The Plan of Our God - Brendan Hurley - 23rd Aug 2026

And if you've got a Bible open there, please

keep it open at Ephesians 3. Let's pray. Heavenly

Father, we thank you that you love us. We thank

you that you care for us. Please help us to see

that you are wise, that you are good, and that

you are in control of all things. And we ask

this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we've all got

guilty pleasures, don't we? One of my guilty

pleasures has to be heist movies. I don't know

if you're into heist movies. I love a good heist

movie. Things like The Sting, The Italian Job,

and one of my favourites, Ocean's Eleven. The

sequel's not as good, but the original? Excellent.

And what happens in a good heist movie? Well,

in a good heist movie, it looks like everything's

going wrong, doesn't it? Something bad tends

to happen and you think, oh no, they've planned

this amazing heist and it's all falling apart,

it's all going wrong and then it turns out there's

a twist that everything going wrong was actually

all part of the plan. I mean, spoilers, if you've

not seen Oceans 11, just put your fingers in

your ears now. There's a great scene near the

end of Oceans 11. They've broken into the big

vault. They're taking all the millions and billions

of dollars in the casino, and there's a SWAT

team there to get them. And you think, oh, no,

it's over. It turns out the robbers are the SWAT

team. It's cool things like that. Sorry if I've

spoiled Oceans 11, but it's been out for a while.

You should have watched it by now. Anyway. Now,

when the first time you watch that, you feel

this tension, don't you? You feel this stressful,

because you don't know what the plan is. But

the second time you watch it, you go, I'm as

cool as a cucumber, because I know exactly what's

going to happen. And it's the same for the characters.

You know, as they're doing it, they put on that

they're very upset and scared, but actually,

you know, deep down, they're really calm. because

they know the plan. Knowing the plan changes

everything, doesn't it? It's the same for us,

isn't it? If we know the plan of what's going

on in our lives, it takes the sting out of things.

It stops us from panicking. It stops us from

getting downhearted. I mean, think of some hard

things in life. When you lose a job, when someone

you love dies, When a relationship ends, you

know, think of a particular challenge or tragedy.

That sort of pain hurts. I think it always hurts.

But if you know there's a plan behind it, it

stings far less. You're able to be calm. It's

less overwhelming. It's also true for churches.

You know, churches go through hard things. A

church could get booted out of a building. People

in the church could be criticised and attacked

unfairly. A church leader could be cancelled,

especially in this day and age. And that hurts.

It hurts when things like that happen. But it

doesn't hit you for six. It doesn't knock you

out of the park if you can see that it's all

part of the plan. Now that's a similar situation

for the Christians that Paul is writing to in

Ephesians. Take a look at verses 1 and 13. In

verse 1, Paul says, for this reason I, Paul,

the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of

you Gentiles. And he goes on this little sidebar,

this little side quest about what does it mean

to be a prisoner of Christ Jesus and his stewardship

of the gospel to explain to them his suffering.

And he finishes by saying this, I ask you therefore

not to be discouraged because of my sufferings

for you, which are your glory. Now put yourself

in their shoes of these Christians. Paul is their

apostle and he's in chains, most likely under

house arrest in Rome. But they'd be thinking,

well, this can't be. Paul is our apostle. He's

the one who's taking the gospel to the world

and saying Gentiles can come in. And was Paul

wrong? You know, why did God let this happen?

Is God really with Paul? Maybe the Gentiles aren't

included. Maybe we're not saved by grace. You

could imagine the doubts, the despair, the confusion

that Paul's chains would bring to them. But Paul

seeks to show them that it's okay. that it's

all going according to plan. Actually that everything

that is happening is for their glory. So how

are we to make sense of this? How do we make

sense of things when everything is going wrong?

Well, here's the main point that we see in our

passage today. When everything is going wrong,

it's actually going according to plan. When everything

is going wrong, it's actually going according

to plan. And if you know there's a plan and roughly

what the plan is, it keeps you calm, it keeps

you at peace. And that's whether you're going

through personal trials and challenges like Paul

was, you know, him being in chains, or whether

your church is facing a crisis that breeds disappointment

and doubt, just like the Ephesians were going

through. The key is we need this narrative in

our head. We need to see that this is the truth,

that everything is going according to plan. So

what's the plan we need to see? Well, that's

what Paul lays out in this section. Three things

we're going to see. God's secret plan has now

been revealed. God's secret plan is to bless

the nations and God's secret plan displays God's

wisdom. That's what Paul wants us to understand.

about God's plan. So here's the first thing we're

going to look at. God's secret plan has now been

revealed. If you've got your Bible there, come

with me to verse one of chapter three. For this

reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus,

for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you've heard

about the administration of God's grace that

was given to me for you. That is the mystery

made known to me by revelation as I have already

written briefly. In reading this, then, you will

be able to understand my insight into the mystery

of Christ, which was not made known to people

in other generations, as it has now been revealed

by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.

So Paul's saying, the other apostles, and he's

saying, I think here New Testament prophets,

because if it was the Old Testament prophets,

well, he's saying this hasn't been revealed to

people in other generations, but you can debate

me on that later if you like. But he's saying

the other apostles and New Testament prophets

and himself, they're preaching the gospel. And

he's saying this is a very significant moment

in salvation history within God's plan. Because

God's mystery, his secret was now to be revealed.

That word mystery really means secret. It's a

bit like my middle name. Hands up if you know

my middle name. Okay, there's a few. Good on

yous. You know, these guys up the front who know

my middle name, they only know it because it's

been told to them. It's not a mystery. It's not

like that they sat down, you know, in their nice

couch at home and went, I'm going to ponder the

deep mysteries of the universe and work out Brendan's

middle name. No, it's not that sort of mystery.

It's a secret. That's what the word means. It's

a secret. It's a hidden thing. that needs to

be revealed, just like my middle name. It's James,

by the way, if you wanted to know. Now, in previous

generations, Paul's saying that secret was hidden.

We got some sneak peeks, we got a bit of a foretaste,

some previews in God's promises. But no one had

seen the whole plan and how the plan would come

together. The secret had not yet been revealed.

And that's Paul's job. is his job is to go and

reveal that secret to people, to tell them God's

plan. Think of when Apple do a product launch.

You know, they've planned and developed a new

product, you know, the eye toaster or whatever's

next or, you know, some other iPhone. And it's

all kept under wraps, isn't it? No one knows

what's going on. No one knows about it. There

might be hints, you know, there's a product launch

coming up on this day. Make sure you tune in.

But no one knows what's happening. And then finally,

it's launch day, where the new product is unveiled

and, you know, Tim Cook did it okay, but no one

does it better than Steve Jobs with his turtleneck

thing and he's great with that. But the secret

would be revealed. Oh, it's the new eye toaster.

Look at it. It's amazing. It butters your toast

for you. It does all the things. And then what

would happen? Once the secrets revealed, the

marketing guys would work hard to spread it out.

Hey, we're going to tell everyone about the eye

toaster and, you know, everyone wants to buy

in. Now, Paul is saying it's a bit like that.

God has appointed him as the head of marketing

for the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul's job is

to blab the secret to the world, to tell the

world that the secret has been revealed and you

need to know it. But now that Paul's in chains,

it brings his credentials into question. The

doubts are growing. Can Paul be trusted? Is he

really sent by God? And in verses two to three,

Paul's trying to say to them, you know my story.

I was an enemy of Jesus. And then I experienced

God's grace. Jesus revealed himself to me. And

now I'm promoting him, which is an amazing thing

because Paul's message is of grace, but he's

also the medium as one who was against Jesus

now on Team Jesus. The medium is the message,

isn't it? Paul's the perfect person to be talking

about God's grace to the world. And in verse

four to five, he's saying, look at my content.

It's good. It's beautiful. It's true. And it's

not totally unique. It's actually consistent

with Jesus and the other apostles and with the

Old Testament promises. What Paul is saying is,

yes, you can trust me. I am God's spokesman.

Just because I'm getting persecuted doesn't mean

that what I'm offering is fake or phony. It doesn't

mean that God's not in it. Now, how's this help

us? Well, picture the uni student doing an arts

degree. And you get some uni lecturers who love

to bag out Paul, don't they? Oh, Paul, he was

a sexist, misogynistic dinosaur. How can he be

from God? See, they can't lock Paul up today,

so many try to silence him in other ways. You

can imagine that uni student, when he hears the

lecturer doing that, it'd be destabilising. There'd

be doubt and discouragement that would start

to grow. But if they've read Paul, if they know

how Jesus used Paul to include the Gentiles and

revolutionise the world, if they know that ministry

in the Bible is cross -shaped, that it's suffering

now and glory later, They won't be thrown. It's

the same for any of us. When people try to cancel

Paul, if we know those things, we won't be thrown.

We'll actually go, oh, that's right. It's all

going according to plan. And it's not just seeing

Paul in God's plan that guards our hearts and

keeps us from discouragement. It's seeing us

in it too. And that's the next thing we need

to see. God's secret plan has now been revealed.

That's Paul's job. He's the marketing spokesman

to the Gentiles. But what is the plan? Well,

God's secret plan is to bless the nations, is

to bless the Gentiles, is to bless us. Have a

look with me at verse six of chapter three. This

mystery, this secret is that through the gospel,

the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel.

Members together of one body and sharers together

in the promise in Christ Jesus. Together, together,

together. Jews, Gentiles, everyone together in

Christ. And Paul says, I became a servant of

this gospel by the gift of God's grace given

me through the working of his power. Although

I am less than the least of all the Lord's people,

this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles

the boundless riches of Christ. and to make plain

to everyone the administration, the stewardship

of this mystery, this secret which for ages past

was kept hidden in God who created all things.

So the big secret, the secret plan that Paul

is revealing is that all the promises for Israel

have now been given to Gentile Christians. Jesus

died to pay for our sins so that anyone could

be included into God's people and so that anyone

could receive the boundless, unsearchable riches

of Israel's Christ, the Messiah. Now, what are

those boundless riches? We looked a little bit

in chapter one. It's forgiveness. It's redemption.

It's an inheritance. It's God's spirit. It's

all those Old Testament promises for Israel.

They've been given to us who follow Jesus. No

matter who we are, no matter what we've done,

no matter where we're from. And that was always

God's plan. Now sometimes I don't think we realise

what we have in these riches. It's a bit like

a family in New York that I read about a while

ago. They went to a garage sale and they purchased

an antique bowl. They thought, yeah, that looks

really nice. We might get that. But they became

curious about its origins and took it to an assessor.

Turns out it was crafted in the Northern Song

dynasty and is very rare. They ended up selling

this thing they picked up at a garage sale. They

sold it for $2 .25 million. That's why it pays

to go to garage sales and thrift shops. But they

were rich and they didn't even know it. It's

like that for us, isn't it? We're rich, but often

we just don't see how rich we actually are. But

when Christians see what they have in Christ,

what they have now, what it means to belong to

Jesus, and what we will have when Jesus returns,

When we see that, we can thrive in the midst

of all sorts of stress, pain, and uncertainty.

Because when you see God's plan, when you see

what you have because of it, what you will have,

you don't sweat the small stuff, do you? And

then you look around and you go, actually comparatively,

compared to what I have in Jesus, it's all small

stuff. Now I say, it's easy for me to say that,

but I struggle. I easily get stressed out. I

easily get preoccupied with problems. And so

I need to keep doing that thing of seeing the

riches I have in Christ, seeing what I really

have in Him. And when I do, it helps me so much.

And so what do I do? I try to set up rituals

and habits that remind me of what I have in Christ.

So I'm having an anxious thought. What do I need

to do? Okay, look up. God's got a plan. God's

got this. I may not know all the intricate details,

but I know He's in control and He's working out

His good plan of bringing me to glory in Christ

Jesus. If I'm facing disappointment, you know

what? I need to sit down and write a list of

things that I'm thankful for. Actually, literally

count my blessings. Pause and do it. So that

I can see again what I have in Christ. I mean,

I've got lots of great things in my life anyway,

but to see what I have in Christ again And when

you know, I'm there in the shower and feeling

a bit blue to think to myself I'm rich beyond

comprehension because of the cross and to just

think about those riches and whether it's a good

day or a bad day, to try and think about that

in the rhythms of my day. Is that what you're

doing? Do you take time to reflect on God's plan,

to reflect on the riches you have in Christ Jesus?

Is that part of your daily rhythms? But to keep

our hearts from discouragement, there's also

One other thing we need to see. We need to see

the purpose of God's plan. God's secret plan

displays God's wisdom. That's why God did his

plan. God's secret plan displays God's wisdom.

Come with me to chapter 3 verse 10. His intent,

God's intent, was that now through the church

The manifold wisdom of God should be made known

to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly

realms according to his eternal purpose that

he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In

him and through faith in him we may approach

God with freedom and confidence. Now isn't God

amazing? He planned all this plan back in eternity

past. And he did so to show his multi -faceted

wisdom in the heavenly realms. So all the spirits

and demons and everyone in the heavenly realms,

they see how awesome God is. They see how glorious

and wise and amazing God is because of his plan.

And God showed by Jesus and by his death on the

cross, how great he is. But get this, also by

The church. Now the cross I get, I can see how,

yeah, God's plan is awesome by the cross. I mean,

it was supposed to be defeat, but it was actually

salvation and victory. Brilliant plan. But the

church? How does that display God's amazing wisdom?

Sometimes the church looks more like folly, doesn't

it? I mean the Satanic spiritual forces, they

look quite shrewd a lot of the time. They get

people within the church to rebel and divide

and there's just problems, horrible things that

happen within the church. And yet God created

a new humanity in Christ. Reconciled to God,

reconciled to each other. the existence of saved

sinners, with very little in common a lot of

the time, yet united in Christ, it displays to

the cosmos that God can't be outsmarted or outplayed.

It shows the universe how great God is that He

would take something so weak and frail and vulnerable

and hold it together and unite it together. That's

a great plan, isn't it? I used to love playing

chess with my grandad. I don't think I ever beat

him. And I think part of the reason is, I mean,

he was very smart and me less so, but part of

the reason is he would just see my moves before

I did. Maybe it's my ADHD and I just sort of

want to move all the time, but he would just

sort of see things way ahead of me. And sometimes

he'd even go, oh, yeah, you know, I'll start

without a queen so that you can just, you know,

have a chance. Oh, thanks. Thanks, Pops. And

he'd still smash me. No matter what I did, he

was always just too good. I could never beat

him. Now, God's like that with his plan, but

infinitely greater. He's planned it all out.

And he's done it before eternity passed. He's

so glorious, wise and unparalleled. When you

look at the church, when you look at what he

did in Jesus and in the church, you can go, wow,

God is great, God is awesome. And if you believe

God's like that, and can I just say there is

plenty of proof that he is, it changes the narrative

in your head when things go wrong. One church

I worked in, in WA, we had a narcissistic pastor

who burned me and many other people. He had an

affair and it just sort of spiralled down after

that. It was awful. It's easy to think, why would

God let that happen? Has God been outsmarted

here? I think of a friend who, he was at Bible

college with me. He ended up doing ministry for

a while and then heading to China as a missionary.

And just before he was about to go with his family,

he got cancer and died. And it's easy to think,

God, you know, have you been outsmarted? I thought

he was going to go and do great things in China.

I think of a Christian group at a uni in Perth

I know of, for a while they were unable to hold

meetings. They made some comment in one of their

growth groups. I think they had little Bible

studies meeting at the uni. Someone made a comment

about homosexuality. They got shut down and then

monitored for quite a while. Why God? I thought,

you know, aren't you with them in that? Now,

I don't know what was going on with the plan

in each of these scenarios. I'm not God. In the

rear -view mirror, I can guess. Sometimes I can

see, but often I can't. But we know the broad

plan, don't we? We know the one who is the planner.

We know enough of the plan, even though we don't

know all the intricacies, to remain calm, to

remain confident, to remain joyful, even when

things go wrong. for us individually and things

for our church won't always go well. We need

to expect that. But it doesn't mean the ultimate

outcome has shifted, does it? God's not fallen

asleep at the wheel when things go wrong. And

we shouldn't let that throw us when things go

wrong. It may suck, it may be horrible, it may

feel awful, but it's not pointless and it's not

random. In Acts 8, After Stephen is martyred,

persecution in Jerusalem for Christian ramps

up massively. The church in Jerusalem is scattered.

And you'd think, what a disaster! What's going

to become of the church now? No, it was God's

plan. Because what happens? I mean, they'd all

been sitting in Jerusalem for ages. They were

told to go out to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and

the ends of the earth. Well, God got them going,

didn't he? The gospel goes out to Samaria and

beyond because they're scattered. I think of

a lady in Geraldton that I knew. She had a miscarriage.

It was tragic. It was awful. And I don't want

to take away from the pain of that horrible experience.

That would have been so hard. But God used that

to bring her to faith in Jesus. I think of times

where I've had burnout. It sucks, it's awful,

but it was good for me because it forced me to

face immaturity in myself that I needed to deal

with and how to run my life better. There are

awful things that we go through and yet God is

wisely orchestrating them for a good purpose.

It's all going to plan. We may not always see

what the plan is, but we know there's a plan.

And there is great comfort in knowing there's

a plan. But the hard part is remembering that

there is a plan when everything is going wrong.

How are you going to remember that there is a

plan when things are hard? Memorising scripture

has helped me. You might have come across one

of my favourite verses, I think it should be

one of everybody's favourite verses, is Romans

8 .28. You know that one? We know that in everything

God works for the good of those who love him.

That's one you just want to drill deep into your

heart. You know, sometimes it's even worth pausing

and just picturing your pain as part of a blueprint.

Oh yeah, okay, God's got his, yep, there's a

plan and my pain's here, but it's actually part

of something bigger. Oh, he's gonna bring glory

to himself through the church, through Jesus.

Sometimes it's crying out to God. Father, I don't

get it. But help me to trust you have a plan

here. What are you going to do to remind yourself

of God's plan when everything is going wrong?

Well, let's wrap up. We saw three things today

about God's plan. God's secret plan has now been

revealed. God's secret plan is to bless the nations

and God's secret plan displays God's wisdom.

So what are we meant to think when things go

wrong? We're meant to see that everything is

like a heist movie. Here's the big thing from

our passage. When everything is going wrong,

it's actually going according to plan. And the

clearest proof of this is the cross. People's

sin was so evil that Jesus came into the world

and what did they do? They went, we're going

to murder him. He's the the perfect righteous

son of God the author of life. What are we going

to do? Let's murder him because we don't like

what he's saying And yet it wasn't random It

wasn't that evil won the day it was God was in

total control that was always his plan that his

son would die on the cross and bring salvation

to the earth And it's the same with anything

else. Just because Paul is suffering doesn't

mean that God is not with him or has abandoned

him. Paul's suffering was, did you see in verse

13, on our behalf. It was for us. Paul was suffering

so that many Gentiles could be saved. His sufferings

reflected Christ's suffering because that's what

happens when you're on about the things of God.

You're going to be... persecution from a hostile

world. His sufferings were not a sign of God's

displeasure that God was not with him. His sufferings

authenticated his ministry. Everything was going

according to God's plan. Actually, think about

this. His imprisonment is why we have this letter.

God's got a good plan, isn't it? Paul wrote this.

so we'd know the plan and so it would soothe

our doubts and disappointments. But what's this

mean for us? Well, today I'm trying to prepare

you. Because there are going to be hard times

ahead for us both individually and as a church.

I can't know what they are. Persecution, sickness,

division, sin, disappointments of all kind. They

will happen at some point. Now, if you're not

a Christian here today, I want to say to you,

where do you turn? Where are you going to find

answers? If it's not God, then the world is just

one scary random place. Come have a chat. I'd

love to have a coffee with you and talk about

it. Show you how knowing Jesus is so much better.

But for the Christian, when the pain hits and

the doubt floods in, there's a better narrative

we need to tell ourselves. Yes, we feel the pain.

But then we need to remember when everything's

going wrong, it's actually going according to

plan. Our infinitely wise God is in control.

Say you lose your job. Especially because you're

following Jesus. You're acting with integrity.

You won't do things that are wrong. You won't

lie. You won't cover things up. And so you lose

your job. Say your family won't talk to you because

you share Jesus with them and they don't like

that. They hate that you would share Jesus with

them. Say there's a change of policy here at

the school and I'm not expecting this to happen,

but hey, anything's possible. Say we get booted

out. Many things in life can go wrong for us

in our church. I'm sure you can think of things

that have gone wrong in your life or that could

go wrong. But if things go wrong, what will you

do? What will we do? Be easy to freak out. It'd

be easy to go into our shell and become risk

averse. No, we don't want to share Jesus with

anyone. That's going to be hard. It'd be easy

to get down and depressed. It'd be easy to jump

into fixing things, you know, thinking we can

do it in our own strength. But first and foremost,

what we need to do is tend to our hearts, isn't

it? Feel the pain, reframe it, see that when

everything's going wrong, it's actually going

according to plan, and pray. And support each

other in that. See, for God's people, life is

like a heist movie. Even when it's going wrong,

it's all going according to plan. The hard part

is remembering that. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly

Father, we thank you so much that in the chaos,

the pain, the randomness of life, we know that

you have a plan sitting behind it all. We thank

you that it is a Christ -centred plan, a cross

-centred plan. We thank you that it is a beautiful

plan that includes your church, that in all our

weakness, in all our failures, in all our pain,

we thank you that you are bringing about wonderful,

beautiful things, that you are displaying your

wisdom to the universe and bringing glory to

your name. Thank you that you've created us to

be one. Thank you that you are bigger than our

bad moments and our failures. Thank you that

you are using everything to bring about your

good purposes. And when things are hard, when

things are painful, when we are tempted to doubt

and be discouraged, help us to remember again

your good plan. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.