His Plan For You

God does care about you. You are special to Him. He had picked you out, had chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world. Before God ever did any creation, He had you in mind.


Scripture: Ephesians 1:4, John 3:16

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doin’ Alright? It’s your good friend, Bob Cook, and you and I are back together again looking at the Word of God. Hallelujah for that. I’m so glad, aren’t you? That we have God’s blessed inherent, inspired, infallible, eternal Word to which we can look to the law and to the testimonies that Isaiah 8:20, “for if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,” so you and I remember that the Bible tells us, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

We’re looking at Ephesians, you and I, and we’re down to verse four. “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Now He hath chosen us in Him. That word chosen actually means picked out, picked out. I have boyhood memories of choosing up sides and I was usually the last one to be chosen because I was a poor ball player and not all that well-coordinated. Machinery, I identify with but sports, I just never, never really excelled at and they would pick me last and I still remember the sad comment that someone made. As he looked at me, I was the last one to be picked and he said, “Well I guess I’m stuck with you, Cook.” Oh dear. Well, chosen, now you’re — God isn’t stuck with you. He picked you out because He wanted you. He wanted you to be a part of His family, “predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.” He wanted you. He wanted you.

Mel Larson was one of my best friends while he lived. He’s been with the Lord now for a good many years but he worked with us in Youth for Christ and was editor of the Youth for Christ Magazine for some years before he moved on up to Minneapolis and edited the Evangelical Free Church Beacon and then he went to heaven from Minneapolis. But he and Carolyn, his wife, had two children, both of them adopted. I was having coffee with Mel one day and I said, “Mel how do you handle the question of letting your children know that they are adopted children?” “Oh,” he said, “That was a very simple matter.” He said, “We told Jimmy and Susie. We told them that other people have the children that are born to them but we had the privilege of picking them out because we specially wanted them.” It would seem to me, beloved, that God looks at you and at me who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ made Him by faith our Lord and Savior. He looks at us and He says, “I picked you out. I picked you out because I wanted you. You’re special.”

Has it ever occurred to you beloved that you are special to God? Well you are. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.” That actually means you’re His concern. He’s got you on His mind. You are special to God and He wants you to come to Him. The Bible said, “Ye who are the Lord’s remembrances give Him no rest until he establish peace in Zion.” God likes to have you remind Him of His promises. He knows them of course because He made them and He’ll keep them. He’s faithful. He’s the covenant keeping God, the Bible says of Him so He knows what He said but He likes to have you remind Him just as any parent or grandparent relishes the thought of a little child coming and says, “You promised me.” And of course you’re going to keep that promise. You wouldn’t let anything stand in the way.

You beloved are special to God. Well somebody’s saying just now, “Well Brother Cook, I don’t feel very special. Look what’s happening to me. Look what’s happening to my job. Look what’s happening to my health. Look what’s happening to my family. Look what’s happening to all the circumstances around me. I don’t feel very special.” Well remember what the Savior said, “What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter.”
God doesn’t pay all His bills on Tuesday and God doesn’t always explain to you what He’s doing. As a little boy, I used to say to my father when he gives some kind of a command, ‘Why?’ And he would look at me and say sternly, generally, “Because I said so boy.” And that was enough. Now for this younger generation, that may not be enough. I don’t know but it was enough for me and of course pretty Biblical. The Bible said, “Children obey your parents and the Lord.” That was one of the first verses I learned and I was aware of the fact that God is on the side of parents. So God, our Heavenly Father, doesn’t always explain to us what He’s doing and sometimes in response to our queries, He may be saying, “Just do it because I said so.”

Well, and you may be scared at the time. You may be scared at the time. I read a story in Guide Post Magazine yesterday about someone who was actually praying about approaching the boss on a matter and was just afraid to do it and then just at that point, there came the famous earthquake which recently happened in California and this ancient five story brick building was rocking on its foundation. As the lights went out, dust and debris were everywhere and so it was a question not of using the old creaky elevator because that didn’t work now. They had to go down the stairway which was in itself a hazardous place and in the darkness and so this person came to the stairway. The first step was before her and she just, she froze. She couldn’t take another step for fear and someone behind her said, “Go ahead. Take the first step.” And she said, “I can’t. I’m scared.” And the person behind her said, “Well do it scared then, but do it.” And so step by scared step, she found her way down to solid ground. Do it scared but do it. See?

God does care about you. You are special to Him. He has picked you out, had chosen you it says in Christ before the foundation of the world. Before God ever did any creation, He had you in mind. That just boggles ones mind. Doesn’t it? Before God did any of the creation, He had you in mind and He chose you and of course the inevitable question is why? If that’s so Brother Cook, why did He choose me instead of somebody else? And the answer I have to give you is I don’t know except that God has a right to make His plans based on His infinite fore knowledge. All of the past, present and future is immediately apparent to the God who knows it all and so He has the right to make His plans based upon what He knows you and I are going to do and God looked down the centuries and the millennia of years and saw that you, my beloved friend, were going to say yes to His gentle offer of salvation and He said, “I’ll choose him.” I’ll choose her, chosen us in Him. Thank you Jesus for being the one through whom we have been picked out to become members of God’s wonderful family.

Then He said, “Before the foundation of the world,” that word foundation is an interesting word. Made up of two words, a little prefix “kata” which means across or out and the verb “ballo” which means to throw or in some cases to lay down. Here’s a word picture for you. God was establishing the universe. He just threw the stars out here and there. Can you see that infinite hand of power throwing out the galaxies across the limit — to the expanse of space? And then He comes to the world and He puts it in place before the foundation of the world. He puts the world in place and He tilts the axis of the Earth exactly as it ought to be so that the seasons alternate in their proper order and He sets it spinning then He goes on with the work of creation. All the while, beloved, having you in mind before He laid out the universe or threw out, the verb ballo means to throw in its basic sense. He threw the galaxies and the stars out here and there and placed them with His infinite precision so that the clock of the universe goes on, never varying a fraction of a second. We set our atomic clocks by God’s clock. Don’t we? You were in His mind before He ever began the work of creation.

Now He said, “He chooses that we should be holy and without blame.” Holiness has to do with your inner character and your relationship with God. Without blame has to do with your relationship with people and both of them are based upon the Calvary love of God, holy and without blame before Him in love. Greek word Agape, Calvary love, John 3:16 kind of love.

Now what is it that God wanted? What was He thinking about even before He started creating our world? He had you in mind. Right? Because you’re special to Him and He knew what you were going to do when you heard the Gospel and so He chose you.

Now what does He want of you? Well the first thing is, He wants you to be holy. Not useful primarily, not admired or admirable primarily, not beautiful, no that isn’t the first thing. All of these things come along, let the beauty of our Lord, our God, to be upon us, Moses prayed. So a beautiful life, there’s nothing wrong with it. You can pray for it just as Moses did. Useful in your work, successful in your work, nothing wrong with wanting that, Moses prayed for that. Establish other work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it, but what God wanted primarily was that you be holy. Why? Because that is His number one attribute. “Be ye holy for I am holy” is the statement attributed to Almighty God as He looks at you and at me. “Be ye holy as I am holy.” Now that’s the function of the Holy Spirit. When He comes in, as you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He comes to dwell in your life. Does he not? And when He comes to dwell, He reduplicates the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ in you. He witnesses to the reality of Christ and He produces what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit, which makes you a holy individual and everything you say and do is a byproduct then of that relationship you sustain with Almighty God. We’ll get at this the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today may we be holy people as thy Word and thy Spirit work within us. I ask You in Jesus name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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