Don’t Be A Lost Sheep (Bible Study) – God’s Plan Part 1 Series

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Last week, we studied who the lost sheep are, and went over a little of God’s Plan. Now that we know who they are, we’re going to look at the importance of seeking God’s exact Plan for your life. Getting the details right is so incredibly important, we’ll spend two weeks talking about God’s Plan.

Let’s jump right into…

Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The word work in Greek is ergon and means deed, doing, labor, and work. It’s derived from the word meaning to work. Paul is telling us that God has created a work plan for your life that you have to walk out. We were all born with a divine purpose, a divine call, or as I like to say it, an assignment. It’s our job as Christians to pray and seek God about His Plan for our lives. It’s not just something that we should do, but something that is required of us, as we will see later in this study.

You may feel like you don’t know anything, you’re behind, and feel really bad about it. Don’t! People in the Bible were just like us, behind, missed it, and some never did anything at all. Let’s look at some stories in the Bible in the light of “God’s Plan,” or assignment and how they handled it.

Sampson.

We all know the story of Sampson, and how he had supernatural strength from God. I don’t want to read the whole story, but you can certainly read it this week at home. Let’s look at how he handled the Plan of God.

At Sampson’s wedding feast, he was talking to the Philistines…

Judges 14:12-13 NKJV

Then Samson said to them, “Let me pose a riddle to you.

Back up in verse 4, it’s revealed to us that the Lord had ordained this marriage to Timnah, a daughter of the Philistines, so that Sampson could move in on the Philistines. But Sampson wasn’t doing what he was supposed to do. He was posing riddles and making bets for clothing. This wasn’t his purpose or anointed call.

12…. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. 13 But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.” And they said to him, “Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

As a result of this…

v. 15 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, or else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire.

Sampson’s wife caved in and as a result, God had to change The Plan.

v. 19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

Sampson, in that moment, was supposed to be alert because he was in the enemy’s camp. He was supposed to be keeping a listening ear to the Holy Spirit as to what his next action should be, but he didn’t and everything got even worse from there…

Judges 15:1 NKJV

After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife

It wasn’t his wife anymore, but he still stopped by to see her as a husband. The father tells him no, and so…

v. 4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

It’s kind of a humous response. Hopefully no foxes were harmed in the process. Anyway, they can’t just go to the store and buy a supply here. He did some major damage!

Standing grain refers to grain that hasn’t been harvested yet.

Shocks of grain refers to bundles of grain stalks that have been cut and gathered during the harvest.

Vineyards, it takes 3 years for a grape vine to begin to produce a little fruit, and 4 years to mature.