Introduction

Since we baptized several people today and my time is limited, I am pausing our Romans study to preach a sermon entitled, “Your Part in God’s Grand Story.” I want to challenge those who were baptized, other young believers, and every Christian to marvel at what God has done for you and to embrace what it means for your future. If you are not a Christian, I hope our text will draw you to Christ and to something much bigger and better than anything else you can do with your life (read).

Every person must feel like he has a purpose if he is going to thrive. Purpose gives meaning to life, it motivates us keep going, and it makes us feel valuable. Without it, you are on a road to misery, depression, or even suicide. Since no one wants to end up like that, we all search for a worthy purpose for my life or least one that I feel is worthy. We search for purpose in our work, our family, a hobby, or a competition. Others embrace a cause from saving the polar bears to promoting a politician to pushing a health regiment to simply having as much fun as possible.

So, what is your purpose? What are you living for? Is it worthwhile? Does it have lasting significance beyond the moment, beyond 10 years, your lifetime, and eternity itself? Do you have a purpose that is so significant that it can sustain joy and meaning through the dark valleys that are surely ahead?

Some of the things I mentioned earlier are very important because they are central to who God made us to be. But the passage we just read describes an even bigger and more glorious purpose for your life. It tells an amazing story stretching from eternity past into eternity future. You are a part of this story if you are in Christ. God lavished abundant grace on a sinner like you so that you could participate in the highest, most wonderful, and satisfying purpose in all the universe. You get to participate in God’s eternal plan to glorify Christ and his amazing grace.

You can’t give your life to anything more significant. There’s no other path that will truly satisfy your soul or provide greater tools to endure great suffering. And there is no greater way that you can love others than to engage in this story. So, I want you to marvel at the privilege God has given you, and I want to inspire you to give your life to the highest cause in all creation—the display of God’s grace, holiness, and beauty. To get us there, I want to ask and answer 3 questions. The first is…

I.  What has God done for you?

Ephesians 1:3–14 begins Ephesians by setting everything that is to come in the context of God’s amazing story. Why did he create the universe? Where is creation going? How will it get there? And most importantly for us, what is my role in this amazing story?

Paul answers that not only has God given us a lead role; our role is to enjoy God’s greatest blessings as he pours them out upon us. That’s a pretty good gig, isn’t it?

Imagine if Elon Musk or Jeffrey Bezos said, “Hey, I want you to work me.” You reply, “Sure, what do you want me to do?” He answers, “I want you to live in my nicest house, eat my best food, drive my best car, and spend as much of my money as you can.” I think you’d say, “Yes!” That would be incredible.

And God says that he has given Christians a similar gig but on an eternally greater scale. Let’s take a moment to notice some of the incredible blessings God has heaped on every genuine Christian and to marvel at them.

God chose you in eternity past (v. 4a). God’s story is not an accident. He planned it in eternity past. And your role in this story is no accident either. Christian, consider the fact that as God was planning his amazing story, he chose you to play a lead role. That’s incredible. Then…

God redeemed you with the blood of his Son (v. 7). Christian, you are the beneficiary of the costliest payment ever made. Jesus paid the ransom for your sin by giving his life on the cross. He bought you out of the vilest slave ship imaginable. Then…

God adopted you into his family (v. 5). I love the story of Joseph? One day, he is sitting in an Egyptian jail, dirty, half-starved, naked, and ungroomed. The next day, he’s living in Pharoah’s palace enjoying every blessing of Egypt. What a dramatic change! Imagine being in his shoes.

That’s only a shadow of the dramatic change God has provided you. You were a miserable slave, but now you are the adopted child of the Creator. You are an heir to infinite riches, a child of the holiest, kindest, and most generous Father imaginable. As a result, …

God blessed you lavishly (vv. 7–8a). Lavished is a great word. Imagine a billionaire lavishing you with gifts. But Christian, God has lavished you with the “riches of his grace.”

Therefore, notice the doxology of v. 3. When I was in college, one of my professors said something encouraging to my friend. He replied, “God bless you.” The professor replied, “God already has, and he can’t give me anything more. I have every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Isn’t that incredible? Our God is generous beyond our imagination. And someday his generosity will culminate in his ultimate promise.

God will fully redeem you (vv. 13–14). It’s incredible that the 3^rd person of the Godhead lives inside you. But God says he is merely the “seal (i.e., the down payment, the earnest money, the pledge)” of our future full inheritance. God won’t just bless you; he will glorify you. You will be near to God, and for all eternity you will enjoy his wonderous glory and generous grace.

So, consider the fact that when God planned his eternal story, he chose you to play the role of lavish recipient of his grace. It’s so amazing that it seems too good to be true. “There must be a catch. I must have to do something to earn it, right?” Wrong! It is all glorious, generous grace. Stop and marvel at this reality. Christian, God has done amazing things for you. But why? Why would God be so generous to a sinner like me?

II.  Why did God bless you?

God answers with two grand reasons. First, God blessed you…

To Display God’s Glory: This passage consists of 3 stanzas that all end with a similar refrain declaring God’s purpose. Verse 6 says all of this is, “To the praise…” Verse 12 says these incredible blessings are, “To the end…” And v. 14 concludes, “To the praise of His glory.”

Have you watched a movie or read a book and grown frustrated because you have no idea where the story is going? What’s the point? What’s the plot? It’s far worse when you feel that way about reality. Where is the world headed? What’s the point of all this suffering? Does any of this have any meaning? What about me? “Where am I going, and what is the point of my life?”

God answers all those questions in these refrains. God’s biggest story is moving toward his glory. Sin and evil have tarnished God’s good creation, but Christ is redeeming us, and v. 10 says he is moving all history toward the day when Christ will glorify himself by fixing everything. He will “sum up…” Colossians 1 says he will “reconcile all things to himself.”

Christ will glorify himself by restoring all that is broken and making it better than ever. There is a grand and worthy purpose to all our suffering and pain, and all of it will be resolved someday.

And Christian, you play a crucial role in this story. God has redeemed you and he is transforming you. Verse 4 says you are becoming “holy and blameless.” It’s as if you are the appetizer of what God has in store for his entire creation. As God forms holiness in you, he is giving creation a foretaste of the glory that awaits.

So, no Christian lives a meaningless life. Your work, your love for people, your monotonous daily routines, and even your enjoyment of God’s blessings all contribute to the greatest plotline in history. God’s revelation of his glory.

Some of you are enduring great hardship. Finances are tight, and family relationships are strained. There’s chronic pain, grief over a lost spouse, or broken hearts. Is there any point to it all? Yes! The grace God is displaying through you is playing a vital role in God’s eternal purpose to display his glory. “Your pain will not be wasted. Christ completes his work in me.”

Maybe you are teenager, and you are staring at all the sex, money, and fame the world offers, and then you compare that to holiness and truth. Sex, money, and fame look far better. Understand that Satan is selling a lie. If you chase that stuff, you may have some fun, but you’ll end up empty, lonely, and unsatisfied. And what is the purpose? There’s no value there.

Don’t buy the lie. See that God is offering you the chance for real meaning and purpose. You can glorify eternal God and make a real difference in people’s lives by pointing them to the best truth anywhere, the glory of God.

That’s real love. Love is not chasing your lusts, or giving people unconditional approval of perversion. Love is pointing them to the best reality they can ever know—the glory of the one true God. Praise God that we get to display God’s glory. In particular, God has blessed us so that we might…

To Display God’s Grace: Verse 6 says God hasn’t merely chosen us to display his glory; he has especially chosen us to display “the glory of His grace.” Verse 3 calls us to praise God. Why? Because he has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing.”

So, Christian, you are not just a trophy of God’s glory; you are especially a trophy of his grace. What an awesome job. Again, imagine how cool it would be if a billionaire wanted to use you to show off his generosity.

Then consider the fact that one of God’s highest priorities in writing his eternal story was to display his grace. He wanted to show creation how generous he is. Then he chose you to display that grace. He showed you abundant grace, and he’s not even close to being done. You have far more coming in eternity. You are a walking testimony to the grace of God.

I can’t imagine any higher, more satisfying, or more enjoyable purpose for your life. God has called you to be glad in the grace of God so that the world can see how wonderful he is and seek that same joy for themselves. Praise God! That brings me to our final question for this morning.

III.  What does this mean for my life?

Don’t waste your life. A few years back, a young believer told me that his family was moving east. I had spent a lot of time with this guy, and I lovingly pointed out that his faith was weak, his marriage was struggling, and that if he moved now, there was a high likelihood that he would not land in a church that would provide the spiritual care they needed.

From a human perspective, he was risking his soul, his wife’s soul, and the souls of his children. He gave a few answers, none of which really answered my fears. But I’ll never forget him saying, “I just really want my kids to grow up in a place with grass.”

I like grass too, and I’m not trying to start a debate about moving or not moving or make some broad judgement about people who move. Every situation is unique. Rather, consider the foolishness of risking your family’s souls for grass. What a waste!

But people waste their lives all the time. They idolize sex, a cool car, a prestigious career, or a carefree retirement, none of which will mean squat when they stand before the Lord.

God is offering you the chance to play a role in the most significant purpose imaginable. Will you waste your life chasing fleeting pleasure, or will you live for the glory of God? Please make the right choice.

That must begin by receiving Christ as your Lord and Savior. God offers a host of incredible blessings, but they only belong to those who are in Christ.

Please, receive him today. You can do so by admitting to God that you have sinned against his will, then by confessing that Jesus is Lord and that he paid for your sin on the cross, and then by asking him to save you and make you his child. If you do that, you will be born again. You can do it in your seat, or we’d love to talk with you afterwards about how to be saved.

From there, make the right choices every day. Christian, choose today not to waste your life but to invest your life in the only cause that truly matters. Second…

Love the Lord. Our Wednesday night Bible study has had me thinking about the fact that Satan loves to numb us to death with worldly cares, passions, and distractions. He doesn’t whisper, “Go cheat on your wife” because he knows you’ll swat that away. Instead, he numbs your capacity to love God and serve God with distraction after distraction.

Don’t let him do it. God’s grace is amazing! And God is calling you give yourself daily space to think deeply about the glorious truths of the gospel and to love God with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Pursue holiness. Verse 4 is absolutely stunning. Why did God choose you in eternity past (read)? Satan wants you to think that holiness is restrictive, weird, and legalistic. But God says it is beautiful. As you are progressively conformed to the image of Christ and reflect God’s holiness, you have the privilege of reflecting the beauty of God to the world. It’s incredible.

And God says it is an essential purpose for your salvation. If you aren’t quite sure, God says it again for those who are in the back. Colossians 1:22 says, “He (Christ) has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Be different so you can make a difference. Don’t waste your life trying to stay as close to sin as possible. Strive by God’s grace to be like Jesus.

But you may wonder why holiness is so important? Why this challenge in the context of God’s grand story? It’s because holiness is essential to our ultimate purpose and my final application.

Worship the Lord. This passage is abundantly clear that God’s purpose in the gospel is not merely to fill vacancies in heaven; he is creating little reflections of his glory through transforming us into the image of Christ. God chose you and saved you to be a trophy of his grace. The salvation testimonies we already heard, the ones we’ll hear in a moment, and every one of them in this room is a declaration to all the world that God is good, his grace is powerful, and someday his grace will transform all creation.

So, live out your faith before a watching world. Show the world the transforming power of God’s grace through a truly holy life. Don’t put on a plastic show. Just be a real Christian who loves better things, lives for higher purposes, and has no taste for Satan’s distractions.

Then be sure to tell of his works. Don’t talk about yourself; talk about God. Boast in the cross. Give thanks for God’s blessings. God chose you to be a trophy of his grace, so make it your ambition that everyone who leaves a conversation with you leaves with a sweet taste of the glory of God.

Conclusion

What is your purpose? What do you want out of life? God’s answer, the only worthy answer, the only answer that gives lasting significance and sustainable joy is, “I am a trophy of God’s glorious grace.” So, embrace God’s best purpose for you. You get to play an amazing role in the greatest story ever told. Then set aside every distraction and care and live to the praise of his glorious grace.