Finding God’s Plan for Your Life - Jeremiah 1:4--10
When we open our Bibles and read the first few words of the first book we discover many things about the God who made us. He is the great creator of heaven and earth. His power to create is in his Word. His Spirit moves over the vast depths of the universe so that God is everywhere and knows all that is going on. God organizes chaotic formlessness into light and order and life.
As we read on another great truth emerges. God has a plan. We see his plan unfold before us as he creates and as he interacts with his creation.
Plans are important, aren’t they? Just imagine UT facing their biggest rival and the quarterback asks coach Fulmer what play he wants them to run. Coach says, "This time, I just want you to all get out there and do whatever you think you should do. Don’t run a play, just get out there and give it all you’ve got and lets see what will happen." Now I’ve seen some plays that looked like he might have said that, but I know deep down that’s not the truth. Those who have no plan do not win the game of football.
Plans are important! Look at this building. This is a beautiful place. Somewhere before every stone and wire and window and wall, there was a plan. Everything here reflects the plans that someone thoughtfully worked through and laid out. Others took those plans and constructed this place. It took time and money and energy. I required foresight and dedication and persistence. We gather here today and enjoy the benefit of all that went into planning and implementing that plan. When we worship and share in the Word of God and in fellowship with the Lord and one another here we are honoring the plan for this place in part.
We wouldn’t think about turning this place into a furniture store on weekdays, would we? No! We recognize the purpose for the place here and try to do what honors the plan. There is nothing holy about these stones and pews, but they are here for a purpose. To honor that purpose we must limit what we do here to fit the plan. In the Old Testament God set a place for his name and there was built a center for worship for his people. It was his plan for that time and those people. It was a temporary plan though.
When God gave Moses the blue prints for the tabernacle, he warned Moses, (Hebrews 8:5), "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." You see God had a plan for the place where the people of Israel would worship him. Later, when Jesus entered the temple, he saw what the Jews were doing there in that place and his zeal burned within him and he made a whip and drove out those who were not honoring the plan of God for his place of worship. Jesus said, "My Father’s house shall be a house of prayer for all nations!" "You have turned it into a den of thieves!" They weren’t following God’s plan for that place! The Jews found out that they could turn a buck by capitalizing on those who came to worship. Their plan was not to stop God’s plan, but to take advantage of those who were worshipping. They were motivated by money. Instead of helping people worship God, they were taking advantage of the worshippers to market their goods.
I want you to notice something. The temple was not like the tabernacle Moses made. It was not a tent that could be taken down and moved about. It was a huge structure, built first by Solomon, then after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, it was rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah and then rebuilt again by Herod the Great. When Jesus came to the temple he didn’t say, "We must restore the tent according to the Pattern Moses received." Not at all! Jesus accepted and respected the updates to the tabernacle of Moses. The temple allowed many more worshippers than the tabernacle and was much larger and modern in its day. God obviously approved using the technology of the day. What he disapproved was changing the heart and purpose of the plan. We’ve put air-conditioning and heating in here. We’ve updated many things to make this place more comfortable. We want to make this building the best servant for the plan of God for worship and Christian growth that we possibly can. God has a plan for this place to be used to serve the cause of Christ! If that is not done here, we will fail to keep the plan of God. Another important thing is that worship does not begin and end here! This place and what we do here should only serve to build up worshippers who leave here strengthened and encouraged in worship and service to God in Spirit and truth outside these walls. This is part of God’s plan!
Plans are important! What plans should we come up with today that will help us as a church in the cause of Christ here in this community?
Just this week I was talking with a man who helps churches of Christ set up visual aids for the service. Many congregations today are using projections to help with the teaching and singing of the worship. Ralph Thompson has helped and is helping Cleveland Central, and Red Bank and Hixson and several other congregations to install equipment so that their announcements and songs and lessons are projected on a screen where the congregations can follow and learn better. Those who visit sees that the desire of that church is to do the very best they can. That’s what we want people on this mountain to see in us isn’t it? We want them to know we are serious about worship and service to God and getting the message out in the best way possible. But a projection system? Why would anyone do something like that? Well, why would anyone switch from using a horse and buggy to driving a car? Why have electricity in the building? Why would someone put air conditioning in a building when a fan from the funeral home will do the trick? Why would the Jews build a huge new temple when they had the original tabernacle that Moses made?
You may think by what I’m saying that I’m all for getting something like this for us, and you would be correct. I believe we need to do whatever we can to let people on this mountain know that we give our best to God. But I’m just one member here. If this is not the way our elders think we should go and the way the congregation here thinks we should go, we shouldn’t do it. But I want you to know that I’ve been thinking and praying about this for some time. It is not just a wild idea off the top of my head. I want to see this congregation grow in depth spiritually, in size numerically, and in service to God and man. I’m convinced from the Bible that that’s what God wants, however we do it. Growth takes courage and prayerful, biblical development that sometimes requires physical changes. Someone said, "If you do the same thing you’ve always done, you will get the same results you’ve always got." I don’t believe that any more. I know that if you do the same things you’ve always done in some areas, what happens is that you become archaic and die. We must never change from following the eternal things of God’s word, but in order to be faithful to those very eternal things, we must be willing to make changes that keep those eternal things available to the people of every time and place! We must continue to live in the Plan of God in the present day!
Plans are important! We need to ask ourselves, what is God’s plan and how are we doing in following His plan? And when we know the answer to those questions, we need to do whatever it takes to line up according to God’s way.
Have you thought much about God’s plan for your life? Have you considered how flexible God’s plan is for you? You know, what you can and can’t do, what you should and shouldn’t do Have you thought and prayed over how God wants to use your life to accomplish furthering the cause of Christ in this world?
We must not think that we have the authority to make our own plans for our own lives. Neither should we go about always wondering what it is that God wants for us to do or be in life. To help us with these questions lets return for a moment to what God says about his temple.
1 Cor. 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1 Cor 6: 19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
God has plans for his temple! That means you!
1 Peter 2:4-12 You are living stones, being built into a spiritual house God has made us a chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God Why? That we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his light! Whatever we can do to enhance that work of declaring his praises should be a number one priority on our list! And we are called to live holy lives in this world. Whatever will help us to accomplish this must be protected and developed.
The world is using the best technology and scientific stuff to accomplish the task of destroying God’s plan for our lives. Entertainment and education and government all use the best of the best. God’s people can do the same! We can take those same tools and use them for the glory of God. We must! In our homes and in our daily walks of life, let us boldly declare the praises of God! Let’s use every means available to promote the cause of Christ and walk in the plan of God.
The modern execution procedure of Rome in the day of Jesus was the cross. The Romans invented it as a modern way to publicly humiliate and painfully kill the enemies of Rome. And when God performed the greatest work of grace in the universe that required the death of his Son he didn’t chose stoning. He didn’t choose the more conventional methods of execution. No, the only way that Jesus could die for our sins and redeem us from death was the Cross. It was so unheard of and novel, that the Jews couldn’t see that they were fulfilling the very prophecies of God in handing Jesus over to be crucified. They stood there beneath the cross and did not comprehend that they were fulfilling the greatest part of the plan of God. A plan that has shattered the darkness and shown the light of God’s love even to today. Jesus! His life and death and resurrection are just as freshly meaningful today as they were almost 2000 years ago. We have received this message! We have believed in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. We have confessed that we are sinners and that he is the Son of God sent to save us. We have been buried with him by baptism in his name, and raised up with him to walk with him in newness of life! Newness! Jesus said, behold I make everything new!
Are you walking in God’s plan? God’s word says to put off the old man with its evil practices and put on the new man, created in the likeness of Christ. Don’t be outdated on judgment day! God wants to give you a new heart, and renew your mind in Christ! His plan is modern! It is eternal! It is never old or out dated!
