New Year’s 2007
Scripture:
Jeremiah 29
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Introduction:
There is someone I know that loves going on trips, but it’s not necessarily the going that he likes the most. No, there are other things that he likes to do before he even gets in the car and starts it up. He likes looking over the maps. He likes gathering the information about his destinations, and the researching and the planning that should go into a long trip. He figures mileage and gas consumption and costs, where he might spend the night in a motel, or where he might spend a night near a beautiful outdoor landscape. He loves the scheduling, and the packing that goes along with all of it, too. Now, you may think that is a little weird, especially if you’ve never done any of those things before any of the big trips that you’ve made, but, in your heart your telling yourself that some of them are necessary, aren’t you?
Every trip you take, every excursion you make, every walk out the door needs some type of planning, doesn’t it? A trip to the store, a trip to home plus, or COSTCO or Sam’s club, or even a trip to a restaurant has varied amounts of planning involved. If not, you’ll either not take enough money, or you’ll spend too much [like that’s never happened before, huh?].
Now, I’m sure there are probably some of you thinking that planning for the New Year doesn’t seem like a big deal. There may even be one or two of you here thinking that the year is going to happen no matter how you plan for it. Well, it will happen, but, let me give you an analogies about other things that will just happen if you don’t’ do anything…
If you never plan to check the engine oil in your car, the engine will burn up and stop.
If you smoke for thirty years…what happens when you’re 60 years old?
Here’s another…if you never exercise for 40 years and only eat what you like during that time…what happens when you’re 60 years old?
Do you see the thought process? Do you see where we’re going with this? If you just let your life or your year run its course and never make any plans, or never formulate short term and long term goals, then, when you’re three quarters of the way through the year, you’ll look back and say, “Wow, I haven’t really accomplished anything this year and the year’s almost over…”
What’s worse, you’ll look back when you’re three quarters of the way through your life and say, “Wow, I haven’t really accomplished anything, have I?”
Christians that don’t plan out their lives ultimately work themselves into a ’busyness corner.’ ((say it like ’business’ and explain the spelling))
They’re always running around, but never really accomplishing anything.
There is a favorite saying of mine to those people that come running up to me trying to get me to do something for them really quick, when they should have done something a long time before, “You’re failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part.”
There is another favorite of mine, “It wasn’t raining when Noah started building the ark.”
Then finally, there is another saying that I’ve heard that goes along with this as well, “Failure to plan, is actually planning to fail.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. And, our scripture verses point that out to us:
Jeremiah 29
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
((our points))
Go into the New Year with:
His Planning
His Purpose
His Provisions
Go into the New Year with:
His Planning
Jeremiah 29
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
We have to say that this first part is the most important.
For I know the plans I have for you…
There are two types of Christians that this is aimed at.
First of all, there is the planner. But, they’re not the kind of planner we want to be. Yes, this planner will go into the New Year with everything all planned out. They’ll have their job plans, with their promotion schedule and commissions worked out. They’ll have their family plans, with their stock and pension plans worked out. They’ll have their educational plans, with their classes chosen and semester schedules picked out. But, they’ll leave something out. They’ll leave out the most important part of planning. Does anyone happen to know what the most important part of planning is?
Leaving it up to God!
(Proverbs 3:5-6) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
It’s very important that we understand that we cannot leave God out. Additionally, we can’t even say, “Well, you shouldn’t leave God out of planning for your life.” We can’t say that because of verse 11 in Jeremiah 29.
11 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.
Now the other Christian that this is aimed at is the non-planner. This is the person that will wander and wonder through the entire year, without seeking God and the plans that He has for them.
These two people are just alike, because they are both out of fellowship with God. They are both relying on sources other than God to provide for them.
The coming year is the same as any other. It has
12 months,
52 weeks
365 days
8,760 hours
525,600 minutes
31,536,000 seconds
Now, just how do we spend all that time?
3 ½ months will be spent sleeping [seven hours a night],
16 days will be spent eating,
9 days will be spent in church,
50 – 80 days will be spent working [75 for average 8-hours a day, with normal holidays.]
5-10 days will be spent traveling to work, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the store, etc.
9-15 days will be spent in the bathroom [unless you have a sick spell, then it could be longer, or shorter depending on the sickness!]
With all that moving, working, eating, sleeping, etc., the average person still has at least 100 days that are unaccounted for and that can be used by God to improve them, if they’ll let God do that.
I cannot over-emphasize the importance that Godly planning has on your:
Quality of Life
Longevity of Life
Purpose in Life
Direction in Life
These are very important parts of your life that you cannot trust to anyone else, except God. Additionally, trusting God ensures you don’t waste any time in trying to make up your mind, or changing your mind.
So, with planning, you have three choices:
=We can make our best plans and try to carry them out in our own strength.
=We can make careful plans and ask God to bless them.
=Or, we can begin with God, ask Him about HIS plans, and offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes.
I’ve listened to many preachers and pastors over the years. I’ve listened to many speakers and politicians, and rebels talk about their passions and their causes that for which they were fighting. But, for the most part, these will all pass away without notice as they only focused on themselves. Oddly enough, it will be the simple minister that follows God’s will and plan for His life that will be remembered. For example, Billy Graham. Very simple man, very simple message, very simple life, very simple planning, but all of these based on God and His Plans for his life.
Jeremiah 29
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Go into the New Year with:
His Purpose
An active relationship with God is what makes life complete, it is what gives meaning to life, it is what gives us our purpose in life.
Without that relationship with God and the assurance and hope that we will one day spend the rest of eternity in heaven with Him, there is a void, a vacuum in life, a whole in our hearts.
Many people, even those who are well-known, can attest to that void. For example, H.G. Wells, famous historian and philosopher, said at age 61: "I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether." The poet Byron said, "My days are in yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of life are gone, the worm and the canker, and the grief are mine alone." The literary genius Thoreau said, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation."
Ralph Barton, one of the top cartoonists, who contributed to such elite newspapers such as the Saturday Evening Post, left this note pinned to his pillow before taking his own life: “I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day.”
You see, without God there is no purpose in life, we are simply inventing ways and devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day.
And, don’t confuse God’s purpose for your life with investing all your time in ‘busyness.’ Yes, many people confuse the business of God with the busyness of their agenda, both in their lives and in the church.
Jeremiah 29
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Go into the New Year with:
His Provisions
These verses tell us that God has already many plans. Read that again and pay attention to the tense…
For I know the plans I have for you… that’s planning that has already taken place… that’s planning that has already been done. You don’t have to do any intense or stress invoking searching to find out what God’s plans are for your day, your week, your month, your year, and your life. All of those are short and long range goals that involve action plans to accomplish.
Go to God, ask Him for the plans that He has for your life, and the provisions, or the help that goes along with performing those plans. Again, we say
We begin with God,
ask Him about HIS plans,
and offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes.
God is not going to purposefully make a plan for your life that will intentionally fail. He won’t do that. However, the plans that He has for your life can fail…and, any failure that has occurred on any plan of God that you were following is because you were at fault, not God. See those verses again…
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
The key to finding God’s plans for our lives, His purpose for our lives, and receiving His provisions for our lives is all found in that last verse, verse 13. Have you done that? Have you sought God with all your heart? That’s the only way to plan for this upcoming New Year, to seek God with all of your hearts.
