For the past few posts I’ve written this summer, I have been going over the book of Ecclesiastes. In the first one I talked about the passing of time, and the seasons that we experience. In the second one, we also talked about a theme thats present throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, and that theme is meaninglessness or vanity. Sometimes in life, we just don’t understand the point of the things we do. We start to ask “what difference does it make?” or “why bother?” As we get older or more experienced with our existence, we can become callous or cold towards the the world and our lives on this earth. It can be frustrating to go over or witness the same old things time and time again. It can seem like there’s nothing new under the sun. And when we think about it, our lives are very short and our time on this earth will end in our deaths. We are all living in mortal bodies. When we look at things that way, we can feel like we are just like the animals. But beneath all the superficial meaninglessness, there IS beauty to time and seasons. Unlike animals, we can appreciate that beauty more fully. We can feel a lasting joy and we can savor this life that God gives us, as long as our mindsets acknowledge God. And when we study God’s word, and live as if God exists, what was once meaningless now becomes meaningful. In light of God’s mercies and his active presence in our lives, the things that were old and repetitive can become new and refreshing. Having a short life that ends in an Earthly death suddenly isn’t all that terrible or depressing when we consider Biblical promises for an eternity together with God. And God sets this idea of eternity on our hearts. Those things that seemed meaningless, random, and pointless are actually events that are planned out by God for the good of those who have been called by Him. Today I want to discuss the idea of God’s plan a little closer.

In Church last week, I learned about predestination. The main topic was about how we are blessed to be sons and daughters of God. But when we talk about being adopted into God’s family, it makes sense to explain predestination. Why? Being adopted as sons and daughters of God is something that happened long before we were friendly towards God. Some verses that were referenced were in Ephesians 1:4 where the Bible says that we were chosen by God before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Another verse was Romans 8:30 says “those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” We were given homework to read the beginning part of Ephesians again. In Ephesians 1, the first 14 verses talk about God’s plan of salvation.

And if you are looking for a part of scripture that is almost the exact opposite of the despair and hopelessness found in Ecclesiastes, it’s probably here in Ephesians 1. Is this vanity? Meaningless? Is it pointless? No. Let’s go over some of what’s here. God has big plans for us. We know that these plans are bigger than us, because they have been around much longer than us. They’ve been around while we were still enemies of God. While we were still disobedient. According to Ephesians 1:4 They’ve been around before the earth was even created. How can salvation be by works, if we were already chosen before the world was created? And despite our sinful nature, the Bible says in Ephesians 1:5-7 In Love, God predestined us for adoption, through Jesus Christ by grace. This happened by the salvation given to us when we were redeemed by the Blood of Christ, and our sins were forgiven. Ephesians tells us that God is rich in his Grace, and lavishes his grace on us when he gives us this redemption. In Ephesians 1:8-10

With all wisdom and understanding, he 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 reach their fulfillment―to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

God does this great work of salvation with wisdom and understanding. Not just some wisdom and understanding. All wisdom and understanding. Infinite wisdom and understanding. And what is he doing? He’s revealing the mystery of His will to us. God is at work to achieve His will and pleasure. God’s ultimate goal is “to bring unity to all things in Heaven and on Earth under Christ” and what’s the time table for His goal? “when the times reach their fulfillment”. At some point in time, when everything is over, there will be unity for all things in under Christ. Remember Ecclesiastes 3 said there was a time and season for everything. A time for war and a time for peace. We were enemies of God, disobedient people acting out in a rebellion to His authority. But in the due course of God’s timeline, he is calling his redeemed back to him to experience this peace. This Salvation. The Bible tells us that if we are under Christ, there will be a time when we will experience unity. Verse 14 says God gave us his Holy Spirit as a deposit and guarantee that we will receive that inheritance.

So the next question is. What is this inheritance? An inheritance is something that we are given for free, just because we are related to the person who has wealth. So because God has adopted us into his family, we are to receive an inheritance from God’s infinite wealth. That means that God has a plan to give us something. What are God’s plans for us? The Bible says we are part of a big plan that’s existed before the creation, so obviously we want to know what it is. This is an area where we can get excited. We are part of something big. The problem is when we get excited, we can sometimes be tempted to skip a few steps in God’s process. When we get overly excited about God’s plans for us, we can be prone to listen to the “Prophecies” that come from Televangelists and self proclaimed Apostles or Prophets. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

When we get focused on our ideas of what God’s plan is for us, we can be easily swayed by “teachers who tell us what our itching ears want to hear”. It is human nature to be utterly self focused or egocentric. It makes sense that we are like this. Who knows us better than ourselves? And who’s perspective do we understand better than our own? So we are going to naturally gravitate to our own ideas based on our own perspective. And even if we wanted to, is it possible that we even experience someone else’s perspective? Not fully. This isn’t something surprising or unexpected, but it is profound and worth thinking about. But as a result of this self centeredness, we are prone to accept false doctrine, especially when that false doctrine is tailored to make our ears perk up. But our goal is to teach sound doctrine here. So what is the big plan? What does God have in store for you or me? Blessings. He has blessings in store for us.

These blessings don’t sound like anything like what our itching ears want to hear. They don’t include prosperity or comfort. They don’t include fame and fortune. They might not include health and wealth. Popularity and status are also not Biblical promises. In fact, if some pastor on TV promises something that sounds appealing, beware. And if some “prophet” in a church is predicting that something momentous will happen as long as you “claim it”, or say a particular prayer, those are words that you should feel comfortable to question. It’s ok to be skeptical, and it’s imperative that we question falsehood.. True Biblical blessings don’t make our ears itch or our flesh tingle. In the book of 1 Peter, there are a few examples of Biblical blessings.

1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”

1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Some Biblical blessings look like misfortunes. Suffering for what is right is considered a blessing here, Being insulted for who we believe in is another blessing. But the blessing is that the Spirit of Glory and God is resting on us. The true blessing is the Holy Spirit. Last week at church I learned about how being blessed means being called and redeemed. The biggest blessing we can receive is the salvation and forgiveness that’s been talked about in the first 14 verses. And our response to that is praising him and worshipping Him. God’s plan is to save us, forgive us, pour grace on us for salvation, so we can be set apart and holy and His. We can enjoy fellowship with him forever as His sons and daughters. The biggest blessing we could ever receive is to be part of the plan, but His goal in doing all this and including us in this plan is to comfort and bless us further “when the times reach their fulfillment”.  Let’s continue in Ephesians 1:15. Paul is speaking to a church of believers. He writes these words in response to the fact that they have been predestined to the call of God’s salvation.

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

Paul doesn’t sound like a preacher making promises of certain blessings. In fact, when Paul hears about their faith in Jesus, he doesn’t start talking about the various blessings or benefits that they are entitled to. He doesn’t predict a future of growth in numbers and status of the church or certain members of the church. What Paul does is pray to God. He said “I remember you in my prayers and continually give thanks to God for you”. His prayers aren’t carefully crafted plans for a future for the Ephesians. He is just thanking God for their faith, and simply thanking God that they are adopted into the family. We can make this mistake in churches today when we pray for each other. I have made this mistake many many times while praying without realizing it. What is the mistake?

We love to plan and then pray for God to give us that future that we plan out. A child sings beautifully, and our natural urge is to pray that the God open doors for the Child to sing for thousands and someday become well known for their singing ability. We see a youth misbehave, and pray that God change his heart so he straightens up and flies right. We see someone sick, and our natural urge is to pray that God heals them and fixes them fast. We see something that we think is wrong, and then pray that God makes it right in our eyes. It doesn’t even need to be a selfish type of prayer. The prayer request could be the most Kingdom focused, God glorifying request. But the problem with this mindset is that we make ourselves the director of the person or situation that we’re praying for. We tend to decide what’s the best way for God to achieve what we think is His will to do. In other words, we assume that we know how to best achieve God’s goals and get God’s will to be done. Then we pray that God makes it happen the way we envision it to happen. Paul doesn’t do this. He starts his prayers by just saying “Thank You, God.” Thank you God for touching these people’s hearts. Thank you for their faith, and for adopting them. Thank you that they are part of your plan for salvation. When Paul does request things from God, it isn’t about Paul’s vision for them, or their vision for themselves. Here’s what Paul asks:

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,

Paul prays that God give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The blessing that Paul asks for from God is that they know him better. The blessing isn’t anything tangible, it’s relational. He prays that their relationship with God is strengthened. He prays that the eyes of their heart are enlightened. He doesn’t pray for anything that they would be able to see with their physical eyes. He prays that God incline the eyes of their heart to know the hope that we were called to as believers. He prays for them to appreciate the blessing that they already have.

Back to the example of praying for someone who’s sick. If we see someone who is sick, our thought might be, “God doesn’t want you sick. How could He?” then we pray for a miraculous healing to demonstrate God’s glory. The way Paul is praying here is different. If he sees someone sick and thinks, “I pray God’s spirit of wisdom comes on you so you know him more.” It may seem kind of heartless, or unsympathetic. This person is suffering with a sickness, and Paul doesn’t address that. But Paul doesn’t assume he knows God’s will. Maybe God’s will is for that person who is sick to encounter God through the trial. Maybe it’s God’s will for the sick person to strengthen the faith of his family and friends, as they see how God provides through a difficult period of life. Once we admit we don’t know God’s will, our prayers end up requesting that our Relationship with God is strengthened, no matter what the outcome of the trial. Maybe the sick man gets better, if so, I pray that his recovery inclines his heart towards God, so he knows God better. Maybe the sick man stays sick, I pray his trial helps him to know God better through dependence upon God’s providence. Maybe the sick man gets worse, and it leads to death. The prayer is that in his decline, he knows God better, and understands the riches of the heavenly inheritance. If he knows God intimately and loves God fully, then to live is Christ and to die is Gain. No matter how good or bad it looks from our perspective, knowing God better and more fully is the best result of any scenario. Paul didn’t always pray that way. Sometime around 4-5 years before he wrote this letter to the Ephesians, he wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9

7 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Paul learned that sometimes God’s will is for us to keep the thorns in our flesh. Sometimes God’s plan is to showcase our weakness. Even when our pride wants to hide or remedy our weakness and show off our better qualities… Even when we pray to God to take those things away from us… Even when our vision of God’s will doesn’t include us being tormented by something, but God’s will does… Even then, God has a plan to give us sufficient grace if His will for us is not our will. Paul lived with a thorn in his flesh, and prayed for it to be taken away, but God’s will wasn’t Paul’s temporary comfort. God’s will was a demonstration of his sufficient Grace. Paul learned that God’s plan was better than Paul’s plan. So Paul learned not to pray for outcomes, per se. He learned to pray for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so we can know God better. He learned to pray for the eyes of our heart to be enlightened so we know the hope we were called to. He continues in Ephesians 1:

the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The glorious inheritance that we await is by and large something that we don’t experience from this side of heaven. The inheritance is something that is shared among the saints, or holy people. Paul writes that the purposes of our salvation is this inheritance, this fellowship with God. This is something that we all share. Its universal for all believers. When we enjoy the riches of God’s grace and mercy, we all share something wonderful. That leads to a unity of believers. We all are of one mind and one Spirit. There is a promise of power to all those who believe. It’s the power that resurrected Christ and brought him from the dead. What does this power allow us to accomplish here? The same thing it did when it raised Christ. That power raises us from the dead. We were dead in sin, and we were brought to life with this power. Instead of being dead in sin, this power allows us to die TO our sin, and live in Christ. That power allows us to be born again of Spirit, to say no to our flesh, and overcome the sinful nature. That power protects us from temptation, and that power is above all other powers, dominions, rulers, all authorities today and tomorrow. It’s a power that allows us to experience a taste of what Righteousness really is, in Christ. We all experience the power of God when we say no to sin, when we choose good over evil. These are things we can’t choose on our own, but God allows the power of His Holy Spirit to work in us. And the goal of this righteousness? It’s not to show off how polished our lives have become. It’s to build unity among believers. God forgives us our sins so that we can be unified into his body. So that we can all be members of one unit with Christ as our head. What’s Paul talking about to the Ephesians?? Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and on this side of heaven, God’s great plan for our lives is to be members of a church. To be brothers and sisters who worship Him together, and strengthen each other, and encourage each other. To be a people who get to make disciples from among all the nations, by preaching the Word and teaching the Word. By praying together and loving each other, and bearing with each other.. By breaking bread together, and experiencing fellowship and communion with each other. I hear of people who say they’re Christian but don’t belong to a church. And that’s very sad because that is God’s big plan and purpose for our lives on this Earth. The church is God’s big blessing that we can experience today. Besides the greatest blessing of forgiveness from our sins and fellowship with Him for eternity, being a member of Christ’s body, or being a part of a church, is the beautiful and wonderful plan that God has for our lives. When Jesus is the head of the body, and we are all his members, we are all One. Fellowship with each other is fellowship with Him, and fellowship with Him is how we experience the unity that God has in store for us.