God’s Purpose Will Stand

There’s that moment in the movies: a building has come crashing down, or a bomb has gone off, or some similar calamity has taken place. Worse still, our main character was caught in the middle of it. There’s nothing to see except smoke, rubble, and dust. We peer into the thick clouds, wondering what has become of our beloved hero who was caught in the midst of the disaster. A moment of silence. A lingering tension.

The dust begins to clear. A silhouette emerges from the shadows… our hero lived! They get back on their feet, dust themselves off, and continue on their mission.

As you watch more and more movies, you get used to tropes and clichés like this one. For the most part, we learn to expect the hero to get back up; we forget the peril they were in because we have seen them escape unharmed so many times.

In our own lives, we treat the shadows and the dust with a lot more concern. We gladly quote Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28 in times of comfort, but we struggle to see their truth in the same light when things come tumbling down. When we remember struggles, even disasters that we’ve already been through, we don’t always feel like the hero who emerged unscathed. Sometimes we look back and feel like we took a real hit.

Proverbs 19:21 states,

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,

but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

And this doesn’t always feel comforting. At times, we feel that a promising door has been closed, or an opportunity we’ve waited for years to see suddenly doesn’t work out. At those times, we may wrestle with God over why it came to pass. Why couldn’t you get that job? Why wasn’t he “the one”? Why has something that looked so good resulted in suffering?

Why didn’t it work out?

Sometimes we feel like we didn’t make it through the disaster unharmed, but God’s will always does. God’s purposes always emerge from the shadows and the dust as strong and as clear as when we lost sight of them. What God has invited us into can only be prevented by self-disqualification, and what God said will happen cannot be stopped by our own failures or even the most powerful nations of the world.

Proverbs 19:21 tells us something about God’s sovereignty. Kings, queens, and heads of state are referred to as the “sovereign” due to their unique position of power in their kingdom; their “sovereignty” is their right and ability to have their domain in whichever way they please, and to have their subjects obey them above all else. Psalm 24:1 tells us that the earth itself and everything in it belong to God. The domain of His Sovereignty is everything we see, hear, touch, and experience. He rules as the Sovereign over the entire world.

This leads us to a fundamental truth in God’s kingdom: God’s purpose will stand. No matter how many buildings come down on it, no matter how much dust obscures it, or shadow hides it, God’s purpose will stand unscathed by any rebellion, any human will, and any force of evil.

God’s purpose will stand: over powers, kingdoms, and authorities

Rob Hutton recently used the story of Arthur Andersen as an example in a sermon. While he was making the point that partnership is costly, it’s clear that God’s Hand was at play in the downfall of this corporate giant. Arthur Andersen was one of the “Big Five” auditing firms in the world (not lions and rhinos, a different Big Five). At the peak of their success, they had 85,000 employees worldwide.

One scandal later, they were gone. Practically overnight, a global corporation became a byword in the industry.

Arthur Andersen covered up another company’s fraudulent financial statements. And they got caught. Their actions were enough of a scare that investors and clients all abandoned them. But here’s the thing: Arthur Andersen is not the only auditing company to go through a massive scandal like this. Other firms in the former “Big Five” have faced similar crises and have survived, some of them have even faced multiple.

Proverbs 16:33 states,

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

These companies gamble with their reputation, their clients, and even their existence. Sometimes they lose. Sometimes, God intervenes in their crookedness and puts a stop to it. It’s His call whether to act or not but rest assured “He does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:7). In His sovereignty, He has decided that one company will continue to practice and another will not.

Arthur Andersen may not have escaped the crisis unharmed, but we can be confident that God’s purposes did.

God’s purpose will stand: we can watch, or we can join in

It has long been a hot topic amongst Christians (especially younger Christians) to consider “God’s will for their lives”. We want to know what special task God has set apart for us, and how we can start completing that task right now. Sometimes, we get it wrong; in our zeal to get started, we often begin to twist it around in our minds and actions to the point where we are not trying to join God in His purpose but rather asking God to join us in our purpose.

We can be as well-meaning as we like. If we miss God’s purpose in pursuit of our own purpose (even a good, noble purpose), we are missing the mark. It may not be a disaster, but you will cease to go forward with God. He will wait for you to join Him again in the work that He is doing.

God isn’t selfish or stingy with His purpose; for all of history, He has been inviting people in to join the work that He is doing. And that invitational nature continues to this day! Every day, He is inviting YOU (yes, YOU!) to join His purposes. That doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a preacher, teacher, televangelist, or any other “holy” vocation. God has designed you for a specific purpose that may well be just to live, work, and die in the marketplace. This is no less honourable than a martyr’s death if it is what God has asked you to do. It’s in this way that God’s purpose is simultaneously demanding and very, very generous.

But it is an invitation. Many people grow up in church or come to Christ at a later age and reach the conclusion that God’s will exists for those He has called to full-time ministry. This could not be further from the truth! Paul was a tentmaker who wrote letters and preached occasionally; he was not a pastor. And yet, he is one of the most influential members of church history. He lived within God’s will, no matter what. Whether that meant a year in Antioch or two years imprisoned in Rome, Paul said yes. As a result, God’s message of salvation reached the Gentiles (that’s you and me).

But here’s a question: would God’s message of salvation have reached the Gentiles if Paul had denied God’s invitation?

The answer is yes. It was not Paul’s will that Jesus be preached to the non-Jewish nations, but God’s will. Therefore, if Paul had said “no, God, that couldn’t be me”, God would have invited someone else! God’s will is greater than your obedience or your disobedience. It is happening; we have the choice of whether we want to take part or just watch it happen. God’s purpose will stand with or without us.

God’s purpose will stand: the weight of responsibility

But as we’ve touched on, God does have purposes and plans for us to take part in if we choose. Some of us even have the privilege of receiving words, hints and glimpses, into what God wants to do in our lives. This isn’t unusual. God is very kind in His preparation of us.

But just like how we didn’t come up with God’s will for us, we can’t force it before its time. God’s timing is perfect; our timing is invariably poor. We pretend to be knocking on doors while we try and barge right through them in pursuit of our version of God’s will for us. The trouble is that God’s will outside of God’s timing ceases to be His will. God’s purposes without God’s approval are not His purposes at all.

This again happens by a lack of focus and trust in God and an abundance of focus and trust in ourselves. We think God has given us a mission and the rest is up to us. But God isn’t a Spec Ops Commander: He’s a Shepherd. God leads us through His purpose for us, only giving us one step at a time so that we don’t run off but rather trust Him.

The responsibility of bringing our God-given purpose to pass is not our own. It is God’s. Did Gideon have to become a great leader, train in battle, and rally Israel? No; he just had to be obedient. God had His way through Gideon’s obedience, not through Gideon’s personal ability. Gideon didn’t go into battle his way; he went into battle God’s way.

God’s purpose will stand. It cannot be affected by our disobedience, natural disasters, or the raging powers of the world. And we are invited to take part in this purpose that He is carrying out through trust and obedience.