Biblical Planning (part-2)

Father in heaven, we do thank you and praise you.

Lord, you are great, as your word says and as we've experienced in our lives.

And seeing your great hand and your great power, not only to save us, but also to keep us.

Lord, to provide for every day of every need that we've ever had.

And Lord, we can raise our Ebenezer this morning and say, hitherto has the Lord helped us.

You've brought us to this place in our lives where we are.

And you've done it perfectly, without mistake.

And you've directed and you've led us and you've watched over us and you've thought

upon us.

And Lord, you have cared for us in a way that we just we cannot even express back to you how grateful we

are.

But we want to give you the praise this morning for that.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to be able to to be part of this local New Testament church.

This work that you've done on the face of the earth in this area of New England.

And thank you for the privilege to be able to worship, to be able to freely come to this place, to

be able to have Bibles, to be able to study, to be able to read it, to be able to

search the scriptures, be able to be taught of our God, how grateful we are.

We think of all of these blessings from on high.

We know that it's a gift from you and we are so appreciative of it.

And this morning, as we come to worship and adore and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray that our hearts may be turned toward you and that our our attention would be upon you and that our

hearts would be opened, that we may learn the word of God and that we may we just may be

sanctified, Lord, as you continue to work in our lives so that in our lives, Jesus Christ might be

seen and known and glorified.

And we'd ask in his precious name.

Amen.

OK, as I said, for those for those that weren't here last week, we began last week, part one of

biblical planning and I began the class off by saying, you know, if you if you were to build

on your house or if you were to have maybe a complete new home to be built and you plan

for it and you had all of the and you thought you planned for it and you had everything together, everything ready to

go.

And then the contractor comes to do the work and things are missing or there's just a big old mess and

the contractor can't get at what he needs to get at.

That happened because there was no planning, a failure to plan.

And it surprises me that in our lives, many times we over plan in one area and we under

plan in other areas.

Many times, as an example of that, I know folks and I've seen folks scrutinize the

Internet and printing specifications for the smallest piece of electronic equipment

that they might use on a daily basis.

And yet, when it comes to their biblical reading, when it comes to prayer, when it comes to a method of

memorizing scripture, when it comes to evangelism, when it comes to getting married, when it comes to moving,

there is virtually no planning.

There's no preparation.

There's no prayer.

There's no deliberation.

So, what I wanted to do with this class was to not only help us in the physical realm as we know that we need to plan.

I mean, if we don't plan in the physical realm, we don't have a meal the next day.

I mean, we think ahead, don't we?

Somebody in your home, if you don't do it yourself, somebody else does it, thinks about what needs to be purchased

for the next meal, for the next day or for the clothing or to pay the bills, to be able to have the

money in the right place to pay those bills.

It takes some deliberation.

It takes some thought and it takes some planning.

That's the physical realm.

And if we plan in the physical realm, then it certainly makes sense that we ought to maintain

our spiritual walk with Christ, the spiritual disciplines that are important to us.

We should be planning in those areas.

So, there is a necessity for spiritual planning.

And what we looked at last week was we looked at the Proverbs.

And I don't know if you remember, but we looked in Proverbs chapter 6 where it says, go to the aunt, oh sluggard,

consider her ways and be wise without having chief officer or ruler.

She prepares her food in summer and gathers her substance in the harvest.

Even the little tiny aunt prepares and thinks ahead and there's forethought.

And if the aunt prepares, certainly we ought to prepare.

Then we look in Proverbs 14 where it says there that the simple person believes everything, but the

prudent person looks where they are going.

And the idea with planning is that we look where we're going.

We don't just think about the immediate in front of us.

And that was Proverbs 14, 15.

We don't look at the immediate in front of us just to satisfy the immediate, but we look towards the future.

We give some thought about where, what's going to take place weeks and months down the road.

And if in anything, what I talked about last week would be good for us to do is at least at the beginning of the week is

to plan our week out in all different aspects.

As I said, the physical and the spiritual, which I'll get into.

So we are to look where we are to be going.

Then we looked in Proverbs 15, 22 where it says without counsel, plans go wrong.

But with many advisors, they succeed.

Our plans succeed when we have counselors or advisors.

Proverbs 15, 22.

And when it comes to planning, it is a very good idea if you do not have an

inkling of what to do on your own is to counsel with others who have been through maybe what you're going to go through.

Or you can look at someone's life and it seems like they kind of have that portion of their life together.

I'd like to talk to them and see what do they do?

How do they do that?

How do they plan their budget?

How is it that they plan that I'm teaching a Sunday school class and this person is teaching and they always seem to have everything

in order.

Things are there and there's not much scrambling around.

And for me, it's always like things are upside down, topsy -turvy.

Talk to that person.

When it comes to spiritual maturity in someone's life, if there's someone you look at and you see,

there's just something about that person's testimony.

There's something about that person's recall of scripture.

And a lot of that, of course, is some of us are wired that way.

We can memorize good and we can go and point to scriptures and some of us can't.

Don't feel bad if you can't.

But if you can't do it because you're not planning to do it or you're not intending to do it, that's the whole idea,

intention, deliberation, purpose, forethought.

And we're going to see how.

And we did last week, we looked at it.

We see how even God does that.

But before I get there, also in the Proverbs, we looked in Proverbs 21, verse 5, where it

says that everyone who is hasty comes to poverty.

And when it comes to planning, we shouldn't be rash or hasty.

We shouldn't make quick decisions that we haven't thought through.

Proverbs 16 .3 says, commit your work unto the Lord and your plan shall be established.

And of course there, God first when it comes to planning.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, repeated by our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

Seek God's kingdom first and put the Lord first when it comes to our plans.

Not, all right, I'm going to go off and I'm going to plan.

Here's my idea and I'm going to execute that plan.

And then I get over here and it's all messed up and I get in a big trouble and I'm not where I should be.

And what happened was we didn't commit that unto the Lord first.

Kind of remind me in the Old Testament, if you remember the account when Joshua and the children of

Israel are going through the promised land and they're going city by city and they're being victorious.

And there's a group of people, I think it's the Gibeonites, they plan that they're going to come and get us and

we're going to be toast.

And what are we going to do?

So with deception, they put on old clothes, old shoes, old moldy bread and bring it to them and say that

we've come from a far country.

We've heard, you know, and no, you're on it.

No, we've come from a far country and deceive them.

And in most cases, Joshua and the elders went to the Lord and asked for counsel.

They sought the Lord first.

They didn't in this case.

And they said to them that we won't harm you.

We won't we won't hurt you.

And of course, these were their enemies that they were supposed to destroy and wipe off the face of the earth according to the will of

will of God.

But in this in this in this instance, they didn't seek

God first.

They didn't get God's counsel first in prayer.

And what they ended up having to do once they found out once they got to their city, that it was theirs.

Of course, they made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for them.

They became became their servants.

But but it wasn't ultimately the way that God had intended it for them to be.

And they should have sought God first when it came to their intentions and their purposes and their plans.

And then we looked in Proverbs 24, where it says, you know, there's a certain order of how we

should do things, prepare your work on the outside, get everything ready for you in the field and then afterwards build your house.

And there's an appropriate order when it comes to planning, doing things.

Young couples, they many times will need to rent first until they financially get on their feet before they can

purchase their home.

When you know, it's good when you're when you're in it, when you're in it, if things

happen in your lives to where things are upside down when it comes to finances or whatever.

The most important thing, of course, is that a job must be secured by the by the husband so

that there can be income in that family to provide for the needs before going off and

branching off into all other different things.

So there's an appropriate order that things should be done in priorities.

And then lastly, in Proverbs 31, verses 15 and 16, we had looked at how that that

godly woman there, she had a plan when she got up, she she knew she could task her maids

of what it was that she wanted them to do.

And she knew about the field to purchase.

And she was looking ahead and being being thrifty.

But she had an actual plan that she she had worked upon.

She had executed and the conclusion of the Proverbs was, is that careful planning is a

part of what makes a person wise and productive and not to plan.

If you look at the Proverbs to not plan and to not plan properly is foolish and dangerous.

And then we looked at the life of the Apostle Paul, we looked in Romans chapter 15, where

we saw that his desire was to preach the gospel.

His purpose, his goal was to preach the gospel where the gospel had not been preached before.

And one of the places that he wanted to get to was Spain.

In order to get to Spain, what he was going to first do is he's writing the book of Romans to the Christians in Rome and saying, I'm going to

come to you and then I'm going to go to Spain.

And it's almost as if he was going to establish a Western post,

so to speak, so that he could come back there and then branch out and go to the places he was going to minister at.

And before he was going to go to Rome, though, he said he was going to go to Jerusalem to drop off a gift that some other

believers had for those impoverished saints there in Jerusalem.

So he's going to go to Jerusalem, then he's going to go to Rome, and then he's going to go to Spain.

But in his mind and in his heart, at least he had an idea.

It wasn't, it wasn't slipshot.

It wasn't, you know, whatever happens.

He was deliberate in ministry.

And sometimes I wonder when it comes to ministry, if it's just, you know, pull out the shotgun

and let it go.

Whatever happens, happens.

Or when it comes to our year, when it comes to ministering to others,

is it, well, whatever happens, happens.

And whoever I run into, I run into.

But sometimes when we do that, when we don't have a plan, we don't, we don't, that we don't execute or we

don't look at or we don't check where we are with that plan, that the ideas, the intentions that we have during the year,

it just doesn't get done.

And we see that when we read the scriptures, that, that the Apostle Paul, it's like we've got to go to this city

and then we've got to establish that.

And then when they're, when they're firm in the faith and someone is raised up that he could possibly leave

there, then he can go off to the next city.

And it's, and there's a, there is a purpose behind what he's doing.

There's goals in mind.

And when it comes to our ministries, teaching Sunday school, or maybe having our, maybe having homes of

hospitality.

Maybe it is when it comes to evangelism.

Maybe, maybe it has to do with whatever ministry in the church or outside of the church for you to serve others.

You don't do it intentionally.

And that's what I'm trying to drive at as far as when it comes to planning.

I mean, do you intend to buy tracts or to get tracts or booklets off the table

so that you can bring them home?

Because you know that week you're going to be meeting with such and such a person, family members, work of people at

work, an issue that's come up.

And you're planning ahead for those things that are happening that week.

When it comes to in the past and in years past, you said, oh, I want to memorize scripture.

I just haven't done it.

And I, you're thinking I'm going to memorize, you know, a verse a week.

My, my idea, I'd rather see you memorize a verse a month and get it done or

a verse a year and get it done.

Then think I'm going to do 52 in a year and not do any, but have a plan in mind.

When it comes to reading the scriptures and I'm not an advocate of, of speed racing through the scripture,

but at least if I won't ask you to do this because I won't embarrass anybody.

But if you've been a believer for a long period of time, you should have been through the scripture.

You should have read from cover to cover this book, this divine word of God that God has given to you.

And you have the opportunity to do so.

Somebody once told me that if you just stood, if you had a group of people that just started reading the Bible, you can

get through it in about 80 hours.

I don't know how true that is, even if it's a hundred hours.

I mean, how many hours are there in a week?

Does anybody know?

Is there about 168?

Is that right?

Something like that.

I mean, I know we can't read the scripture through, but over the course of a year, you could do that.

And I, and I don't like the idea of, you know, I'm going to do these eight,

six, seven, eight, and you didn't get anything out of it.

When you read through the scripture, it's so important to meditate.

It's so important to have that time that the Lord's teaching you as you're going through.

You know, and I, I like the reading plan where you can read through and, and

if you stop and the Lord blesses you, it's okay to stop and not continue.

That's the type of reading plan that I like.

And let me give you a couple of tips when it comes to reading plans.

If you don't, if you don't have one, one that is good is it goes with the calendars, uh, the

calendar days of the month.

Uh, there are 31 Proverbs.

Read the proverb of the day, at least there, especially for young people.

That's, that's super.

But, um, but it's great for all of us.

Read, read the proverb that associates with the calendar day of the month.

When it comes to the Psalms, you can do the same thing.

Today is February 1st.

Is that correct?

Is today the first?

Today's February 1st.

So you, with the Psalms, you, you go to the Psalm of the day and you add 30 and read right through the

Psalms.

So for today, you'd read Psalm 1, then add 30, 31

for today, add 1, 31, 61, 91, 121.

You read those Psalms today.

Then tomorrow you read 2, 32, 62, 92, 122.

Um, it's kind of neat because sometimes when you see, when you read those Psalms, many times the themes of them are

very similar.

It's just neat how the, how the Lord does that.

But that's an easy way.

You think, how, how can I do this?

I, where did I put my piece of paper?

I don't have it.

Um, of course that's for planning too.

It ought to be someplace where you can find it.

Um, but, but if you don't, if you can't remember it, you can, you can do things like that.

And then you could take, uh, if you read the Proverbs and Psalms, maybe that's all you want to do.

Maybe all you're going to do is Proverbs because you've not, at least are not consistently reading.

But, um, but then you could add to that.

Maybe a book in the New Testament, the, one of the gospels, or just start at Matthew and start reading through and do it

morning and night or whenever.

But you have to plan the time and what you're going to read through to get through the scriptures.

And I encourage you, maybe that's the goal intention that you as a believer will have this year

is that I am going to read through the scriptures this year, Lord willing.

After we looked at the apostle Paul, we started getting into the planning of God.

And when we got there, I said, Oh, the ultimate reason, reason for planning

is that God is a God who plans and we are created in his image to

exercise dominion in the earth under his Lordship.

And I think it's, um, I just don't think, as I said last week, that it's possible to even

conceive of a God who does not act according to his own eternal

planning.

I mean, if it's, if it's knee jerk reaction like us, if it's, Oh,

whoops, I didn't think that one was going to happen.

Now I have to have this other plan and I got to go in a different direction.

Now, God, as I said last week, God is a God of order.

God is a God who plans and our God is a God who, who does things on

purpose and for a purpose.

And there is nothing outside of the intent, the purpose, the

counsel, the determination of God, and it's eternal.

And it was in eternity passing.

We're going to see that in a moment.

But please turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 46.

Isaiah is in the Old Testament after the book of Psalms, Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes, and then you'll see the book of Isaiah.

Chapter 46,

Isaiah

46.

Look with me, please.

In verse nine, Isaiah 46, nine.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else.

I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel

shall stand or my counsel shall be established.

And I will do all my pleasure or I will accomplish all

my purpose.

This is God declaring who he is and what he's going to do.

His counsel shall stand, it will be established, and he will do all his

pleasure.

In the 1689 confession, which our church holds to, the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689, there

is a section in here on the decree of God.

God has decreed in himself from all eternity by the

most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably,

all things whatsoever comes to pass.

And if you think about that, I mean, think about a time when you had an event, something that you

had to plan.

You had maybe people coming over to the house, details, things that needed to be purchased, things that needed to be done in

time.

Maybe you ordered things and they had to arrive on time.

Every single time, does it go absolutely perfect, exactly the way that you want it to?

No, because we have intentions, we have plans, but many times there are things that are just, what, they're out of

our control.

We are unable to do that.

We are not all wise and all -knowing to be able to carry that out perfectly, 100 % complete.

But God, before the world ever was, in his magnificent wisdom, and

according to his great omniscience, knowing all things,

decreed, one decree, for time and for eternity,

fully, comprehensively, completely, everything that

is going to come to pass.

Now, we can't get our minds around that.

That's why he's God and we are not, and we worship him, we bow before him, because, I

mean, when it comes to every single thing, and we're going to see this when we look at the life and the ministry of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament,

but every aspect of every single person's, every single nation's,

every single experience of everybody upon the face of the earth,

everything, every person who would be his very own, every person that he will,

that are called as elect, that will come to glory, he knows every single thing and every single

event of every single person inside of Christ and outside of Christ, decreed, once,

done.

God knows it.

I mean, more than anything, I mean, that just kind of boggles our mind, but doesn't it just cause us to

fall prostrate before the Lord and just to worship him, because he is just so great.

So that means that every single aspect of your life and my life, there will never be a mistake.

There will never be an oops when it comes to God.

He will carry out, what does it say here?

He will do all his pleasure.

He will accomplish all his purposes.

Look with me again in the New Testament now, in Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians

chapter 1, and notice what it says in

verses 9 through 11.

Ephesians 1, well, I'll start up in verse 7.

Ephesians 1, verse 7, I'm reading from the King James, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of

sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

Verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, or

according to his kind intention.

I want you to see here, does the scripture say that a God intends to do things?

Does God purpose to do things?

Does God have a plan?

Notice as we read these verses, according to his good pleasure or good intention, which he hath purposed in

himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, in some translations

that word dispensation is plan, that in the plan of the fullness of times, he might gather together in

one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, and

notice verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being

predestinated.

Now is there any planning behind that?

Certainly, I just talked about that.

Being predestinated, predetermined by God, according to what?

According to the purpose of him, or according to this divine determination.

The purpose of him who works all things after the counsel or the divine

deliberation.

The deliberation of the triune God to decree at one point in eternity past, everything that was

going to come to pass according to God's counsel, or his divine deliberation of his will,

and that's his divine decision.

So we have here divine determination, divine deliberation, and we have

God's divine decision.

This decree of God, and of course we see it carried out in history.

We see it fulfilled in history.

We see it in our own lives, everything that God had determined that would come to pass in

our lives, and that is humbling, and yet that also gives us great assurance and great

security that the Lord will accomplish everything that he said that he would accomplish when it comes

to us and in our lives.

So when you are going through a difficult time, when you are going through situations where

things just don't make sense, just look at the faithfulness of the Lord and what he's doing, and he's carrying out his

divine will for you and for those of you that are close by you

and in the church.

If God plans, and if God has an intent, and if God has a purpose, and we are created in God's image,

then doesn't it make sense for us to, in the worlds in which we live, in the lives that we have, in

the days and years that the Lord has given to us, for us to plan?

And I believe that the answer is yes.

Well, I asked you last week what other things that the Lord had planned, and we listed some

things off like the complete history of his people.

Who would be his very own?

The children of Israel.

God planned when it came to giving us the scriptures.

It's not just, you know, some folks got together and thought, well, let's just kind of write up some

good stuff for people to hear in the future, but no, all scripture is given by

inspiration of God.

And those men were moved upon by the Holy Spirit to record the things, the exact things

that God would have us to have, and those are contained in the scriptures that we have.

We even thought of last week, have you ever read in the Old Testament account

when Moses went up on Sinai and he was given the law, he was also given the blueprint or the outline, the

description, the instructions for the Old Testament tabernacle, the tent in the wilderness.

And if you ever read that, I remember the first time I read it, what is with all this silver and gold and boards laid

over and sockets and veils and descriptions of how many cubits it is

from this to this, and it's so precise.

God had an intention behind all that.

Of course, we know that as we look at that, we see that the whole purpose of that was to

demonstrate God's presence with them.

When they saw this tabernacle and the cloud over it by day and the fire by night, they

knew that the Lord was present with them, but there was order there, there was detail

there, and God plans even to those minute details of items,

even like the tabernacle.

And certainly when it comes to God's desire and intent to have a people for himself,

we see in the Old Testament that God brought his people up out of Egypt, and that is just a picture of

being in slavery to sin.

In the New Testament, we see that it is Jesus Christ that delivers us.

And who does he deliver?

Those whom the Father had given to him.

In order for that to have taken place, it was according to God's purpose, God's counsel, and

in his wisdom, he did it all right and proper, and

there are no mistakes.

And it's like God knows who his elect are, the exact number, who his sheep will be,

and to the praise of the glory of his grace, he will carry that out in time.

And then this week what I'd like to do is, and I only touched on it last week, but I would like to go to now

into the New Testament, and we're going to look at some examples of the life of our Lord Jesus, the

planning of Jesus Christ our Lord.

He had a mission to accomplish.

And if you remember, I need to give the credit again, when I had got this base core study,

it was one of John Piper's from many, many years ago, and I've taken and I've added to that, but I wanted to give the

credit again for the tape, the recording.

Jesus had a mission to accomplish, and he finished it with forethought and planning.

And ultimately, when it comes right down to it, who can tell me, by what

plan did Jesus operate by?

Bruce?

His Father's plan.

How do we know that?

Because Jesus what?

He said so.

He would say, I didn't have a,

what do you call it when you have a conference and you have a group of people get in a circle, what do they call that?

Round table.

I had a round table with the disciples, and we came up with this idea, and that's what I'm carrying through.

Jesus didn't say that.

He didn't even say that he had his own determined plan that he would carry out.

But you'll see over and over and over again, he said that I came not to do my will, but the will of my Father.

That was all to him.

He knew exactly what it was that he was going to accomplish, and it was God's plan that

Jesus would come to seek and to save that which was lost.

And we just see this fulfilled and carried out in the New Testament.

We see over and over again.

There's this plan as you see the Lord going through from place to place, and

we're going to look at some examples.

It's not haphazard.

It's not, well, I just think this might be a great idea.

There's an intent to go certain places and to do certain things and to say certain things and to deal

with certain people.

There's a man beside the pool of Bethesda when it stirs, and

he's been there for 38 years, and he can't get down there.

Every time it stirs, he can't get down there.

There's nobody to take him down there.

And it just accidentally happened that Jesus came by one day, right?

No, that was the purpose.

That was the intent.

That was the plan, the Father's will that that lost one would be healed and saved.

And we see that as we consider his life.

When it comes to any, even when it came to the miracle, the first miracle of the Lord Jesus

in John chapter 2, at this wedding

feast, they've run out of wine.

And in seminary class, we were studying, considering that this weekend, and one of the things that

that would denote for that family was is that it could be a blotch upon, I mean, it would be a bad wedding, and it would be a

blotch upon that family just for their reputation to run out of food or wine.

And Mary, in some case, she might have been, it's thought that she might have had something to do

with the planning or the hosting or overseeing and helping out with that.

And she goes to Jesus to see if there's anything, knowing him and knowing,

raising him from a young child, growing in wisdom and stature with men and God, that there's something, maybe he could do

something, not necessarily that he would do a miracle, but maybe there's something that he could do.

And you remember Jesus' answer to his mother.

He said, my hour is not yet come.

And if you step back and you think about that, it is, there is an intent.

There is a plan of God.

There is a right time for Jesus to be revealed.

There are certain things that the Father would have him do.

And at that point in time, it wasn't for her to tell him what to do.

So she just kind of backs off and she just says to the men, do whatever he tells you to do.

And of course, ultimately, we know and we see that he does turn the water into wine

and saves face there for that family.

And it is to the glory of God.

We see that there.

But in a different instance, it tells us in Luke chapter 9 in

verse 51, when the days grew near for Jesus to be received up, he set his face to

go to Jerusalem.

He knew what that plan meant to go to Jerusalem, the death that he would face.

And he didn't shrink back from that plan.

But before we get there, what I'd like to do is to just

consider in the life of the Lord Jesus some examples of planning, just so that we can

see it.

I don't want you to miss this.

I want you to read with me first in Luke chapter 9.

Because some people, I know some people can do it very well and they can just kind of handle things as they go.

And sometimes we have to do that.

We have to be flexible because things do change.

But I think it's important for us to understand that for us to accomplish something

in our lives spiritually and ministry wise, I mean, personally, when it comes to our walk with the Lord

and maintaining disciplines and then also spiritual disciplines and also when it comes to ministry,

we need to be deliberate about what we're going to do or we're not going to accomplish much.

In Luke chapter 9, look at this example.

Let me get the right chapter here.

I knew that didn't look right.

Okay, Luke 9 verse 1.

Then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.

And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

And he said unto them, take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor script, neither bread, nor money,

neither have two coats apiece.

And whatsoever house you enter into, there abide and thence depart.

And whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off their dust from the feet for a

testimony against them.

So to begin with, the plan of the Lord was to send the disciples out.

But in sending them also, there is a plan for them to accomplish as they go to preach the gospel,

as they go to testify of the kingdom of God.

When they're going, he tells them exactly what to bring and what not to bring.

And we could just brush over the verses and say, you know, no big deal.

But there is instructions that go to them and much of

it has to do to be their testimony so that they go and they're dependent upon God.

They're not bringing things, so they depend upon themselves and think that as they're going, they're going to bring enough supplies or

whatever to either provide for their food or to protect themselves.

They're going to depend upon God.

And then when they go, they're given instructions of when they preach the message, when they're received and when they're not received.

So that there is an understanding in these places that they go to.

That the message from God has come and the plan is if they're received and well,

fine for the glory of God and praise God for that area of the country.

But if not, then they're to shake the dust off their feet and to go on and may the judgment of

God fall upon that area.

There's a plan, there's an intent.

And if you turn over to chapter 10, you'll also see the same kind of wording.

We don't have to look at all of it.

But in 10, this is where the 70 go out and it even gets even more

particular.

It says, after these things in chapter 10, 1, the Lord appointed another 70 also and

sent them out.

What?

Two by two.

I mean, that's a purpose, an intention, a plan for and sent them out two by two before his

face into every city and place where he himself would come.

And we see there that there's the same thing.

They're going to be told what to do and what to bring or not bring.

But at the beginning there, there is this planning.

There is this deliberation to go two by two.

I have been in ministries, a part of ministries and known of ministries

where when it comes to evangelism, I know sometimes where people will go out on

their own and I know sometimes or most of the time where people will go out two by two.

Tell me which one's better.

Certainly it's better two by two because as one speaks, one can pray for the other.

And you can encourage each other as you're going on in the way and there's just that fellowship and that strength and that protection

as you go together.

And the Lord's doing this on purpose and for purposes, not just anything that is in the scriptures, just to be

there, just to fill the pages, just to put words on the print on the page.

Let me show you another one.

We're in the book of Luke, Luke 22.

In Luke 22,

just at the beginning when you start reading this verse, you're going to see the plan, the intention

behind it.

Luke 22, verse 8.

Jesus is here sending, he sent Peter and John saying, go

and prepare us the Passover that we may eat.

I mean, right in the very verse, he's talking about preparation.

He's talking about planning.

And he says, and they said unto him, where wilt thou go that we prepare?

Verse 10, and he said unto them, behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you,

bearing a pitcher of water.

Follow him into the house where he enters in, and you shall say unto the good men of the house, the master says unto thee, where is the

guest chamber where I may eat the Passover with my disciples, and he will show you a large

upper room furnished there, make ready.

I mean, certainly the Lord, even when it comes to the last supper, making ready.

I've got so many other examples.

Let's look to John chapter 4.

I love this verse.

I love this portion of scripture dealing with the Samaritan woman.

And I want you just to see about the eternal plan of God here when it comes to this woman.

In John chapter 4.

In John chapter 4, the very next book, beginning of the book, it says that Jesus, in verse 3, left

Judea and departed again into Galilee.

So here is Jesus in the south.

Judea is in the south, and Galilee is in the north.

Samaria is in the middle.

Now, do the Jews like the Samaritans?

No.

They're the dogs, right?

They're the half -breeds.

They're the ones that they despise.

Typically, when the Jews would go from Judea to Galilee, many times they would just,

they would not want to go through Samaria.

They would go out more to the east, and they'd actually go into Gentile territory.

They'd rather go into Gentile territory rather than go through Samaria to get to Galilee, and

they'd circumvent or go around Samaria.

Look at verse 4.

It says, And he, Jesus, had to go through Samaria.

He had to go.

In the King James, it says, He must needs go.

There was a purpose here.

There is an intent here.

There is a plan here.

There is one lost sheep that the Lord Jesus is going to reach, this

Samaritan woman, this woman who is the outcast.

Anybody else would go a different route.

Anybody else would stay away from that well.

That woman is there, this outcast that no one else wants to be around, and

she's alone there at the well.

But he must needs go through Samaria.

It was purposed, and it was intentional for Jesus had come to seek and to save that which was lost.

And I just want you to kind of reflect upon that.

The reason why I said this so blesses me is because when you think of your own life, of all

the billions and billions of people that live on the face of the earth, like

the Lord did with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, he had their paths crossed at a particular time

on purpose so that Philip could explain the scriptures to him and he could be saved and be baptized

and to become a follower and a disciple of Christ.

Somehow, in some way, in some form, from eternity past, God had intended for the

gospel to come to you in some shape or form, somebody, some voice, some message,

some book.

The gospel came to you and God revealed his son Jesus Christ to you and it was on purpose.

It was according to a plan.

And if he does things on purpose, I believe that we ought to too when it comes to our

lives physically and when it comes to our lives spiritually, do things on purpose for the glory of God.

We won't turn there, but you can look in John 14, John chapter 14.

Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am there

you may be also.

And heaven is a part of God's plan for you and for me.

The wonder of it all, the splendor of it all, of just physically what we'll behold and then the idea of

being face to face with our Lord Jesus, that is God's intent.

That is God's plan for us.

It fits into all the plan of redemption that we will be not only saved from the

power and the pleasure and the penalty of our sin, but one day from the presence of our sin and be with Christ

forever in heaven.

So when it comes to Jesus' life in ministry, everything is planned out,

every detail, every trip, every experience, every miracle, whether

it's the issue of blood being healed in the woman, the giving sight to the blind, the

raising the dead, every encounter, every lesson, every message, every word spoken, every look,

every engagement,

every lesson, we can act accordingly.

And if God acts this way and the Lord Jesus is this way, I believe that we ought to also.

Let me see.

All right.

My plea to you for this year is that you take time

to plan the most important things in your life.

And I know that you plan when it comes to food and clothing.

I know that you plan your children, your work.

But when it comes to the spiritual aspects of your life, those are important

too.

Let me touch on this first though.

The most important things, plan how you're going to spend time with your spouse to deepen and strengthen your

relationship.

Plan how you're going to spend time with your children, teaching them and playing with them and

spending time with them to develop a relationship.

Give the amount of exercise that you want to stay healthy.

Enough sleep.

Plan how you're going to eat so that you can have a good health.

Plan a vacation so that it will truly give you rest and spiritual renewal.

But most important, I want you to consider how you can plan when it comes spiritually to prayer,

meditation upon the word of God because these are so significant.

These portions of our life the most

important things will get pushed aside for other things that we call urgent

things.

And our priorities get all messed up.

And we don't focus where we ought to focus and we let those things that, I don't know

if you've ever read an article, the tyranny of the urgent.

Things that just come your way and they just kind of cloud your vision and cloud where it is

what ought to be a priority in life is an important slide by.

I'm going to have this handout for you afterwards that you can come and get.

Maybe I'll put it over on the table.

I got this off of Don Whitney's website and you may have seen this before.

It's 10 questions that you can ask yourself at the start of the new year or on your birthday.

And he begins by saying once when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with him,

the Lord rebuked them for

their ways.

Haggai 1 .5.

He declared that urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them and to evaluate their slipshot

spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even the most faithful of God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives.

It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder

and think up and get our bearings.

And to that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

And there's 10 questions here and then he adds about another 21 questions and it's a great little article

and I'll just give you a couple examples.

A question you can ask yourself.

What one thing could you do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

Here's another question.

What's the single most important thing you could do

in which spiritual discipline do you want to make progress this year and what are you going to do about it?

Related to prayer, Bible reading, evangelism, serving, stewardship, memorization, worship,

discipleship, etc.

Giving, maybe giving.

You think I've not done well giving.

I've not done well in my attendance at church services at BBC and that's going to be my focus.

But again, make it, make it if you do set a goal and purpose to do something

don't make it so unrealistic that you'll never do it and then you'll be just so discouraged again.

And maybe pick one thing that you'll focus on this year and the Lord and pray that the Lord would use it in

your life.

Let me close by saying this.

As I encourage you to plan each week an aspect of your life as I talked about the spiritual

areas, disciplines of your life.

Sunday's a good day to do that.

It's a little bit less of a busy day for most of the regular

schedule of the week.

And take 10 or 15 minutes every Sunday to think through prayerfully and deliberately what are you

going to do this week?

What are you going to study?

What are you going to need to accomplish ministry?

And give some thought how God might want to use you in a special way.

To write cards, to do phone calls, to send somebody emails, to get the Bible

verses ready

just to plan.

The greatest missionary who ever lived, the Apostle Paul was a planner.

We saw that.

God is a God who does all things according to plan.

And Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem because the most loving plan ever devised

to redeem us from the slave market of sin and call us into his very own.

And if he planned for our joy, we ought to plan for his glory.

Let me just open it up at the end here.

We've got a couple of minutes.

Any questions that anybody has?

And please remember to get one of these.

I'll put it over on the table.

But any questions that you might have?

I know it's just a real overview of planning, but it's so important.

If you weren't here last week, you can also look in James 4.

There was a group of guys in there that did not plan well.

They didn't plan in reference to God, James 4, like verses 16 through the end of that, 15 through the end of

that chapter.

They were boastful, prideful in what they thought that they could do.

We're going to go here.

We're going to go do this and that.

What did they forget to do?

God first, right?

They didn't do the Lord first in their plan and put it before the Lord.

And the Lord said to them, you don't even know if you have tomorrow.

Your life is like a vapor.

It's like a puff of mist.

And what it ought to be is the Lord will.

And that's why you will see and hear people around.

I hear it around BBC.

People say, I'll see you tomorrow, Lord willing.

And that is so true because we don't know.

And we just commit our plans into the Lord because our plans can be one thing as we learned last week.

And the Lord has a different intent and he will turn it all around like the apostle Paul wanted to go to Spain, never got

there, ended up in Rome.

To the glory of God, God's plans always come to pass and everything he purposes to do is done.

Any question?

Comment?

What a quiet group.

Everybody breathing.

Yeah, raise your hand if you're breathing.

All right.

Good.

Let's close in prayer.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you that we can look in it even this morning and we can see so clearly

that you are a God who is so great and you have purposed and intended to

do all that you have in your counsel and according to your predetermined plan to

do, you've done it and you are doing it and we are experiencing it in our very lives and we thank you for

your great hand, your providential dealings in our lives and for the glory of God,

we pray that we might learn to imitate, to walk

in the steps even of our Lord who deliberately planned in ministry.

Help us to set goals and help us to plan and to execute plans when it comes

to desiring to reach others for Christ and desiring to see the lost saved and those that are saved

to be grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and to be part of what you're doing and to submit and

be servants and be faithful and use this time that we've spent together to help us

to think about being more deliberate and more intentional in what we're doing when it comes

to serving the Lord Jesus Christ and we'll give you the glory and the praise in His precious name.

Amen.