"Planning for a Future without Fear"
HHM Pastor Jim Parisi March 23, 2002
During any political campaign candidates make all kinds of noble sounding promises.
We hear about lower taxes, more spend-able income, more affordable health care, a stronger defense, a renewal of character.
And all these things sound good. They all sound too good.
Every election we hear the same kinds of things. I will do better for you…
But the question I always ask is a simple one: "How?
How do you plan to do these things?
What is your strategy for making it happen?"
It’s an important question. Without a plan, the noblest words are virtually meaningless.
You can dream all you want but if you don’t have any direction for making dreams come true you are just dreaming the impossible dream.
Most men plan without the benefit of the Spirit of God
They start out strong and end up in total Fear and Defeat of what was the Great ideal.
The enemy doses not want you to succeed or be successful.
There is a time of preparation of prayer for all good things and then a Plan a route to take that is ordained by God
The way to prepare is simple Ask God to teach you.
Ps 25:4 Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.
What better way the Lords
To not be consumed by fear in your well doing
Ps 64:1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation; Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
A plan is the path to the future and we need to protect our future with good decisions and the Lords covering
How do we tap into that, through prayer, meditation and seeking Him
We all know the story of Joseph in Gen 21
Pharaoh had a dream
The Land of Egypt was going to suffer a great famine.
And Joseph was the man for the hour
JOSEPH HAD A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
Joseph had a plan for preparing for the coming famine.
I think the plan was probably something that God revealed to him . . . but we aren’t told this.
The wisdom of this plan is great. The government would appoint someone to collect 20% of the year’s produce.
They needed someone in charge because human nature is such that in the times of prosperity we don’t save more . . . .
We spend more!
We may resist planning because it doesn’t sound very exciting but,
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if you don’t plan your course schedule you will not finish what you have started
•if you don’t plan your route to a new location you may get lost
• if you don’t plan what you are going to say, or write for a paper or speech, you will ramble on incoherently.
•
• If you don’t set up a realistic budget you will not have the money to pay your bills
If you want to get ahead in life, you can’t live "by the seat of your pants".
You must plan. But we often fail to plan for the most important things.
It appears that we are in a time of spiritual famine in our country.
How well have you planned for this coming time?
We all know that there is coming a day (usually sooner than we think) when we will be called to the judgment seat of Christ.
How well have you planned for that day? We know that there will be opportunities to share our faith with others.
How well have planned for that time?
We know that we will face endless temptations from Satan. Have you prepared for his assault?
Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 25 about ten bridesmaids that were waiting for the bridegroom to arrive.
Five of these women brought plenty of oil (they planned for a possible delay), the other five did not bring extra oil.
When the bridegroom delayed they had to run to get oil. They missed out on the festivities because they were not prepared.
We must ask ourselves how "prepared" we are for the coming of the bridegroom.
But before we can plan adequately we need to have a realistic view of the obstacles.
Joseph knew that in seven years famine would strike. He knew what his deadline was
He knew the enemy. In a similar way, we need to identify the obstacles we face. And believe me, there are several,
There is our own nature. We are naturally lazy when it comes to spiritual things.
Therefore we need to plan with our own resistance in mind. As the comic strip POGO declared, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
There is the devil. We know that Satan will use anything he can to turn us from any plan for spiritual development.
We know he will use discouragement and will seek to overwhelm us with the task.
There is our contemporary culture.
Not only are we facing a time when Christianity) is resisted by our society, we also face a media that constantly seeks to marginalize our faith.
There is our contemporary lifestyle.
This is one of the things that I find most difficult to battle.
We are so busy. We spend our lives running on the treadmill of life and we begin to feel that any time spent in quiet reflection or fervent study is "Wasted time".
So, we need to be clear on what the barriers to success are But second, we need to develop specific strategies.
And one of the best ways to do this is to use what is called the S.A.M. method. We should set goals that are specific, attainable, and measurable.
Let me define the terms:
• Specific. Joseph didn’t just say, "we need to store some grain." Joseph had a specific plan: 20% each year for seven years.
• Attainable. It was a realistic plan. Joseph could have suggested 30, 40 or 50% put you have to be realistic. Joseph knew that 20% was an amount people would be willing to sacrifice. Any more than that may have been an unreasonable burden and led to a revolt among the people.
• Measurable. This was a plan that could be evaluated. Since it was specific and it was for a certain period of time . . . you could evaluate how the plan was going.
Goals that are specific, attainable, and measurable are valuable because they not only give us direction . . . they help to keep us on task.
So what does this mean for our spiritual lives?
It means that we have to give more thought to the idea of spiritual growth. It’s not enough to say, "I want to grow spiritually",
We need to develop that into a plan that is specific, attainable and measurable TO become a greater witness in the earth for the Lord
Another thing is make peace with your past.
JOSEPH’S MADE PEACE WITH HIS PAST
One thing that hinders many people in their growth is the baggage they carry from their past.
Think about all the things Joseph had to forget to fulfill his calling,
• the hatred of his brothers
• the time stripped and thrown into a prison by those same brothers
• the memories of hearing his brothers sell him as a slave
• the years of serving as a slave to many
• the false charges of Potipher’s wife
• the years shackled in prison
The scars were deep but God’s healing was deeper. It’s amazing isn’t it?
Did Joseph literally not remember the events anymore?
Of course not! But what did happen was that God got him past the hurt.
He was no longer haunted by the betrayal, rejection and sense of failure.
These memories no longer haunted, controlled or possessed him.
God had helped him to "move on". I suggest today that many of you need to move one as well from the chains of our past.
The hurts have been severe and deep . . . . but God can and will help you "forget". Heal the wounds with His love and understanding
My suggestion today is let us Forget the past.
Or it will hinder you.
And step in with proper preparation into your blessed future.
AMEN
