God's Master Plan

By Mike Lutz

God’s Master Plan is an overview of the Holy Bible—the greatest love story ever told! It is a summary of the unveiling of God’s revelation of Himself and His sovereign plan for the redemption and restoration of mankind, for the nation of Israel, for the Gentile nations of the world, and for his entire creation.

As the story unfolds, we discover God’s answers to three questions with which many individuals wrestle:

1.) Where did I come from?

2.) Why am I here?

3.) Where am I going?

More importantly, however, God tells us how we can experience eternal and abundant life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781098097271

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God's Master Plan

Mike Lutz

Copyright © 2022 by Mike Lutz

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

God’s Master Plan of Revelation

God’s Master Plan for You

God’s Master Plan for His Creation

God’s Master Plan for Israel

God’s Master Plan for the Gentile (Non-Jewish) Nations

To our grandsons, Hunter and Chase Zepp, of whom my wife, Brenda, and I are very proud.

It is our prayer that our grandsons, along with their parents and the rest of our family, will be Christ-followers and discover the surpassing joy of knowing, loving, and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Having a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest of all gifts. It is not earned or deserved. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal (and abundant) life" (John 3:16, 10:10; emphasis added)!

Since trusting in Jesus Christ more than forty years ago, I have experienced the joy of knowing and serving the Lord. My service to Him does not earn me any favor with God, for I can never add anything to the righteousness God has given me in Christ. No, the joy of serving Christ these past forty-plus is my way of saying thank you to God for His indescribable gifts in Christ—forgiveness of my sins and eternal life through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

This project is a product of God’s grace in my life. It is my prayer that it will be an encouragement to you, the reader.

Foreword

The question seekers-of-God often ask is: Where do I even begin to understand who God is, His plan, and what His desires are for me? This overwhelming question requires a master key. Master keys are used to open old-fashioned bank vaults. This book is the master key that opens the door to our question. God’s Master Plan is an insightful, simplistic guideline to the major biblical answers countless people search to understand. While it’s surprising such a book didn’t already exist—it’s well worth the wait.

I have ministered with the author, Michael Lutz, for over forty years. We’ve had the privilege of coaching and encouraging each other throughout a lifelong, deep friendship. Mike’s life is a biblical example of God’s regeneration. He is a soul winner—one who disciples—a Bible teacher, a preacher, and a lover of God and people. He is a committed husband, father, and grandfather. Scripture is the source and story of Mike’s life.

When Mike’s older grandson became a Christian, Mike determined to help the young man grow in the Lord. He spent hours mapping out a biblical guideline—now developed into this book—for his grandson.

After reading Mike’s book, I shared it with two pastors and my grown children. Other pastors and leaders critiqued the book—and each person arrived at the same conclusion: this book needs to be in the hands of believers. Actually, this book needs to be in your hands.

Read this book in a quiet place and you can sense the touch of God as He walks you through His expectations for life. The context is articulate with biblical structure from start to finish but avoids theological boredom. The big picture of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is brilliantly painted throughout this study.

—Jim Snavely

Pastor, Church Planter, Consultant

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my good friend, brother in Christ, and the man God has used to mentor and encourage me since becoming a Christian more than forty years ago—Pastor Jim Snavely. Jim helped me take my first steps as a baby Christian and then helped me discover how I was gifted to serve the Lord and His people. After helping me grow, it was Jim who gave me my first opportunities to serve the Lord, for which I will be eternally grateful! Jim has served as my primary advisor, editor, and consultant in the development of this book.

I also want to thank Pastor Timothy Boal, lead pastor at Grace Church in Lititz, Pennsylvania, who read the manuscript and encouraged me to seek publication of this work.

Introduction

God’s Master Plan is an overview of the only book God ever wrote—the Holy Bible. This book is not intended to be an easy read. Rather, it is intended to introduce the reader to the God who created you, loves you, and who has a wonderful plan for your life. You will reap from this book what you sow. If, by diligent study and meditation, you respond favorably to God’s love and invitation, you will reap eternal and abundant life. If, on the other hand, you neglect or reject His love and invitation, you will rob yourself of the greatest gift and most fulfilling personal relationship and journey imaginable. All Bible references in the book are to the New International Version (NIV).

Christians and non-Christians alike hunger for meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and contentment. The world offers many paths that promise to satisfy that hunger, e.g.:

success and personal achievement through your chosen vocation;

commitment and dedication to your spouse, children, and extended family;

development of close personal friendships and relationships;

accumulation of money and the possessions and security that money can buy;

enjoyment of entertainment, the arts, and various life experiences;

pursuit of pleasures, including sex, alcohol, drugs, etc.;

enjoyment of hobbies, sports, and other interests;

popularity and fame through special giftedness (e.g., sports, music, special skills);

charitable giving, community service, and other good works; and

advanced academic/literary achievement.

Some of these are excellent pursuits and endeavors, and many of them provide some measure of enjoyment and fulfillment. Others lead to bondage and destruction. Yet many who have experienced these things are left feeling strangely unfulfilled with a haunting question: Is this all there is?

King Solomon, perhaps the wisest and wealthiest man who ever lived, devoted a substantial portion of his life pursuing meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in most of the ways noted above. Solomon recorded the nature of his pursuits and his conclusions in the book of Ecclesiastes. God included Ecclesiastes in His Word, the Holy Bible, so that we can learn from Solomon’s experience. Here is Solomon’s conclusion: Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything under the sun is meaningless!… Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. Here is the conclusion of the matter—Remember your Creator in the days of your youth… (Ecclesiastes 1:1–2, 11:9, 12:1a)! Solomon pursued every avenue known to man under the sun to find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. He discovered that a personal growing relationship with the God who created him gave meaning and purpose to every other relationship and pursuit of his life under the sun.

My prayer for you, as a reader of this book, is that you will become and remain a Christ-follower and a lifelong student of God’s Word, the Holy Bible.

God’s Master Plan of Revelation

Introduction

We learn in a variety of ways: observation, inquiry, reading, research, formal teaching, practical life experiences, problem-solving, discussions with others who are more knowledgeable, storytelling, and sound reasoning, to name a few.

When it comes to learning about God, however, there are things we can know about Him and His plans for us only through revelation. Revelation is how God pulls back the curtain and reveals/shares Himself and His plans with us (Matthew 11:25–27; 1 Corinthians 2:9–10; Galatians 1:11–12; Ephesians 3:2–6). Since God is transcendent, there is much we cannot learn or understand about Him apart from His revelation.

The good news is that God wants us to know Him! God has revealed His existence, nature, character, and plans/expectations for us in several ways, including:

His Creation

The Bible begins in Genesis 1:1 by stating: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (emphasis added).

Romans 1:19–20 says, "What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them… For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (emphasis added).

Psalm 19:3 says, "There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world" (emphasis added). No matter where people live in the world, and no matter what language they speak, God’s creation testifies to His existence and His power. Also, according to Matthew 5:45 and Acts 14:16–17, God witnesses to the world by sending sun, rain, and growing crops for the inhabitants of this world, whether they acknowledge Him or not!

The system, complexity, and order of the universe testify to the existence of a Master Creator. A simple illustration may be helpful: if I take apart a watch, no matter how many times I roll the individual watch parts across a table, they will not come together again as a watch. The existence of a workable watch is evidence that there was a watchmaker! In the same way, the complexity, majesty, beauty, and order of the Creation testify to the existence, wisdom, and divine power of the Master Creator.

From His Creation, we learn the following things about God, the Creator:

He exists eternally (He already existed at the beginning of the Creation);

He has unlimited power (Creation came into being by the word of His command [Genesis 1; Hebrews 11:3]);

He is a God of order (happenstance and chance lead to chaos…not order);

He is a God of beauty and majesty (consider the beauty of the earth alone, not to mention the other galaxies, stars, planets, and heavenly bodies);

God’s creation of all things, and men in His image, demonstrates His love and care for us.

His Written Word (the Holy Bible)

Although the Creation testifies to God’s existence, majesty, and divine power, God gave words to approximately forty (40) different men over a period of approximately 1,500 years so that we would know our Creator personally and what His will and expectations are for us.

There are many reasons why Christ-followers believe the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God. Consider the following reasons:

The Bible claims to be the Word of God.

Throughout the Bible, we read phrases like this: God spoke…; Thus says the Lord…; God said…; Now the Lord said…; Then the Lord answered…; The word of the Lord came unto… Every one of the Old Testament prophets testified that they spoke the words God gave them.

The personal testimony of the apostle Paul (the greatest missionary of the early church):

Writing to Christ-followers in Thessalonica in Asia Minor, Paul commended them because "when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God" (1 Thessalonians 2:13; emphasis added).

I want you to know…that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive