What Is Your Part In God’s Plan?

Introduction

As Jesse alluded to in his excellent lesson on Sunday night, and it’s something that we know that God had a great plan. And in the fullness of times, Jesus came. God sent his son. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. And so often that plan is misunderstood. It’s unappreciated. And even by those who should know better, that would be me and you, it is perhaps underappreciated. And so I want to talk about appreciating God’s plan and exactly what that means in 2015. And as I asked this particular question this morning, I wish I could take the time, but it might take about five minutes or so to go around the room and look at every person individually, look into your eyes so that you knew I’m talking to you.

Now I try to do that when I preach. It’s one of the challenges is to make eye contact with people, and I try to make eye contact with as many different people as I can. I want to see what people are doing. And some you need to pay more attention to than others. Why am I looking at you? So this is very personal this morning. I’m speaking to every single individual in this audience. And I’m asking, do you get it? What is your part in God’s play? And you’re saying small. Very small.

If that’s what you’re saying, I’m telling you this morning that you’re wrong.

1. No Such Thing as a Small Part

I want to suggest to you that there’s no such thing as a small part in God’s plan. Let me tell you the other thing you might be thinking. Well, I’ve already done it. I became a Christian. And that is most definitely a part of God’s plan for you. It’s a wonderful part of the plan. But is that all? You know, I became a Christian, and so now I’m just going to live out my days in relative goodness, somehow survive spiritually, and be prepared for the last great day. Is that all there is? Now, in contrast to me, we read about some people in the scripture who made a pretty big splash in God’s plan. And we might think about someone like David. Now he’s a key figure in God’s plan, particularly in the Old Testament, of course, when he reigned as king.

But I want you to notice something that said about David, I love the Acts 13 summary, where that context says he was a man after God’s heart. But later in verse 36, before he fell asleep, it says something interesting. It says, He served the purpose of God in his generation. I want you to mark that in Acts 13 and verse 36. David served the purpose of God in his generation.

That’s what you and I are to do in God’s plan is to serve his purpose in our generation. We can’t be King David. Those were different circumstances and different times. But we can do our part and play our role in God’s plan in our time. And that brings me to one other example. Who might not be on your top 10 list of Old Testament Bible heroes? But what she did was extraordinary. At the urging of her relative, her cousin Mordecai, because of her position as queen of the empire, though at some peril she will enter the presence of the king. Mordecai says, Who knows? If you have not attained royalty for such a time as this, and because of her courageous actions, she saves the covenant people of God from termination by the wicked hands of Haman.

But great and significant roles are not only played by the elite and those in positions of power and prominence. What about the lady, the sister, the widow that we read about in Mark the 12th chapter? I always like to call attention to her because Jesus did. Here she is just casting into the treasury her two pennies. And yet Jesus thought it worthy of an object lesson for the disciples, and he brought them over and see that. He says, see this woman? She gave all that she had to live on. Other people have given up their surplus of stuff, and she’s given everything that she had to live on, her two cents. Well, I don’t know how far that two cents went in the work of God in terms of the monetary contributions that were made, probably not a lot.

But I want to tell you, we’re still learning from her example. 2,000 years later. Don’t tell me what this widow did was insignificant. So I want you to think about what specific plan God may have for you. That’ll remind you of the situation of Joseph and Mary. I mean, we’re not talking about royalty here. Yes, the descendants of royalty, the descendants of David, but as we talked recently about them being from the city of Nazareth, and Joseph is not even going to play a role during Jesus’ public ministry. And yet, Joseph and Mary, godly, faithful people, were chosen by God to provide the home for Emmanuel. The perfect environment for the incarnate son to grow in his early years. Can I think of another occasion? And we can cite so many, but I think of the story of Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 5.

Going down into the Jordan seven times to be to be cleansed of his leprosy per the instruction of the prophet. But the really neat thing to me about this story is that when he is upset that the prophet had not come out and waved his hand over the leper. He wanted some dramatic, awe-inspiring event. Well, dipping in the Jordan seven times didn’t cleansed of your leprosy, that was pretty awe-inspiring once it was done. But he was expecting something different, something spectacular. And Elisha sends out his servant to tell him what he needs to do. And so he’s angry. Behold, I thought. You know, the classic statement of Naaman. What changed him? It was his servants. Just his servants who are seeing this thing unfold and they say, Master, he would have told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?

2. God Had a Plan for Me

How much more when he says, wash and be cleansed? And so these servants who are just reasoning with their master because they’re concerned about his interests, they help him to get through the hurdle and to ultimately get the cleansing for his leprosy. And of course, then there’s the Apostle Paul, the one, the apostle untimely born. And I have a lot of questions about Galatians 1. I don’t know that I fully understand all that Paul is saying, and perhaps he doesn’t, when he says, but when in Galatians 1 and verse 15, but when he who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles. God had a plan for me.

Oh, yes, that involved Paul’s own will and his submission to the will of God. But God had it mapped out for him, planned for him. And I think that’s the idea of David in Psalm 139. When he is overwhelmed by God’s role in this world and in his own life, and he says, and I could read all of this, but he says, Thou dost scrutinize my path in verse 3 in my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. I love that verse. Let me assure you of something. The Lord is intimately acquainted with all your ways.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it. And then he goes on in the Psalm to talk about how he was formed in his mother’s womb. He was fearfully and wonderfully made. And then in verse 16, he says, Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in thy book, they were all written. The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. That’s amazing. What did God have in mind with you? Again, I think we try, we in our minds disassociate ourselves from the likes of David or Paul. But what might God have in mind for your days? Now, let me make a recommendation here as I want you to ponder this question.

Let’s not get too overly concerned about our place in history or what our legacy is going to be in regard to the specifics, because that book will be written later. And our spiritual legacy, whatever it might be, however glorious we might think it is in regard to what we accomplished. Look, that’s God’s business anyway. That’s God’s glorious business. But here’s what’s amazing. It is amazing that he can use the likes of me and you to begin with.

3. Christ in You: Be Imitators of the Lord

Considering our sinful past. So, yes, appreciate the tapestry that God is weaving, but let us focus on what God wants me to focus on so that we can truly bring him glory and fulfill his purposes for us. So I want to talk to you about the things that you can control, not the results, not all of the effects of what we may choose to do with our lives, but what we are instructed to do in terms of God’s plan. And we just sing about it. And that’s why I had Jesse lead that particular song. Here’s our part. This is your part. It’s not just the fact that I became a Christian, I was baptized into Christ, my sins were washed away. What now? How can God use me now?

And this is very simple. Christ in you, the hope of glory, Paul says in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 27. Let Jesus be seen in you. And before I go any further, as we look at ourselves and we think, you know, my role in this whole thing is pretty small. If we start thinking like that about our role, that will probably cause us not to produce what we can in God’s cause. If that’s the way you’re looking at your role, that it’s small, that will probably actually contribute to failure, not success. Here’s what all of us in this audience can do this morning. This is God’s will for you. Be imitators of the Lord. How many passages could we look at? That’s what Paul said. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 1. What did we sing about? All his wonderful passion and purity. I can imitate that. May his spirit divine all by being refined. Our hearts and lives are being refined by the example of Jesus as we are instructed by the Spirit to mold ourselves after that example. Thus we are admonished to be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. From the dawn of the morning to the close of day. In your example, in deeds, and in all that you say. Lay your gifts at his feet. So what gifts are you going to lay at the feet of Jesus tomorrow? And the day after that. As Paul talked about the Corinthians imitating him earlier in 1 Corinthians. He said it in chapter 11 and verse 1, but he said it earlier in chapter 4 and verse 16.

He encouraged them. He urged them to be imitators of himself, as of course he imitated Christ. As he says in the next verse in verse 17, he speaks of all of his ways that are in Christ. As he teaches everywhere in every church. All of his ways are in Christ. That ought to be the goal for us. All of our ways, all of our words, all of our thoughts, all of our deeds, reflecting that we are in Christ. We speak all the time about being light to the world. This is our role in God’s plan. Let Jesus be seen in me. Let me tell you this in another way. From another context of Scripture. And I love this. The Lord knows those that are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ abstain from wickedness.

4. Vessels for Honor

Now you know that, 2 Timothy 2 19, right? Well, you do know, if you didn’t know. 2 Timothy 2.19. He goes on to say something after that about vessels in a house. Now, our vessels are a little bit different than the clay, earthen vessels that they would have been dealing with in the first century. Some are more valuable vessels and more enduring vessels than others. We tend to make things that last. Well, I think we used to anyway. But he goes on to talk about vessels for honor. Set apart for the Lord, useful to the master. In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 21, prepared for every good work or every good deed. We have to prepare ourselves to be the instruments that God uses. Vessels for honor.

How do you see yourself? And it sort of goes to the psalm Jesse led that we didn’t know. We give thee but thine own. We have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

And we need to think about that when we think about what our hands are going to do, what our eyes are going to look at. How we’re going to live out our lives day by day. I am determined to be, this is God’s intention for me, that I be a vessel for honor. How can I do that? Or as Paul would say in 1 Thessalonians 4, possess our bodies as vessels for sanctification.

5. The Rescue of a Soul

How can we set ourselves apart? I’ll tell you one thing we can do. We can rescue the parish. We can speak the words and take the actions that will lead to the rescue of a soul. You know, we believe in the providence of God in people coming to the knowledge of the truth and being saved, and rightfully so. Just like he provided in that case, miraculously for the Ethiopian nobleman in Acts chapter 8. Those who ask by. Those who seek fine, those who ask, it shall be given. Those who knock, the door shall be open. We believe in the providence of God in reaching the lost. Well, who is he going to use? Perhaps his intention is to use you. And isn’t that the point of the end of James chapter 5?

James chapter 5. And please see this passage not from the standpoint of just reaching out to someone who has never known the way of Christ and bringing them to the knowledge of the truth that they might be saved. What about those who have already come to truth and yet find themselves struggling? James 5 and verse 19. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. And we can be vessels of honor by helping our brothers, assisting, bearing their burdens. Be hospitable to one another without complaint, Peter would say in 1 Peter chapter 4, because the end of all things is at hand, and that love covers a multitude of sins.

As we serve, let us do so by the strength that God supplies, he goes on to say in that context after he says, if any man speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God. How valuable can it be to simply offer a timely word when it is needed? A word of cheer, a word of encouragement, a word of help. Like apples of gold and settings of silver. The wise writer says in Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 11. So here’s the question. What impact has God designed for you to have on the lives of others? I gotta tell you, I don’t know what the extent of the harvest is going to be. I know Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray that the Lord would send laborers into the harvest.

6. Your Role Matters

He needs people who will see themselves as a part of God’s plan and take their role seriously and go out. But as far as, again, what the harvest is going to be, that’s God’s business. He sees all of that. I cannot. How about the lives of the people that we impact? Well, first and foremost, there’s our families. We need to try to set an example for them and show them. But who are they going to affect? What about your grandchildren? What about your great-grandchildren? What about brothers and sisters in Christ that you encourage to keep keeping on as we talk about? I’ll tell you, every week that passes, and they’re still faithful people sitting in these pews. It matters. There is a legacy that grows out of this that affects generations of people.

I don’t know what the extent of that legacy is, but so often we forget about how significant the role is. Somebody says, Yeah, but I’m not an elder and I’m not a preacher. Well, God gives more abundant honor to the member that lacks, he says in 1 Corinthians 12. And when you read that context, he’s talking about people who don’t have the ability, perhaps that someone else has, or the leadership qualities that someone else has, but they’re supplying their faithful part, God considers it even among all of his faithful people. And I’ve got to tell you something about the people who look at their roles and say, well, you know, I’m just a widow. Again, remember the widow of Mark 12. I’m just a widow. You know, I’m not a leader in the local church.

Nobody would miss me if I’m gone. Don’t count on that. I’ve got to tell you how much it means to me to see people just plugging along, constant, reliable, dependable in their faith, week after week after week. You encourage your leaders. You encourage your shepherds. Your role matters. I can say that to every one of you. Your role matters as you live by faith. I, again, I don’t know what the extent of the harvest will be, but you’re helping me to do my work, and you’re helping many others. And again, who knows how far that reaches. You know, I think about this when I go home gospel meetings sometimes, and you know, I get tired of those journeys sometimes. And sometimes I’ll talk to Sherry about this and say, man, I wish I could just stay home.

But who knows what the impact of the preaching of the gospel may have just on one soul in that group and how that one soul may affect others. You just have no way of knowing. And so we do what we can where we can and let God worry about the harvest. Not that he worries like we do, but God’s going to take care of it. That’s his business. This is my part. I shall observe his testimonies to the end. Psalm 119. And verse 33. I’m going to be as faithful and fruitful as I can be, as I imitate Jesus, as I present myself as a vessel for honor, and I’m going to let God worry about the results. But that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not going to give up.

I want to tell you when people start thinking, my role isn’t significant, and I’m just going to throw in the towel. The only person encouraging that is the devil. He’s the only one who is getting you to think like that. Because you have a role that you can play. A significant role among the Lord’s people. And let me tell you what happens as we as we talked in our Bible class this morning, acknowledging the greatness of our Creator and our own smallness in comparison. As we do what the scriptures say, and it’s amazing how often it comes up, the need for us to be lowly in mind, as Jesus was lowly. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, to be humble.

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Young men, clothe yourselves with humility. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so as we approach him submissively, humbly, dependently, we are given this wonderful promise. Not only has he elevated his people to reside in heavenly places, but ultimately we are promised that if we endure, we shall reign with him. You ever wanted to be a king? I don’t know what that’s going to involve, but let me tell you, that’s going to be good. We will reign with him if we endure. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. And I would just say about that part of it, God’s ultimate intentions for me, I will say, as the queen of Sheba did in regard to all that had been reported to her about Solomon’s kingdom.

And when she saw it finally with her eyes, she said, and I love this phrase. The half has not been told. And when we get to glory, we will say as well, the half has not been told.

Conclusion

So I’m talking to you this morning. Your significant role in God’s plan. Don’t ever discount it. Or think it’s small. And I’m going to conclude with the verse that is somewhat the theme of our whole week. And it’s one of the great statements that Jesus made. It is, I’ve said it so many times I’ve taken it for granted. It is, it is remarkable. John 14 and verse 6, when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. That is a remarkable thing that anybody could say that. But that’s what our Savior is. He is the way. He has illuminated the way for us. He has demonstrated the way for us and the way that he lived. He says, I am the way. I’m what is real truth, what is real.

And ultimately going to be shown to be right. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father. And that’s what they need, whether they realize it or not, no one comes to the Father except through me. He says.

Assist someone in this audience this morning to put on Christ and to know the joys of being in God’s.