God’s Purpose
Tim Ross | July 26, 2020
“God has a plan and a purpose for His church, and we will allow nothing in American culture to compromise what His kingdom’s culture wants to do in this earth.”
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Transcription
I'm so grateful that you have joined us today. I want you to get your Bibles because I'm ready to dive into the Word of God. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to the book of Ephesians 3:10. Now, I've been talking for weeks as it relates to God's perspective, heavens perspective on earthly events, racism, injustice, division, that can happen amongst and in particularly in the body of Christ.
Well, I'm coming to the conclusion of several weeks of teaching. I believe that if you go and listen to these messages in their entirety, God will do a deep work in your soul, as it relates to how he has called you to view the things that are going on in our culture.
Ephesians 3:10. Here is what it says, in Ephesians 3:10 it says, "God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom and its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." Now it's just one verse, and so I get to read it again, right. I'm not taking you through 14, 15, 16, 17 verses. I want to read this one verse again because I want you to know what God's purpose for his church is. God's purpose in all this was to use us, the church, to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
If you're taking notes on this message, I want to talk to you today about God's purpose. That's what I want to talk to you about today. God's purpose, and there's a lot that I want to cover. I want to dive straight into my points. For all of my nerds out there that are taking notes, why? That's right, because nerds rule the world. I want you to write this down. What is God's purpose for us? That is the question that I want to answer with my points. What is God's purpose for us? If you're taking notes, write that down.
Here's point number one, get ready for it. What is God's purpose for us? To be made full and complete by Christ. What is God's purpose for us? To be made full and complete by Christ. Ephesians 1: 22 and 23 say this, "God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church." I got to park right there for a moment. The word of God is just good all by itself. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for whose benefit? Our benefit.
God has made Christ head over all things, given him authority over all things for whose benefit? Our benefit, the churches benefit. Jesus is Lord over all for our benefit. I just want you to think about that for a moment that wherever you are right now, whatever situation you might be in right now, whatever country you might reside in right now, Christ and his authority is over all things to benefit you. Christ has been given authority by God to benefit us. Here's what it says in the 23rd verse, "And the church is his body."
I talked about this last week. "And the church is his body. It is made full and complete by Christ." The church is not full and complete without Christ. It is full and complete by Christ. Get this, "Who fills all things everywhere with himself." Lead that up because I just want to marinate on that real quick. "The church is his body. It is made full and complete by himself, by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself."
I just want you to let that settle in for a moment. That the reason why we get to be the body of Christ and be God's purpose in the earth is because Christ is made full and complete in His relationship with us. He has filled himself up in us so that we can go out and be the fullest display of God's glory in the earth.
I want you to understand something, when this is what separates relationship from a religion. We have a relationship with Jesus Christ because we are filled up with Jesus Christ. This would not be the same thing if we were doing something in God's church without God's presence. It would be completely different if we decided to live a life for Jesus without Jesus. You might say, "well, if I'm living it for Him, I must be living it with him." That is not the truth. You can be doing something for a person without that person's presence. You could be doing something for a person without that person's permission.
The example that I give is, I have two boys and the biggest challenge that we have right now is simply to get the boys to obey us. That is Juliet and I's biggest situation right now is trying to get Nathan and Noah to simply obey what we've asked them to do. Now, I want you to imagine that Juliet and I decided to go out and have a meal and the kids of their own volition decide we're going to paint mommy and daddy's room red. I know they didn't ask us to do it, but we want to do this for mommy and daddy. We're going to paint the room red. I know that they love that color and so we're going to paint the room red.
When they come home, they're going to be so surprised that we did something for them. We can't wait for them to see it.
I want you to imagine now they have painted the room red, and they got little red shrinks of paint coming down their cheeks and its own their clothes and because of their age and stage, we know they're not going to do a professional job. It's probably going to be on our carpet as well. When we come home, I want you to imagine now that when we walk in the door they'll be like, "Surprise, we painted your room red." We'll be looking at him like, "What? What?" "Well, aren't you happy we painted the room for you?" Here's the thing. You did something for us that we didn't ask you to do.
Have you ever considered that there's a lot of people that are doing things in the name of Jesus that the name of Jesus never asked them to do? Have you ever considered that there are people that are going places in the name of Jesus that the name of Jesus never asked them to go? Have you ever considered that people are saying things in the name of Jesus, that the name of Jesus would never even say? Christ is filling us up with himself because we are part of his body. He's not a part of ours. We are a part of his. We are to be made full and complete by Christ and in Christ. This is God's purpose for the church.
Point number two, please write this down. The second reason why you need to understand God's purpose for us is that He wanted to display His wisdom. God wanted to display His wisdom. Now listen, I get super, super excited every time I think about this, and so I'm going to have to try to calm down because when I think about the real ramifications of this verse, I get really, really hyped. I hope you all are ready because it's coming in hot. You all ready?
God's purpose in all this was to use the church, His church, Christ body to display His wisdom in its rich variety to who? Here is the thing, to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, wait a minute. God's purpose for doing all the things that he did was to display His wisdom in its rich variety, not to Tommy, and Keisha and Michael, and Shelly, and Barbara, and Karen and Christopher, it was to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places.
Now, these unseen rulers and authorities, they can't be the godly ones. They are already seeing Christ's body displayed in its glory. Who is God using us as the church to display His glory to? The very evil spirit, the very demonic spirits that tried to take you out. Christ uses the church to show the enemy and all the fallen angels, "Hey, I just want you to know something, you didn't get all of them. I died for these people they've been redeemed and as a part of my body, I'm putting them on display. There's nothing that you can do to these people that the blood of Jesus hasn't already covered. There is nothing that you can do to these people that the blood of Jesus hasn't already redeemed. There is nothing that you can do to these people, the church, my body that I haven't already reconciled to get back to God the Father."
Listen, I'm trying to tell somebody something. You're not wrestling against another person. God put you on display because of the enemies spiritually that were trying to take you out, for the generational curses that were trying to keep hold of your life, for the low self-esteem, for the spirit of suicide, for the spirit of depression that were trying to sit on you and hold on you.
God is saying, "No, here's my purpose. My purpose was, I want to redeem these people and put them on display and show in the rich variety." What's going on with that rich variety? It's that diversity. I want to put a black person next to a white person next to a Spanish person next to a Russian person next to a South African person next to an Australian person next to a North Korean person next to a Chinese person next to a Brazilian. I want to show my rich variety. I want to show it in tall people and short people and fat people and skinny people, I want to show it in all colors, the rich variety, the diversity. From all backgrounds,
I want to take somebody that comes from a multimillionaire family. I want to take somebody that comes from the streets. I want to take somebody that was on drugs. I want to take somebody that owned a drug store, I want to bring my rich variety into full display, not in front of people, but in front of the very spirits that tried to take you out. This is so good. Let me give you some more.
Here's what it says in Ephesians 6:10. A final word. I love Paul. He writes all this incredibly theologically dense stuff. Let’s gets ready to wrap it up. A final word, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil." Let me just pause right there. You do know that one of the strategies of the devil, especially in this time is division, racism, politics, gender identity. He's trying to divide any single way he can. It's a strategy. Whatever God's commandments are and whatever God's picture is, the enemy has a strategy to try to break it down.
Whatever God says, the commandment is that he wants his children to follow, the enemy's going to try to come in with a strategy to corrupt, to manipulate, to pervert, to tear down the very unique masterpiece that God has erected. Stand firm against all strategies of the devil for we are not fighting against my mum and my sister and my cousin and my neighbor from down the street and my coworker and the person that disagreed with what I posted in the comment section and the classmate that I had, that I lost the debate to.
No, no, no, we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Who did God put the church on display in front of? It wasn't people, God's not trying to pit us against other people. I want the church over here. I want you to square off against other people over here. He said, "No, no, I want to call out the church and put you over here and I want you to square off against satan and every demonic force that tried to take the very people I redeemed.
You're not wrestling against flesh and blood. You're not wrestling against Trump. You are not wrestling against Biden, you are not wrestling against a donkey or an elephant. You are not wrestling against baptism in Jesus' name or baptism in the father, son, and Holy ghost. We are wrestling spirits. I refuse to start getting caught up in a fight with a person when I know it's not the person I have the issue with, is the spirit that's influencing the person. I don't aim my prayer at this person as much as I aim right above that person's head to the puppeteer that might be manipulating that person through an open wound they may have in their soul.
This is good. This right here, listen, this right here that I'm giving you all right now, this is some good stuff. This is how you end a series. This is how you talk to the issues that are going on. I want somebody to be free today. You're not fighting your husband. You're fighting that puppeteer that has an open wound in your husband's soul. It's time for you to get into some spiritual warfare, not against the person, but against that spirit that has control of that person.
You've watched a boxing match. You've seen two people get in the ring and square off and they fight each other to exhaustion. They got 12 rounds, and if one person doesn't knock the other person out, they have to come out of the corners and do it again 12 times over. If nobody is still knocked unconscious at this point, then the referee declares who a winner might be. Here's what God says, "Hey, I just want you to know you're not in the ring fighting another person."
I know that other person might infuriate you. I know you might be thinking to yourself, "Oh, if I just slapped this person, I'd feel so much better." But you're not going to stop that spirit out. If I give that person a good cussing out, they'll have a peace of my mind. They'll never mess with me again." You still not going to deal with that spirit that's on the inside of them. Listen, thank you, Holy Spirit. You need to grow up. I don't know who I'm talking to right now. You need to grow up. Stop being petty and stop letting everybody's behavior dictate yours.
It's time to spiritually mature and become the type of person that says, "Listen, I know that person is crazy. God give me some grace because you know I used to love to fight but I'm going to have to withdraw myself, I'm having to step back because I know I am not wrestling against flesh and blood here. This is not Tameka that I'm fighting. This is not Tony that I'm fighting. This is not Shelly that I'm fighting. This is not Michael that I'm fighting. It is that influencing spirit that has an open door in this person's life that I got to be able to crack the code on. God I need you to give me wisdom on how to break through into this relationship." We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
God's purpose for His church was to get us to do something in the earth that displayed His diversity of who He could draw to Him and who He could mark all of Hell with. I want you to think about the fact that your life pre-Christ was headed to an eternity without God forever. Through God's grace and Christ blood, you've been redeemed and reconciled into a relationship with God. Can you imagine how high Heaven is, and how mad hell is about the fact that they got you forever? That your soul was bankrupted from hell's account and deposited into heavens account. God is so good.
Point number three. Let me go. Let me get to the third point. What is God's purpose for us? Again, let me just recap real quick point number one, to be made full and complete by Christ. Point number two, to display God's wisdom and point number three, what is God's purpose for us? Please write this down, to be part of God's masterpiece.
God's purpose is for you and I to be part of God's masterpiece. Here's what it says in Ephesians 2:10. You all didn't know Ephesians had this much for you, did you? Ephesians, listen, it's only six chapters but it's got some meat up in there. Ephesians 2:10 says this, "For we are God's masterpiece." Point blank, period. There's a period behind, there's no comma. For we are God's masterpiece. "When am I God's masterpiece?" You're God's masterpiece right now. "Well, I have a lot of stuff that I'm still trying to get together." No, you are God's masterpiece right now.
For we are God's masterpiece, He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. Do you know that God has plans for you? Do you know that when you gave your life to Jesus Christ, all of heaven had a party and God said, "Oh, do you know I called this person's name before the foundations of the world? And I knew that back in 2011, they were going to be open to me and they gave their life to me. I have waited on this person. I have plans for her. I have plans for him. This is my masterpiece." I get to now put this new piece into my masterpiece and now show another and greater variety of my grace on display through this person's life.
I don't know if you've ever seen some broken glass that has been put back together and put up as art. It's actually more beautiful than art that's never been broken. Just imagine it. There's literally art pieces that is full of brokenness, and it actually has more value than pieces that have never been broken. What is it about brokenness that God is so attracted to. Well, when something's broken, he can get something out of it. If something's not broken, he can't even get anything into it. See our lives, the very broken pieces of our lives. Make up, not individually, but together we make up a masterpiece that God gets to put up.
You see all these broken pieces, I plan to do something with these broken pieces long ago. Long before the book that you read recorded Genesis one V one, I had you on my mind. Long before I said, "Let there be light," God had you on his mind. While you were still clubbing, you were on his mind. While you were an atheist or agnostic, you were on his mind. While you were promiscuous and cutting on yourself, you were on his mind. While you were getting high and getting drunk, you were on his mind. While you were scared and nervous and apprehensive and filled with anxiety you were on his mind. You have always been on God's mind as a creator of all things. There's no way you couldn't be on his mind.
When that masterpiece decides to come back, and through a submitted life says, "You can put me into whatever position you would like me to be in, so that your full riches can be on display." If you want to put me next to a white person, amen. If you want to send me on a mission's trip to Somalia, amen. If you want me to go down and feed the homeless, amen. If you want me to rescue sex traffic victims that have been sex trafficked, amen. If you want to use me to help the police and pray for law enforcement officers, amen. If you want to help me help people who are disenfranchised because of the color of their skin, amen.
Whatever you want me to do, I am a masterpiece in your painting. When you line us all up and you put us on display, we are the picture that the world needs to see.
What was God's purpose? Why would God call you into a relationship with himself. Just to save you? No. It was to put you and I on display. Not just to the people that we can see, but to a whole other world that no one can see. To the unseen spectators behind some of the most devastating events that have ever happened in human history. God says the purpose from my church is to be displayed in its rich variety to unseen rulers and heavenly places. When they see what I've done with you, then they'll have a picture of my amazing grace.
Ladies and gentlemen, whether you're close or far away. Whether you jumped into this series when I did Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech or this is the very first message you've ever heard me speak in your life, you never heard of me before, I want you to understand and know that God has a plan and a purpose for his church and we will allow nothing in American culture to compromise what his kingdom's culture wants to do in this earth. Be a part of God's purpose. Become his masterpiece and give him permission to put you on display. I love you guys so much and I cannot wait to see you again soon.
