Well we have reached the final Sunday of 2009,
for some 2009 has been a time of great blessing, for others a time of trial.
For some 2009 has been a time of joy,
for others a time of sadness.
We have rejoiced in baptism, rejoiced as people have started worshiping with us or joined the membership.
And through loved ones have left us and finished the race we rejoice knowing that they have heard God say “Well Done, faithful one – welcome to your eternal home”
I consider it a privilege to stand here on the final Sunday of 2009 and bring the last message of the year to you.
As this year draws to a close I want us to look forward to 2010 by considering four HP’s together this morning.
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NO, not the sauce,
His Planning, His Purpose, His Provision and His Presence
And we will do this by focusing on part of the bible God keeps leading me to,
in fact, over the last few weeks I have not been able to escape this passage of the bible,
I’ve seen it in my daily reading on 6 occasions, David has mentioned it in a sermon,
I went into the Christian Bookshop in town and on the shelves in front of the door as you walk in it was there, I’ve found it on a keyring, on a pen and two friends have emailed it to me as part of their electronic Christmas cards.
So I have come to the conclusion that this is the verse that God wants me to share with you this morning.
But by way of introduction, there is a salesman I know that loves driving around the country on business, but it’s not the driving 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.
Even though he has a top of the range Sat Nav he loves looking at maps.
He gathers information about his destinations, and the researches and plans every trip.
He works out his mileage and probable petrol consumption and costs, he works out which hotel he will spend the night in, and where he might stop for lunch.
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 you have driven anywhere, but, your probably thinking 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 local shop, a trip to the supermarket, or even a trip to a restaurant has some amount of planning involved.
If not, you’ll either not take enough money, or you’ll spend too much.
Now, I’m sure there are probably some of you thinking that planning for 2010 doesn’t seem like a big deal.
There may even be one or two of you thinking that the year is going to happen no matter how you plan for it.
Yes, it will happen, but, that does not mean you should just Let it happen
If you never plan to check the engine oil in your car, the engine will burn up and stop.
Or if you never check the pressure of your tyres you could lose control on wet roads.
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 have any short term or long term goals, then, this time next year, you’ll look back and say, “I haven’t really accomplished anything this year and 2010 is almost over…”
Or worse than that, you’ll look back when you’re three quarters of the way through your life and say, “Wow, I haven’t really accomplished anything for God, have I?”
Christians that don’t plan their lives may appear to be busy, perhaps always running around, but never really accomplishing anything.
One of the guys I used to work with often had people running up to him trying to get him to do something for them really quick, when they should have done something a long time before,
He used to tell them “You’re failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part.”
Imagine if Noah had waited for it to start raining before beginning construction of the ark.
Someone once said, “Failure to plan, is actually planning to fail.” It doesn’t have to be that way.
So let’s look at the verse that keeps coming up in my life that God has laid on my heart to share with you this morning.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 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.
Powerful words. I believe this is the verse that God wants us to take into 2010 with us.
Ok, first HP - Go into 2010 with: His PLANNING the amazing thing about these verses is that God gives this prophetic word when everything is going wrong in the lives of His people.
he comes with the message, “ I know everything’s going to turn out right.”
I have learnt over the years that often, God’s plan is different to what I thought it would be.
The same thing is true of the Jewish people in Jeremiah 29.
The year is 597 BC. God is judging the nation of Judah. The Babylonians have attacked Jerusalem. They’ve taken 3000 prisoners back to Babylon. Including the king, the court officials, and the craftsmen. And the Jews are saying “This isn’t supposed to happen to us! We’re the chosen people! We’re the apple of God’s eye!
What is going on?”
Maybe that strikes a chord with you today,
maybe in your life right now you are asking a similar question. You want to know what is going on.
Let me share with you that God is accomplishing His plans in your life today - even if those plans aren’t what you were expecting.
If you could look at the big picture, you would see that God is working behind the scenes in our hearts and in our lives.
God’s plan isn’t always what we thought it was going to be.
But God’s plan is always best.
Even if we don’t understand it at the time.
Even if we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Even if we would never have chosen this path for ourselves.
When I was made redundant in June, I did not pray “Thank you God, that I have lost my job. I needed this to happen so that you could fulfil your glorious plan for my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
In fact I’m not sure many Christians would pray a prayer like that.
But I know that in all things, God works together for the good of those who love Him.
I know that when God shuts a door,
he opens another door.
I know that God is working through every event in my life to make me more and more dependent on Jesus for everything I need.
God’s plan is not always the easiest plan.
But it is the BEST plan.
And that brings us to Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.”
I think if we knew everything that was going to happen to us ahead of time, we would go crazy.
We’d be doing everything in our power to change things to make them go the way we would want them to go.
And that’s probably why God doesn’t tell us everything at once.
But verse 11 reminds us that even though we don’t know all the plans for our lives,
GOD knows the plans He has for us.
God sees our tomorrows before they become our ‘todays.’
If you were up in a Hot Air Baloon, and you were watching a parade,
actually, just out of interest did anyone eat Brussel sprouts on Christmas Day?
Scientists with nothing better to do, have calculated that the number of Brussel Sprouts consumed on Christmas Day, produce enough gas to fill 98 hot air balloons.
Anyway if you were up in a Hot Air Baloon, and you were watching a parade,
you could look down and see the entire parade.
You could see the beginning of the parade.
The end of the parade. And everything in between.
That’s how God sees your life.
He sees the beginning of your life.
He sees the end of your life.
And He sees everything in between. Psalm 139:16 says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God knows the plans He has for you.
And then Jeremiah says that “God has plans to prosper you and not to harm you.”
Sometimes, we have a hard time with verses like that.
Why would God want US to prosper when you have people on the other side of the world who have absolutely nothing?
Why should we want to get blessed when there are so many people who don’t even have a fraction of what we have now?
These are good questions to ask.
But when I talk about God prospering us,
I’m not talking about everyone in church becoming millionaires (As appealing as that may sound).
I’m talking about enjoying the everyday blessings of God.
A place to live. Food to eat. Families to love.
And people to pray for.
All of these things are a sign that we are experiencing God’s plans to prosper us and not to harm us.
Then Jeremiah says that God has ‘plans to give you a hope and a future.’ For the Jewish people, that meant going back to the promised land.
But for us, it means going UP to the Promised Land.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a hope and a future that goes far beyond this life.
You have a hope and a future where you will be living in eternity with God himself.
You have the hope that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
You have the hope that God will someday be finished with the work He’s doing in your life,
and that you will reign with Christ forever and ever!
You have a certain hope that God’s promises in your life will come true.
In fact, the whole message of Jeremiah is that the word of the Lord always comes true.
For I know the plans I have for you…
here is God’s Master plan for our lives, but the first key to this Master plan, is you have got to give God full control of your life for the plan to work.
Here is the Master Plan - God has Good Plans For You
Maybe that is just too simple for you.
You want details, You want to know why this happened and that happened.
Maybe life isn’t going the way you want it to, so you need answers.
The problem with us is that we live our lives from front to back,
but God who is Alpha and Omega, sees our life from end to start.
God isn’t waiting for things to happen,
He is already ahead making a way where there seems to be no way.
This is a wonderful verse, God says, I’ve read the last chapter of your walk with Me, and I will tell you the rest of the story, you are going to win in the end.
He has skipped the 50, 60, 80 or even the 100 years of life, to the very last second, and see’s that you will get the desire of your heart.
Today, if you give your life fully to God, He has good plans for your life.
For I know the plans I have for you…
There are two types of people that this is aimed at.
First of all, there is the planner.
But, they’re not the kind of planner we want to be.
This planner will go into the New Year with everything all planned out. They’ll have their job plans and maybe their pension plans worked out, they’ll have their family plans, their holiday plans. They’ll have their education or schools plans,
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?
Far too many planners leave God out their plans and many never want God to be the one in control of the agenda
Leaving it up to God is often the part we leave out.
Let me to give you an illustration (I’ll admit taken to the extreme) of how some view something as simple as church attendance and how corrupt and out of control it can get to not do the simplest things, let alone serve.
A member of an American church wrote this letter to his Pastor
Dear Pastor - You often talk about attendance at Sunday Services as being very important for a Christian, but I think a person has a right to miss a service now and then.
I think every person ought to be excused for the following reasons and the number of Sundays indicated.
Christmas Holidays (the Sunday before & after) 2
New Years (the party lasted too long) 1
Easter (get away for the holidays) 2
July 4th (national holidays) 1
Labor Day (need to get away) 2
Memorial Day (visit hometown folk) 1
School closing (kids need a break) 1
School reopens (one last weekend) 1
Family reunions (mine & wife’s) 3
Sleep late (stayed up too long Saturday night) 9
Deaths in family 2
Wedding Anniversary 1
Sickness (allow one Sunday per family member) 5
Fishing trip (a must) 1
Vacation (three to four weeks) 6
Bad weather (ice, snow, rain, clouds) 2
Football games 2
Motor Racing 2
Unexpected visitors (can’t walk out) 2
Clock time changes (Summer & Winter) 2
Special Program on TV (Pop Idol final etc.) 3
Pastor, as you know, that leaves two Sundays per year. So, you can count on us to be in church on the 4th Sunday in February and the 3rd Sunday in August unless we are providentially hindered. Sincerely -- A Faithful Member.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says 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 of our plans.
“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 person that this verse 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?
If you sleep just seven hours a night then you will spend the eqivalent of 3 ½ months sleeping,
16 days will be spent eating,
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, walking to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the shop, etc.
Depending on how often you wash, between 9-15 days will be spent in the bathroom.
If you goto church twice on a Sunday then you will spend 9 days in church,
And if you only come to one service a week that’s just 4 ½ days.
Listen 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, if you will let God do that.
I cannot over-emphasize the importance that Godly planning has on your:
Quality of Life, Purpose in Life and Direction in Life
These are very important parts of your life that you cannot trust to anyone else, except God.
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 different 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 average Christian 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.
Go into the 2010 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, know that void. H.G. Wells, author historian and philosopher, said at the age of 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, the cartoonist, 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 being busy.
Yes, many people confuse the business of God with a busy agenda, both in their lives and in the church.
Go into 2010 with: His Provisions
These verses tell us that God has already many plans. Listen to 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.
God is not going to 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.
Read 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 verse 13.
Have you done that?
Have you sought God with all your heart?
That’s the only way to plan for this New Year, to seek God with all of your heart.
Go into the 2010 with: HIS Presence
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Part of God’s plan is that you are going to know God in a personal, intimate way.
Not just ritual, not just a religious experience, but a day by day walk with God.
You will know His presence–no matter what struggle you face, no matter what battle you encounter, you will know that God is with you.
He will never leave you or forsake you.
You will know His voice–the sheep know the Shepherd’s voice.
The more time you spend with God the more you will know God.
You can’t really know God from a distance.
We don’t need a God that watches from a distance,
We need a God that is as close as the mention of His name.
We need someone who knows the desire of your heart
One who hears the silent cry in the middle of the night.
Someone who speaks peace and stills the storms.
What the devil has meant for bad, God will turn it to good.
Who the Son sets free, is free indeed.
You don’t need to wait for 2010 for your bondage to be loosed,
you don’t need to wait till 2010 for your sorrow to be turned to laughter,
right now you can receive the blessings that only He can give.
God’s ultimate plan for your life, is eternal life.
The things that are seen are temporary, but the things unseen are eternal(2 Corinthians 4:18).
God will bring you home.
Do I know God’s will for your life in every detail, no? Will you understand every step of the way, no
But I do know this, it isn’t as important to understand the plan, as it is to know the planner.
In Him we live and move and have our being.
Over the years I have met a lot of people who are waiting for God’s will in their lives.
Experiencing God’s will is a continual process not a one off event. It is a constant transformation that happens within you.
Can you be better in Dec 2010 than you are in Dec 2009? Absolutely!
As you are faithful in the little, that you will be given more.
You won’t fully understand your life until you have lived it.
So don’t sit around waiting for lightning from the sky, walk every day with God and day by day you will discover His plans.
Oswald Chamber’s said, “God holds us accountable every time we refuse to submit to His plans, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us. To refuse to be follow puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.”
We must submit --- but how?
Take an inventory of your life right now – think of the junk that is in there. To help you -- anything that is not of God is junk, don’t try to justify junk to yourself.
Consider all the sin, bad habits, addictions, coarse words, ungodly behaviour, the desire to be all that you can be and leave little room for God – take all of that into account and ask Father God…
“What do you not approve of?”
This takes humbleness on your part -- then, listen and obey!
It is just that simple – however, the first portion of this starts with you – until YOU do something, God will do nothing.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
“If” … If means YOU have to act first … NOT the other way around.
Go into 2010 with: His Planning His Purpose His Provisions HIS Presence
If this message has touched your life,
please let it change your life.
Accept that Jesus Christ has some great plans for you.
If you want 2010 to be better than 2009, then you have to take the first step towards growing closer to God.
Take stock of where you are – rejoice in what God has been able to do in your life this year, and then look forward to what He can do in 2010!
May God bless you with His best.
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.”
Amen
