God’s Loving Desire for You – God’s Purpose for Your Life

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Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, November 13th. God didn’t create you just to exist. He has a plan, and it’s a threefold purpose. On today’s podcast, you’ll have a chance to see where you stand and discover your next step.

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Do you realize that God has a very specific plan for your life, that He has not just left you here to flounder through life and wander around trying to figure out what you’re going to do or how you’re going to spend your life? You see, most of us have the idea that God is God of this great, vast universe, and how in the world could He be personally interested in any one of us? But if you recall in the Sermon on the Mount what Jesus said, He said, for example, that even the sparrow that falls, the birds of the air that He provides for, He says, aren’t you more important than sparrows, than birds? Then He said, for example, take the lilies of the field. and the grass of the field. If God takes care of them, does He not also take care of us? And all through that passage in the sixth chapter, He is talking about His personal interest in us, and that we don’t have to worry because God is genuinely interested in whatever concerns us. Well, I don’t know all of God’s will for anyone else’s life but this I do know that God has certain desires for your life and my life and that is the theme of this message and the title of the message is this God’s loving desire for you and I want you to turn if you will to 1st Timothy and in 1st Timothy the second chapter Paul is talking about worship in the church and praying and in the midst of that he tells us something here concerning God’s desire for us that I think it would be helpful if you and I understood this because it’ll make a difference in how we see ourselves how we see God how we look at life so he begins by saying in chapter two verse one first of all then I urge that in treaties and prayers petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But there is one God and one mediator, Also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time. And for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I’m telling the truth. I’m not lying. As a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore, I want the men in every place. to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension. And so Paul, in the midst of this admonition to Timothy concerning worship, says that God has two desires for you and for me. And I want us to think about what those two desires are as you think about God being a personal Heavenly Father. He is not simply some force out yonder in the universe somewhere. God is a personal Heavenly Father. And He says He has two desires for us. The first one is, if you’ll notice, who desires all men to be saved. Let me give you a very specific, clear answer to the question, what is salvation? Salvation is God’s work of deliverance from death to giving us or endowing us with a gift of eternal life. That is salvation. Salvation is the work of God whereby He delivers us from eternal death and endows us with eternal life. That’s the gift of God, eternal life. That’s what salvation is all about. It is the gift of eternal life. Now the question comes, why does God desire that you and I be saved? That is, why does He desire to deliver us from eternal death and and give to us the gift of eternal life. Why does He do it? Well, somebody says, well, because He loves us. Well, I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter 2 because there are three reasons that God desires to save us. And of course, the first one is love. He says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, and then He talks about saving us. That is, God, because He loved us, has desired to save us. Now think about this. He didn’t look within your life and my life and see anything that motivated Him to save us. No goodness, no righteousness of ourselves, but rather, the Bible says that He chose to save us because He loves us. It is the nature of God to love you and me and to love everyone. So the motivation for saving us is is loving us, that is His nature. The second reason is that God desires to save us in order that you and I may be trophies of His grace which He can point to for all generations to come, that is, and for all eternity. That is, God will point to us in eternity, in heaven, for all eternity, as trophies of His grace, as a proclamation of His demonstration of grace on earth. Look in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 7. He says, He says, in order that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. You see, fallen angels can never experience the grace of God. Those that did not fall will never experience the grace of God. Only we have experienced the grace of God. And he says what he wants to do, one of his desires for saving us is that he’ll be able to point to us for all eternity, right? Out yonder in eternity future when time as we know it has ceased, God will see us as His eternal trophies of grace. When in this life He demonstrated His awesome, incomparable grace that is beyond our understanding, loving, sinful, wicked, vile men who did not deserve it, we will be demonstrations of His grace for all eternity. But there’s a third reason He desires to save us, and that is this. that in us, by saving us, we might work the good works, and in so doing, men may see the goodness of God and bring glory to God. That’s why he said that you and I are to so let our light shine here on earth that men may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. And he says in this same chapter, chapter 2 of Ephesians, verse 10, that we were created unto good works, which he foreordained or predetermined that you and I should walk in them. And if you’ll notice in this passage what he says, he says he desires to save all men. If you recall when he started out talking about praying, he said, first of all then, I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men, not some, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil, quiet life in all godliness and dignity. And he desires that all men be saved. And throughout Scripture, I think that’s very clear. For example, he says in Luke chapter 19, he says that he came to seek and to save that which is lost, He says in John chapter 3, verse 17, He came to save man, not to condemn. And He says, God sent His Son to the world to save. He says, not in order to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. That’s why He came. So His desire is that you and I may be saved. He says, He’s not willing that any should perish in 2 Peter chapter 3. So it is His strong, yearning, earnest desire that you and I be saved. It is not the will of God that any man be lost. God is not in heaven chalking up points against us, trying to figure out who He’s going to be able to send to hell. That’s the furthest thing from the mind of God. Everything in the heart of God reaches out and pours out love upon humanity. So He says He desires that all of us be saved, not some of us, but all of us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He loved the whole world, the Bible says. And you recall that Jesus says, and I, if I be lifted up, speaking of the cross, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me. Not some, but all. Not the rich, but the rich and the poor. Not the ignorant, but the ignorant and the intelligent. He says, all men, no matter who they are, he says, I will draw them. And you see, there is a theology that goes around, and every once in a while I hear it. God has predestined some to be lost and some to be saved. That is not what the Bible teaches. Think about this for a moment. How could Jesus say, and if I am lifted up, I will draw all men to me… which is what his confession is, that when he’s crucified, his arms are going to be stretched out upon the cross, and that is God’s way of saying, whosoever shall come, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For Jesus Christ to say, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me, knowing that he’s only going to draw some, but not all, would be hypocrisy on the part of God. He’s not going to draw all men knowing that some can’t be saved. He’s going to draw all and woo all in order that all who will and who choose to be will be saved. God is predestined. Listen, He’s made it possible for all men to be saved, but all are not going to be saved. The Bible says He makes choices. And He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Only God knows who is going to be saved. But He says, and all the passages say, whosoever will may come, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. He has given His life for the whole world. He has been lifted up to draw all men to Him. And so he says in 1 John chapter 2, he says that Jesus Christ gave his life a propitiation, a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. He says not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world. Listen, why would Jesus die for the sins of the whole world if he did not intend to reach out and offer the gift of salvation to the whole world? Jesus Christ died that you may be saved. It is the desire of the heart of God that all men be saved, no matter who they are and where they are. And so what he’s saying in this passage, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And so those folks who want to criticize God and say, well, I don’t believe in this God who’s sitting up in heaven, who wants to throw everybody into hell. Neither do I. There’s no such God like that in the Bible. He is a loving, precious, heavenly Father who has gone to His extremity to demonstrate His love. How did He do that? Here’s how He did it. The Bible says there is one God and one mediator. There is one person who is between you and God and only one. It is not the Virgin Mary. It is not some priest or some pastor or any cult leader or anybody else. There’s only one person who stands between you and the sovereign God of this universe and that is the person of Jesus Christ. One mediator, the man Jesus Christ. One God. And Jesus Christ is God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but one God that make up the Godhead. And He is God incarnate. That is, He came into this world in order, He says, to give His life a ransom. for all. Now ransom is a price that is paid to set someone else free. And so the Bible says that Jesus voluntarily came and laid down his life, substituted himself for us. Now think about this. That is, He didn’t die for good men. He died for wicked, sinful, vile humanity. He didn’t look into your life and see anything that motivated Him to save you. He looked into your life and recognized that you were absolutely helpless and hopeless under the condemnation of death because of sin and disobedience and rebellion in your life. And loving you, He reached out to you and desires to save you. Well, so how were you saved? You can’t get any better when you’re living in sin. What do you do about your sin debt? You see, this is why I always say to you, not just the fact that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sin, he paid our sin debt in full. How do you pay for sin? That is, how do you cancel out a sin? If you have a financial debt, you cancel out that financial debt with money. How do you cancel out a sin debt? You say, well, by being good. Well, let me ask you this. What are you going to do about the sins you continue to commit while you’re paying off the past sin debt? Well, my friend, first of all, you don’t pay off a sin debt by being good. Secondly, you can’t be good enough. And thirdly, and most importantly, the Bible says the only price that pays for the debt of sin is blood. not just the blood of lambs and bulls and goat and sheep not somebody else’s blood because you see all of us have sinned against god and the reason god the father sent his only begotten son is he’s the only one listen he’s the only one not only in creation but eternity past eternity future in existence who could pay your sin debt in mind because he’s the only one who was sinless Jesus came as a substitutionary atonement for your sin and mine. Now, so that’s God’s way of demonstrating His awesome love. Let me ask you a question. How many of you are fathers and mothers who would take a cross, put it in your front yard, and nail your son or your daughter on that cross? Oh, don’t think about that. God wouldn’t expect that, right? The real truth is that not a single one of us in here, any one of us, love this world enough to crucify our own children for it. But God loves you that much. And the Bible says that He’s the one who crucified His Son. We label it as Romans. They drove the spikes, but it was God the Father who crucified Him. You see, He had to come as a substitute. Can you imagine what Barabbas must have thought? when he walked by and saw those three crosses, two criminals whom he knew well, and then that third guy, that third man in the middle. Who was he? Barabbas probably knew a little bit about him, but one thing he knew, that man in the middle took his place. But I want to tell you something. Barabbas looked upon those crosses and knew the man in the middle took his place and freed him. That’s the only reason Barabbas was not crucified. Jesus was substituted in his place. But my friend, Jesus was no more a substitute for Barabbas than he was for you and me. He paid your sin debt and mine in full. He took our place. That’s what the whole Bible is about. Redemption. Salvation. The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, promised in the third chapter of Genesis, demonstrated and pictured through all the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and finally consummated outside of Jerusalem on a cross nailed there by the Romans. plotted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but predetermined by Almighty God Himself in eternity past. You see, to be saved is the desire of the heart of God for every single one of us. And no matter what you may do in life, nothing will match the desire of the heart of God like being saved. He says that is the desire of God’s heart who desires that all men and women, whoever they may be, might be saved. And it isn’t that God is in heaven seeing who is going to go to hell. It is a loving Father in heaven who’s reaching out and pouring out His love upon humanity and crying out to them through the Holy Spirit to trust His Son, Jesus Christ, as their personal Savior. Receive the love of God. That’s the desire of God’s heart. That you and I just received the love He’s provided for us. But let me ask you this, what have you done with it? Have you ever trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you know that you’re saved? Have you honored the desire of the heart of God? If that’s the one thing He wants, the foremost thing He wants, would you not give Him His heart’s desire? Not motivated out of fear of going to hell, but motivated… Because you want to be what God wants you to be. You see, if you and I knew what God had provided for us, His very best, but most of all that He gave us His Son to die on our behalf, God desires that every single one of us be saved.

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Thank you for listening to God’s Loving Desire for You. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.