've tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profane?

My glory I will not give to. Another. The purpose of God's purpose is the praise and glory. of God. God does not want me to subsist in frustration towards Him.

He does not want me to revel in anger. He does not want me. to be a petulant Self-entitled child. That consistently wrestles with everything negative that comes in my life. He wants me.

to take those natural inclinations of a rebellious heart. To turn them over. In plea? In pleading, and sometimes in lamentation to him. And to leave the presence of my Father.

and trusting That in some way. this whole thing and this little essay. Yeah. And to say. That's okay.

I can live in this world. Your alternative. is to become a bidder. Kermudjin. or to abandon faith altogether.

In abandoning faith, by the way. If you think somehow that's courageous, it's foolishness. You're simply kicking against the one who's sustaining your legs every time you kick. There's a final song this morning.

Some of you got some burdens that you have in your life and some things you've been wrestling with the Lord about. I'm going to be down here. Other people will be down here to pray. I'm going to ask Ed Kanopka to come up here with me in a minute. It'll be over here.

And I want you to come down and get prayer. If you've been struggling, don't sit there. And Mm m fan. Press in. the Lord.

Press into the Lord. with the things that are weighing you down. causing you to kick against him. God, I pray that you'd bless us. And part of that blessing is the wrestling with The counsel of your will.

The hard edges of your sovereignty. And your goodness. And I pray. This morning. that you would help us to seek you afresh and new.

To learn what it is to lean. our head upon your chest, as it were. and to receive your sovereign goodness. To embrace it. to be comforted by it.

to be healed in our heart. to align our will to your purpose. May you be glorified, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.