God’s PlanFitchburg Nazarene Church

August 12, 2018

by

Rev. Charles W. Pendleton, Jr.

(Based on sermon notes taken while listening to Rev. Larry Leckrone 8/2018)

(These are the Pastor’s notes. He may have said more which is not noted here. He could have ignored certain portions of these notes in our actual service.)

Jeremiah 29:11-1311”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

There are a great many plans in the world. There are marketing plans and a very great number of investment plans, and retirement plans. There are debt reduction plans. Many – perhaps most, of these plans, may be good plans.

But remember - God has a plan too!

Most of us, if we’re honest, would gladly enter into one of God’s plans, – after all, if God were the author of the plan, and if we follow it carefully in our lives; why wouldn’t we expect that we would be successful in the application of that plan.

The people who started Amway felt they were doing God’s work by beginning a

financial plan that would bless God’s people financially.

Dave Ramsey has helped untold numbers of people get out of debt with his financial planning, by utilizing a scriptural prescription for financial success.

I’m not for a minute saying that these plans were not good, but you see, God has a plan for each and every one of us that has nothing to do with our financial health here on earth.

Our text tells us that God’s plan for us is that, When we seek Him with our whole hearts, we will find Him!

Every single day of our lives we should be about the business of learning (finding out) what it is that God is for, and what it is that God is against.

If God is for it – we should be too!

If God is against it – we should be too.

Hebrew 12:14 tells us that we are to…

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Psalm 84:5 encourages us with these words.

Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

You see, God is on a journey, and those who follow Him are by that very truth, on a journey also.

God’s journey is the journey that Jesus was about while He walked this very planet: a journey to proclaim that the kingdom of God was at hand. That God’s kingdom was available right here – right now. We don’t have to wait until the sweet bye and bye; we

don’t have to wait for pie in the sky; but we can take part in God’s kingdom right now.

But in order to do that, we have to be on the same journey that God is on.

All throughout scripture we have seen well intended men with plans of their own, who needed to get lined up with God’s plan before they would have the success that they sought.

Moses had a plan. His plan was that God would use someone else to free the Israelites from Egypt. (I’m not a good communicator, he said.)

God’s plan was to use Moses, even if Aaron had to be his mouthpiece!

Abraham had a plan. That plans name was Ishmael. We see where that plan led to.

God’s plan was Isaac – by whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed!

David had a plan. But in his plan, he was led to compromise, and even to murder.

God’s plan was to lead to Jesus Christ coming through David’s lineage.

Thankfully, David had a contrite heart according to Psalm 51. I’m not going to read that, but if you want to know what I mean by a contrite heart – go read Psalm 51 this afternoon/tonight.

Saul had a plan to persecute the Christians in the 1st century.

God’s plan was to use Saul (whom God re-named Paul) to bring the good news of salvation through Christ, to the Gentiles.

ALWAYS, Always, always… we must be in the center of God’s plan, or we end up finding ourselves either “outside of God’s plan” or “actually fighting against God’s plan.

Here then, is God’s plan.

I can tell you right off the bat that many of you won’t like God’s plan.

Sorry! I’m not making this stuff up!

Turn with me to Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 14:33

“In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”

I told you many of you wouldn’t like God’s plan.

Now some of you might say, “Pastor, you’re taking one little verse out of context and trying to hold our feet to the fire with it.”

No, I’m not! I’m simply giving you Jesus words about what it means to be His disciple – His follower.

I tried using a tame verse so that I wouldn’t offend you. BTW – did you know that Jesus offended a very great number of people in His life?

Look back up at verse 25 with me and I’ll prove I’m not taking verse 33 out of context.

READ Vs. 25 – 27

See?

In verses 28 thru 32, Jesus is simply trying to give the people a further explanation of what He means with two different examples.

Man has a plan for getting to God.

God however, has THE PLAN, and it involves TOTAL CONSECRATION.

The question for us is, “Will we forsake our own plans for reaching God, and go with the plan that He has laid out – total consecration.”

I want to use the word “plan” to give us a springboard from which we can seek to implement God’s plan for us as His followers.

Plan… P – L – A – N.

Prayerful

Living

Avoiding

Neglect

Let’s look at this acrostic, and see if we can begin to get a handle on what God desires of us as His followers – as those who are on His journey, together with Christ.

PRAYERFUL

Christ expects that we are going to be people who seek the face of God. In other words – He uses people who attempt to follow Him by communicating with the Father.

Communication of course, involves both listening, and talking.

How do we listen to God?

(Mostly, through His Word; but also through the gathered church, and through {though, to a lesser measure} the prompting of His Holy Spirit.)

How do we talk to the Father – through

PRAYER. Now, that is a topic all to itself, so I’m not going to deal with it today, but perhaps in the not-to-distant future.

LIVING

Philippians 3:14-16

14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.15All of us, then, who are mature, should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

In the process of living our lives, we are Christ’s followers if we “Hold fast” (some translations say) – If we “Live up to” what we have already attained – to what we have already learned.

This is done day by day, as we follow Christ Jesus in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. The power and strength are not some magical formula – they are the result of following God closely.

AVOIDING

1 Thessalonians 5:22

Reject every kind of evil.

KJV

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

We could go on and on this morning about what this means; and the reality is that it means different things to different people.

But it’s not important what people have to say about what is evil, or what appears evil – it is important to know what God says is evil. For that, of course, we need to be in God’s Word.

NEGLECT

Hebrews 10:24-25

24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together , as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

25 not giving up meeting together

That is one way we can neglect God’s plan – by failing to keep meeting with one another. Did you know that it is a part of God’s plan that believers gather together for mutual edification and encouragement?

Hebrews 2:3

How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?

How is it that we can neglect (or ignore) so great a salvation?

By not sharing that salvation.

REMEMBER – we are not containers who are meant to hold onto the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus –

We are meant to be conduits who see to it that the good news of salvation is shed

abroad to others in need of Christ’s salvation.

OUR DUTY AS BELIEVERS

BRING

SEEK

TEACH

We must BRING others…

- they will not come

- they must be brought

We must SEEK others…

- they will not seek

- they must be sought

We must TEACH…

- they will not LEARN

- they must be TAUGHT

When it comes to others – How do we know if they will come unless we ask?

PRAYER