God Has a Plan for You!
Jeremiah 29:11-13
We are encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believes we can do the task and is willing work with us all the way. We love working for bosses like that. We love to follow leaders who have faith in us. Who will give us the room to fail. Who will allows use to do our job yet is always there to help us when we ask. It is great to work for a boss like that. If you have never worked for anyone like that you have truly missed something.
We normally work for boss that give us instructions on what to do and right or wrong. Or have bosses that don’t have a clue what to do and just sit in their office. On the one hand you have the boss that makes you do it their way and if you succeed they are quick to take the credit and if you fail they are just a quick to blame you. The other type of boss are quick to blame their problems and failures on everyone but themselves. One will get a lot done right or wrong and the other will accomplish very little.
I remember two different stories about a piano teacher. One spoke of the student that worked hard and served under the great teacher. He practiced 10 to 12 hours a day. He put his heart and soul into the work. His Instructor would always push for the best and nothing less then perfection was going to work. The Student worked for years under the Master. The young man became a great pianist. And one day he went back home for a concert and invited the Master that had instructed him.
The day of the great concert came and the house was packed. The student played his heart out. The music moved the people and when the concert was over the crowd erupted in applause. They gave the student a standing ovation.
But as those observing the young man noticed that he began crying and left the stage. The crowed cried out on-core…on-core but the young student refused to return.
The stage manager pleaded with the young man to go back out. But he young man refused. When the Stage Manager asked the young man why he seemed so upset.
He took him to the corner of the curtain and pointed up in the balcony to an old man that was seated there. The old man was not applauding and defiantly was not standing.
The Stage manager asked who was the elderly gentleman?
With tears in his eyes the young man said that is my Master and he’s not applauding. I worked so hard to get the approval of my master but I have fallen short.
Some preachers that I know would use this illustration to tell you that you need to keep trying and God requires so much more of you then the world requires. They would tell you that the Master would be mad at you. They would tell you that God requires absolute perfection.
But that is simply not true. God is always there with His love and his grace. He is always there in our problems and in our difficulties. God is always there to wipe the mud off. God is in a fact our biggest cheerleader, Standing in Heaving an Applauding, and encouraging you to keep going. God simple wants your love and relationship.
You see that is why God created man. So that he may have a relationship with him. He created us to spend time with us. He knows that were not perfect and He is so happy that we are trying to please him. He love us even with our imperfections. That is after all what Grace is all about. He hears the beautiful music and not the mistakes. You see God sees us through the eyes of Jesus.
There is another story about a piano that is more like God to me. Charles Swindoll gives the story called “Don’t Quit”
Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous composer-pianist, was scheduled to perform at a great concert hall in America. It was an evening to remember—black tuxedos and long evening dresses, a high-society extravaganza. Present in the audience that evening was a mother with her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting, he squirmed constantly in his seat. His mother was in hopes that her son would be encouraged to practice the piano if he could just hear the immortal Paderewski at the keyboard. So—against his wishes—he had come.
As she turned to talk with friends, her son could stay seated no longer. He slipped away from her side, strangely drawn to the ebony concert grand Steinway and its leather tufted stool on the huge stage flooded with blinding lights. Without much notice from the sophisticated audience, the boy sat down at the stool, staring wide-eyed at the black and white keys. He placed his small, trembling fingers in the right location and began to play “Chopsticks.” The roar of the crowd was hushed as hundreds of frowning faces pointed roar of the crowd was hushed as hundreds of frowning faces pointed in his direction. Irritated and embarrassed, they began to shout:
“Get that boy away from there!”
“Who’d bring a kid that young here?”
“Where’s his mother?”
“Somebody stop him!”
Backstage, the master overheard the sounds out front and quickly put together in his mind what was happening. Hurriedly, he grabbed his coat and rushed toward the stage. Without one word of announcement he stooped over behind the boy, reached around both sides, and began to improvise a countermelody to harmonize with and enhance “Chopsticks.” As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy’s ear:
Keep going. Don’t quit. Keep on playing…don’t stop…don’t quit.
And that is how God would respond. We hammer away on the project, which seems about as significant as “Chopsticks” in a concert hall. And about the time we are ready to give up, along comes the Master who leans over and whispers:
Keep going. Don’t quit. Keep on playing…don’t stop…don’t quit. As He improvises on our behalf, providing just the right touch as just the right moment.
And when finally when we simply try he will stand in the balcony and applaud louder then anyone else.
You see the Lord is a Great and Loving father. His desire is not to punish us or to scorn us but to love us for that is what Grace is all about.
The central text for today message is found in the book of Jeremiah 29:11-13
God is the kind of leader that will never leave us. He will always be with us. He will carry us when we cannot walk. When were down, it will be Him, that will reach down with his loving hand and pick us up, dust off our clothes, put some peroxide on our scrape, kiss it better then send us back to try again.
He knows the future, and his plans for us are good and full of hope. This does not mean that we will be spared pain, suffering, or hardship… God never promised us that; as a matter of fact, He tell us that there will be many trials and temptations in our lives. He tells us that we are not of this would but we are separate from this world. He tells us that the world will hate us because of Him.
But he also promises us that He will never leave us or forsake us. That he will not let us go through these trials alone but will be right there with us. He also tells us that God will see us through all the disappointments in life, through all the pains in life, through all the Hurt that is done by the ones we called our friends. The ones that we placed our trust in and the hurt that we feel went they betray us. Through all the failures in life and the successes He will be there. He also promises that some day He will rescue us from this world of pain and heartache. He also promises us that He is preparing for each of us a Glorious Home in Heaven someday.
God does not forget his people. He did not forget the Israelites when they didn’t do the things that he told them to do, and He will not forget us when we sin. You see even though his people were captive in Babylon. He planed to give them a new beginning with a new purpose-to turn them into new people. In times of deep trouble, He may be preparing you, as he did the people of Judah, for a new beginning with him at the center.
God does need you to make Him a priority in your life. He need you to call upon His name and he will be their. Lets look back over these verse. Verse 11.
For I know the plans I have for you… Now that can be a scary thing or that can be a great thing. Let me just say that God is not mad at you. He loves you and is concerned for you. When He knows that you are going to do something stupid He steps in and provides a deterrent for you. He know those times when were ready to slam our car in the idiot in front of you. He knows the time when were ready to give up on our spouse. He knows the times when we want to find a desert island and hide. He knows all these things. And He is there to help us through those times.
He did not put this in the bible to say that He has plans for us and were messing it up. He put this in the Bible to tell us, we have a friend who knows the secrets that you would not tell anyone else. Steve Brown says, “If people knew us, really knew us, I mean the thought we think and the things we do when no one is around, people wouldn’t like us very much.” I tend to agree, but God does know and loves us anyway. Isn’t awesome to know that God has a plan for our lives?
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Isn’t that awesome, That God wants us to have peace in our lives, He want us to prosper and give us hope. We have hope and a future because, well not because of what we have done, but what Jesus Christ did for us.
With out Jesus there is no hope, The Bible is very clear. There are many these days that say, “there are many ways into heaven and many God’s and they will all get you to the same place.”
The truth is that is not what the Bible says. Let me give you the hope strait from our savior Jesus Christ. John 14:1-14
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Fathers house there are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place I am going,”
The disciples ask the same question that we ask… If we will be hones.
Verse 5, Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Here it is Sports fans right from the mouth of our Savior… Follow along Sports fans verses 6-14,
Jesus answered, “I an the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you now me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father? Don’t you believe the I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of he miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.
I looked at the back page of the paper this Saturday and there was a photo of 2 million Muslims gathered in Mecca. Let me read you the article.
There are 1 billion people that will die some day, for the bible states that it appointed the all men shall die. 1 billion people following a petafile will some day die and be separated from God. 1 billion people following a false man that was more into hate then love. A religion that is full of things you must do and people follow it.
Yet Jesus Says if you believe in me you shall be saved. He says that you should love you neighbor as your self. He calls us to take care of the poor and the needy. He tells us that we are to take care of the Children and the widows.
My friends If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you might as well be a Muslim. Because in the end you will end up the same place they are. I know that this sounds harsh but it is true.
Turn Back with me to John 3:16-21
Invetation:
Pastor Steven L Pace
www.fieldonbaptist.com
