Biblical Planning (part-1)

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Our Father in Heaven, how thankful we are that you are a God who cares for his people.
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We thank you for your great mercies which were renewed to us even today. We thank you that even so great might be our sin, and so it is.
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Greater is your grace. And we thank you for all that we have been blessed with in Jesus Christ, your
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Son. We're thankful that we are your children through faith in Christ, and that is a forever transaction, a forever position where we are seated in heavenly places in Christ.
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Lord, you favor us, you care about us, you think upon us, you establish our goings.
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Our steps are even ordered by you. Lord, every day is a gift from you, and even this day that begins this new week, we want to praise you.
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We want to lift up our hearts in grateful adoration and praise and thanksgiving. Lord, for every kindness that you showed to us this past week, for the way that you kept us in providing for us, in overseeing and protecting and watching every step.
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Lord, for just caring so much and thinking upon us as the scripture says. What a great
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God you are, what a great Savior we have in Christ, your Son. We thank you that the
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Spirit of God teaches us your word, and may it be so even though this morning that we are taught of our
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God from the Word of God, so that we may more, better glorify and honor and magnify
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Jesus Christ, your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Well, I've been looking forward to teaching this class for a couple of Sundays now, with the weather and with my schedule, or I can't remember how it is, but I was ready to teach this two
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Sundays ago, ready to teach it last Sunday, and here we go. So, I have some ground to cover, and first I want to start off by giving credit to the outline and the basic background and core of this material to John Piper, because as I was studying my lesson,
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I went online and saw something that he had out there 10 plus years ago, and I took that and I've reworked it and just kind of added the thoughts that I've had, what
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I wanted to bring across, because what I want to look at this morning is, it is the beginning of a new year, and I'm not talking about getting into New Year's resolutions and starting promising things that we're not going to do.
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You know, the health clubs really love the beginning of the year, you know that, because everybody signs up, and they say over 50 % of the people that sign up are gone within the first three or four months, so they like that.
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Pay the money but don't show up, that's fine. I'm not talking about resolutions, I'm talking about just being able to think and give some deliberation and basically plan, planning, and that's what
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I'm going to look at. I'm going to give you some biblical insights on is planning necessary, is planning something that we should do, and I think that we'll find out that it is.
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Just consider this, suppose that you had it in your mind that you wanted to either build a house or renovate or put an addition on to your current house, and so you sit down and you think of all that needs to get done, and you think of all the materials that you need to build or to add on to the house, and you order it, it's delivered to your property, it's sitting outside, it's right there waiting and ready to go, and on the day that the contractor comes to begin working, he finds that everything is in his way.
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I mean, you haven't thought about moving your cars off the property that aren't working or the boat or whatever might be there.
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You just have not given any foresight in what has happened here. Why is this issue?
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It's because there's been a failure to plan, and without rudimentary planning, basic planning,
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I mean, we would not have anything to eat when we woke up in the morning.
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Without planning, we wouldn't have enough money to pay the next bill if we don't plan our finances properly.
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We might not even be prepared to enjoy the next vacation because we haven't given some thought of what it is.
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So when it comes to basic things, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, finances, it requires planning.
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Planning is a valuable thing, and nothing but the simplest impulses in life get accomplished without some type of forethought that we call a plan.
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And if we need to plan in the physical realm, in our physical life, I believe it's even more important that we have a plan when it comes to our spiritual needs.
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And we'll touch on that, of course, as we go on with this study this morning. All of us know that this practice of planning in relation to the physical needs of life is important and we do it.
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I mean, you probably, I don't know if you're like me, my mom used to tell me that I was one of those unusual kids who used to like to go to school.
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Although I don't remember excelling really well in school. I used to struggle with spelling and I don't remember getting
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A's all the time. But she said I used to like to go to school. Maybe it was just the interaction. I don't know what it was.
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But she said that even from the youngest child, from the youngest ages, that I would know exactly what
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I was going to wear the next day. I would pick my clothes for the next day. I had it ready to go in my school books and everything was ready to go out the door.
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And, of course, as we go through life, I mean, a lot of us, we don't even think that way as we get older.
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And I run into many situations with people who are frustrated. And a lot of times it's because there isn't that deliberation.
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There isn't that thinking. There isn't that giving some thought of what is going to be my next step or what am
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I going to do this week or what is it that I'm planning to do this year. And I think that if we do it in the physical realm, as I said,
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I think we need to take our spiritual needs seriously. I think we need to really consider as we apply some principles that we're going to look at here so that we can maximize when it comes to our days so that we're not wasting our days, so that we can, as the apostle wrote, we can redeem the time.
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We can use it wisely. We can walk in wise ways, as the
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Proverbs are going to show us as we go there. Or maybe even when it comes to maintaining our spiritual walk with Christ or our ministry, planning will make a difference.
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It will help us. And sadly, some of us overplan when it comes to buying the simplest thing.
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I mean, it might be an electronic device that we're going to hold in our hand. And we scrutinize the manuals.
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We go online for hours just checking out all the specifications and the things this thing can do when it can't do.
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And yet, on the other hand, when it comes to our prayer life, when it comes to reading the scriptures, when it comes to intentionally sharing the gospel with other people, we don't give it a second thought.
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We don't plan. We don't think. We're not deliberate about those things and we're not intentional in those things.
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When it comes to a car, buying a car or a household appliance, or maybe even when we,
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I know some people who spend an exorbitant amount of time just planning their meals out for the week.
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I mean, and then writing up the list for every ingredient that they'll need so that they'll have it there. And that's a good thing.
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But then on the other hand, when it comes to the things that they need to maintain their walk with Christ, it's lacking.
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And I believe that we ought to have priorities and we ought to be thinking about what's really important and making sure that we balance in all these areas in our life.
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And that's what the study is about. What I'd like to do this morning is more than anything when we're done is just to persuade you to set aside some time every week to just think about what is going to be happening through that week, through the days of that week, and then maybe think about the year and consider what is it that I would love to be able to accomplish this year and what is it that I would like to add as maybe a spiritual discipline as our brother
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Don Whitney would recommend to us. What spiritual discipline might
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I want to focus upon this year? Because with poor planning, there are piles of disordered things in our lives that will get in the way of what we really want to accomplish.
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And with poor planning, we are not ready to face daily challenges or we're not going to accomplish the significant goals that we have upon our hearts before the
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Lord if we don't give it some thought. So first what I'd like to do, what I'd like to do this morning is
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I would like to motivate you, hopefully, by giving you, looking at four separate examples in the scriptures about where we find this principle of planning.
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And first we'll look in the Proverbs. So you can be turning there to the book of Proverbs. And then we'll be looking at the apostle
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Paul's life. And then we will look at the planning that God himself does. And then lastly, we'll look at the planning of Jesus.
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If you look first in Proverbs 6, familiar verses, and yet you probably may have not thought about this as far as relating it to your life and applying it in your life as far as relating this to planning.
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In Proverbs 6, notice verses 6 and 7. Go to the aunt, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provides her meat in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
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Now I'm not accusing anybody here of being a sluggard. I'm not looking at that part of it. You know whether or not your little folding of the hands, the little person as the door upon his hinge, and the person's, you know whether or not you're like that in your life and I trust that you'd pray and strive to be industrious in your life.
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But what I'd really like to look at here is the example. The aunt is an example not only because it works so hard, but because it plans ahead.
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It thinks about the seasons that are ahead. So it puts some effort forth to plan for those times.
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It takes thought in the summer that there will be need in the winter. And this forethought provides its needs in the winter.
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And I would say that if this lowly creature, the aunt, plans, then wouldn't it be a good idea for us to plan?
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It's a great example for us here just to kind of break the ice in Proverbs 6. Now how about Proverbs 14?
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If you turn forward. So really in Proverbs 6 we saw there that one of the key things is forethought, thinking ahead.
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Proverbs 14. Notice verse 15. The simple believe every word, but the prudent man looks well to his going.
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Maybe I have a different rendition here. The simple believes everything, but the prudent looks where he is going.
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The prudent looks where he is going. Remember how the aunt planned and he looked ahead?
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Well here in this verse we see the difference between planning and not planning is where you are looking.
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Are you looking towards the future? Are you looking where you are going in the future?
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Do you think like that? Or are you just kind of every day kind of wham, just takes you? And you're just reacting to what's going on in the day.
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Or do you actually sit down sometimes and think, well this week I have some things that I need to accomplish.
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And by the Lord's strength, God please help me. I need to meet with this person. I need to go to work. I need to take care of this appointment.
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And when I'm doing that I'm going to think about all the different implications of where I am.
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And even in today, I mean just at a very minimal level, one of the primary things is with the price of that stuff, that liquid that you have to stick in that thing that has four wheels out in the parking lot, it's high.
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And if you're thinking about going to the town, so to speak, that's what they used to say in Texas, you're going to go to town, you plan everything.
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Because it might be, you know, it could be a 25, 35 mile trip to town.
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Well plan ahead. Think about the future. And as I was saying, the difference between planning and not planning is whether you look where you're going in the future or whether you only focus your attention on what's right in front of you.
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And if you're not a planner, then you will be at the mercy of others who will try to give you counsel about how to act for the here and now and not consider and be considerate of the future, your needs in the future when it comes to finances or your retirement or when it comes to vacations this summer or car repairs that might be needed or that thing that sneaks up on you and that bill comes in, that excise tax for the car.
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You know, you haven't planned for those types of things, those little surprises. And though they're not surprises, because if you look last year and the year before and the year before and the year before, you paid those things.
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But it's a good idea just to plan ahead. And not only just for those things, but when it comes in our spiritual life, are we planning, are we giving some forethought of where we desire to be?
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Do we want to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and do we desire to be stronger in the Lord and in the power of his might?
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And to do that, we need to give some forethought of what we would need to do now and next week and next month as far as Scripture memorization or meditation.
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You're going to teach a Sunday school class or something or you're going to have some people over in a week or two.
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What am I going to do now to plan and be thinking about so that I can be a blessing to those people as I teach or I can be a blessing to those folks who are going to come into my home?
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Have you ever gone over someone's house, they invite you over, and you think that there is a plan behind everything and there isn't?
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You know, I hope we don't. I mean, it's one thing if it's kind of like an impromptu, just, you know, after a church service, would you come over?
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We don't have anything but peanut butter and jelly. That's one thing. But when you've asked somebody to come, and I'm not saying be exorbitant and go over and above, but one of the things that you could strive to do in planning when it comes to inviting people over, this hospitality that you show, is just to really make it a blessing for those folks when they come.
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Your home would be an oasis. And when they leave, they don't want to leave, or they want to be able to come back.
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It takes planning to do things like that. Well, I'm lingering at each one. I'll never get through all this.
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I'll have to pull a Pastor Mike and Steve and do a two -weeker here. So the simple believes everything here in this verse, but the prudent looks where he's going.
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He considers the days to come and what those days will be bringing, and thinks about how best to prepare for them and use them to accomplish his purposes.
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Because without a plan, we ultimately waste time, and we end up one year older with nothing to show for ourselves.
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Or we're in a pickle, as I was saying earlier, because with no plan in place, we don't have the resources to meet our future obligations.
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So here is just some forethought, thinking where you are going when it comes to planning. How about Proverbs 15?
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Turn with me to Proverbs 15. And look in verse 22.
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Proverbs 15 .22. Without counsel, purposes or plans are disappointed.
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Or without counsel, plans go wrong. But in the multitude of counselors, they are established.
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Your plans are established in a multitude of counselors. So here the point is, there is wisdom.
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Here the wisdom of planning is taken for granted, and the writer simply gives us advice for how to make those plans succeed.
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The writer of Proverbs says, if you want your plans to succeed, there is one thing that you can surely do.
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And what he says is, don't be independent. Don't think, don't be so proud, don't think that you can do it all by yourself, but seek good counsel when it comes to your planning.
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Seek counsel. Read the wisdom of others who have gone before you. Talk to experienced and wise people.
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I'm sure that if you go to somebody and ask them, hey, I know that you had to sell your house or something in this certain situation, or you went and you traveled someplace and you've been there before, you've blazed the trail.
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I'm sure they'd be glad to help you. And you can learn in 10 minutes maybe what it took them 10 hours, 10 months, 10 years to learn.
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That's part of discipleship, is it not? I mean, when you come under or being mentored by somebody. But when it comes to our planning,
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I believe what the writer here is saying says, without counsel, then your plans go wrong, or they are disappointed or dashed to pieces.
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You do not succeed. So it's good to talk to people. Watch the way others do things and learn from their mistakes and their successes.
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And I was thinking of this. It's better to seek advice while you're planning, before you do anything, rather than seek no counsel at all, do what you thought you were going to do, and then you need counsel to get yourself out of the mess and to help you when things have gone awry on you.
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So it's good to seek counsel. And the reason why, what do you think one of the reasons why we won't seek counsel?
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Pride, isn't it? We can do it ourselves. I mean, one way that you can seek counsel, and I don't do this very well myself, you go into the retail store and you buy a box, something that must be assembled.
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And some of you have heard this story before. And you come home and you open that box and you look at the picture on the outside, piece of cake.
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You open the box, you put all the parts in front of you, you just make sure that they're all there, and you just start putting it together, right?
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And then come to find out at the end, that shelf that you had to put in six steps ago had a surface on it that was finished and one that was not, and you got it backwards.
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And it's all because we thought we could do it ourselves, right? And the counsel that's there is the instruction.
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And that's kind of a primitive explanation, but where would we, as believers, find the instruction that we need in order to be able to plan, to think ahead, and to be deliberate about what we're doing?
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The scriptures first, right? We go there. We are not to trust in our own understanding.
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The Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6 says, Trust in the
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Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.
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Looking there, where else can we find good counsel? I've kind of mentioned it already.
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Tip the hat. From? Other people. Right. Other people who have wisdom.
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You can get good counsel there. You can get good counsel out of books that you can pick up and read and you can glean from.
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It's just so important. Okay, let's move on. Proverbs 16. We have a bunch of Proverbs to get through, and hopefully
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I want to do as much of this lesson as possible this morning. But there we saw that when you're planning, get some good counsel.
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Proverbs 16, and in verse 3, Commit your works unto the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established.
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Or commit your work to the Lord and your plans. That's the same word in there.
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Your plans will be established, or they will be a sure thing. And here, it's not that we're not.
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I mean, the writer, again, takes for granted. He understands that we ought to plan. But the issue is here, how can you plan in such a way that what you produce will have an abiding value and not just pass away overnight?
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The answer to that question is we commit it to the Lord. In all of our ways, we commit.
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That is always what we ought to do always is as we're planning and as we're carrying it out, we ought to seek the
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Lord's guidance. We ought to seek the Lord's strength when we plan. And this is so important.
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The Lord is to be involved in our planning. Remember how I talked about earlier how it's better to get counsel first while you're planning, before you do anything, so you don't have to get the counsel to get yourself out of the hole that you dug yourself into.
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When it comes to planning in life, many times I've had to counsel folks who will come and they will say,
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Dave, things are all messed up. And I will say, okay, what's up? And they tell me.
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And I say, well, how did you get here? What was your thought? And they say, well, I had this idea that I should do such and such.
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Okay, did you pray about it? No. The first alarm that goes off.
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They didn't pray about it. They didn't take it to the Lord. And that's what the writer here, I believe, it's
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Matthew 6 .33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
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Seeking God first, putting God first, having God first and your plans second.
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Bringing your plans to the Lord and asking God's blessing, asking God's direction, seeking the word of God and praying and committing that to the
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Lord. And then when you're at the place where you believe that you're able to walk in wisdom, you're able to walk in what you believe that God has directed you to do as you're guided by the word, as you're guided by counsel like we talked about earlier, then you just ask the
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Lord to undertake for you as you take your steps forward. Now, even though you do that, does that mean that even though you have that plan and that you are going to execute that plan, you begin to walk in that, does it mean that it is exactly going to come to pass exactly as you and I thought it would?
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Of course not. Because even though we can have plans and we desire to do things as we're going to see,
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I think there might even be a verse in this chapter, verse 9. A man's heart devises his ways, or a man's mind plans his ways, but the
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Lord directs his steps. Ultimately, it's according to the Lord's will and it's the Lord's plans.
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We're going to touch in purposes and we'll touch on that in a little while. But here, what I'm trying to bring out here is that commit your plan to the
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Lord first. When we put God first, committing our ways to him, our plans, our desires, our thoughts, our intentions, our dreams can be blessed of him.
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How about, yes, Charlie. Yes, Charlie says the plans can fall by the wayside and it has a pruning effect on us.
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I can remember, and that's absolutely right, you know how you begin to think about things. I remember one time we were living in Texas and we were looking for a house.
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And we had just exhausted, Deb and I exhausted, every place that we thought we could find a house to purchase and where we were going to live that was in proximity to the church and work on all that.
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And we were shown this one house and you know how sometimes you just say, this is it.
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And for the most part, many times it is. But after about three weeks, this wasn't it.
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And I can remember even writing down on a piece of paper the date and the address because afterwards when we closed this house,
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I want to go back to this piece of paper. But little did I know that the Lord had different plans.
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And it's a whole other session in Sunday school class. I could tell you all that the
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Lord did to bless us with a home that we would never, and I had seen this other one in the paper a couple three weeks previous, but the price was way high.
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And just a real snippet, it ended up being owned by some believers who were looking to move out of state quite quickly for a ministry.
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And they dropped the house over like back then. This was 1992, yeah, about 1991 or 2, over $20 ,000 so that it would fit into our budget.
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And it was the Lord's doing. And, of course, at that point when I looked at that other house, if I save that piece of paper and look back on it, that was a humbling thing for me because it wasn't me.
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It was, of course, the Lord's doing, and we trust and commit things to him. How about Proverbs 21?
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Proverbs 21 and in verse 5, The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to want.
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Or your rendition might be the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes to poverty.
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And the point that I want to make here when it comes to planning and executing the plan is don't be hasty.
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Don't be rash. Because what it says here, there's a danger if you rush into things without planning.
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It can leave you financially in a hole. You can sign a contract that you ought not to sign.
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You can enter a relationship that you ought not to, personal or business. It would not be wise to do.
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Deliberation is key. Thoughtful consideration. I think that's what he's speaking about here as far as the opposite of hasty or rash.
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That means that word at the end of the verse here, the person that is hasty or the person that is rash, that leads to want or poverty.
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And that rashness means there's no planning. There's no thinking. There's no deliberation. There is no prayerful consideration.
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It just surprises me, as I said earlier, how many times people will come and say, everything is upside down, and I ask, did you pray?
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No. What scripture did the Lord use to kind of just give you a settledness as you were considering this?
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Or what was it that the thought and the word of God? There was none. It was just I wanted to do it.
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I just thought it was the best thing to do. To me, it just made sense.
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But as we've learned earlier, commit it to the Lord. Seek the Lord's face in prayer and give it some deliberation before going on.
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Okay, Proverbs 24. Proverbs chapter 24.
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This is kind of just we'll give a practical example of what I've been speaking of in a couple of points here.
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Proverbs 24, 27, prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build your house.
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Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for you in the field, and after that build your house.
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And this could mean that it's important to be able to support yourself by the productivity of the field before you establish your own household.
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Or perhaps you would say to a young person, get a job, or to a young man you might say, get a job and be able to support a family before you get married.
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Or a young couple, rent before you purchase. It's just the idea of, and I put a title on this, plan things in the appropriate order and with the right priorities in mind.
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The right order and the right priorities. And then lastly, let's look at the Proverbs 31 woman.
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Proverbs 31, just for me to give one final example out of the
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Proverbs about planning. It says in Proverbs 31, the last chapter of Proverbs, verses 15 and 16, considering this woman, she rises also while it is yet night and gives food to her household and a portion or she gives tasks to her maidens.
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She considers a field and buys it. With the fruit of her hand she plants a vineyard.
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And just to think about these things, of course it takes planning. So that's there, but what about her?
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I mean, she is a model homemaker and she's a model planner in two ways. The first one is she gets up early in verse 15 and assigns tasks to her maidens.
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You can't assign tasks to anyone if you have no plan of what you would like them to accomplish in that day.
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And here's just an aside. My wife, Deb, she's been getting up in the morning for decades and feeding the family.
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And every once in a while when she's laying in bed, and she doesn't do this often because she's a morning person, she's up and going.
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I'm the one that's second right behind her. I'll nudge her and I'll say, hey, aren't you going to get up in the night here and provide food for your household?
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And she comes back and she says, I will as soon as I find out where the maidens are.
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She says, I've been waiting for them for years and for years. She considers a field and buys it, it says here.
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What does she consider? Well, she considers how it will fit into the plan of the household.
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So she plans and she is industrious and she carries out those plans.
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I had another note here. The idea here is that the diligent Proverbs 31 woman has a plan, and I suggest as an example for anyone at least and everyone at least to keep some type of a to -do list.
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I remember once I was working at a company in Boston, and they were having productivity issues.
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And so they hired a consultant to come in. And this was in the mid -1980s.
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And I remember when we found out after the fact what it cost for this consultant.
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It was just a very short study. It was over $10 ,000, and they came up with a plan for our company so that we can be more productive.
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And guess what it was? It was for everybody in the company to have a to -do list.
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Write down the 10 top things that you think you should get done and prioritize them. The A's, put an
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A beside them if they're the first thing that you need to get done that day, then a B, and then a C. And we actually had like, from what
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I remember, templates that we could fill out. It wasn't electronic back then to do this. But, you know, really when you think about it, if we don't plan for anything, of course, if we don't plan and we plan for nothing, it's probably what might get accomplished.
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So it is a good thing to keep a to -do list. Around the house I call it, and it's known as the honey -do list.
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That's my list, the honey -do list. And you know what? I'll give you another aside here.
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There are times when I have this whole list, and I'm working on it. And I get tied up, and something else happens.
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And it's not on the list. But I go get it done. And guess what I do? I go back to the list, and I write it on, and I put a line right there and cross it out.
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Boy, do I feel good. Anybody done that? Yeah? Yeah, you have, right? But that's a good thing because we can see what the
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Lord is allowing us to accomplish with our hands. And there is, as Ecclesiastes says, with the labor of our hands, there is a satisfaction when it comes to getting things done.
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But if we don't know what it is that we want to accomplish, if we don't have a plan in mind, it's most likely that we're going to be frustrated.
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We're going to be going here, and we're going to be going here, and things are going to be falling apart if we don't have this plan in mind.
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And I think we see a good example here, if you were to go back and read this, that the Proverbs 31 woman definitely has a plan.
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So to conclude from Proverbs, careful planning is part of what makes a person wise and productive and to be able to have abundance and to be cared for and to be satisfied.
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And not to plan is considered foolish and dangerous. This is true even when, as we talked about earlier, even when we plan, and the future doesn't, you know, the
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Lord doesn't allow those plans to come to pass. In our minds, we plan one way, but the
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Lord is the one who directs our steps, as we saw in 16 .9. And the fact that the
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Lord is ultimately in control of the future does not mean that we shouldn't plan. It's still a good principle and good thing for us to do.
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It means that we should commit our work to the Lord and trust Him to establish our plans according to His loving purposes.
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Again, the wrong way to plan, I plan and I hope God will agree with me.
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And that's not the way to do it, dependence upon God. If you want another study in that, you can look in James 4.
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Near the end of that chapter, you have some men that are boasting about what they're going to do. We're going to go into such and such a city.
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And we're going to buy and we're going to sell and we're going to get profit. We're going to have gain. And the Lord comes back and says, you don't even know it.
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Your life is like a puff of mist of smoke or vapor.
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You're not even promised tomorrow. And what you should do, and the way that we should think about our lives, and the way that we should plan is if the
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Lord will, if it is God's desire, if it's what God would have us to do.
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A man named Dirksen wrote, to plan ahead is biblical. Not to plan is foolish.
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But planning must be approached from the standpoint of God's will. We need to seek
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God's direction and approval of our plans before we execute them.
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And if you're taking notes and you want to write these down as far as if the Lord will, in Acts 18, verse 21, the
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Apostle Paul, I think he was in Corinth, and he's looking to go someplace else. And if he was going to go there, and he says, if the
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Lord will. If you look in Hebrews chapter 6, in verse 3, the writer there was going to, he wanted to teach some things and he wanted to get some things.
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But he says, if the Lord permits it, if the Lord will allow it, we'll do it.
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So plan, but if the Lord wills, then it will be executed. But commit that plan to the Lord, to the glory of God.
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Okay, we must move on. Dave, you are really slow today. Proverbs, I mean,
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New Testament now. We looked at Proverbs. Let's look at the Apostle Paul. Romans chapter 15.
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I think I can do this one relatively quickly. Romans 15. We're going to look at this example of Paul planning in his steps what he's going to do.
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And in Romans 15, verse 20, notice what he says. Yea, so have
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I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation.
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But as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see and they that have not heard shall understand.
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Verse 22. For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. He's speaking to the
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Romans. He's writing to these Roman believers. But now having no more place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you.
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Verse 24. Whensoever I take my journey into Spain. So he's got this idea. He's got a plan. He's going to Spain.
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I will come to you in Rome. So he's going to go from where he is through Rome to go to Spain. For I trust to see you on my journey and to bring you on my way thitherward by you if first I be somewhat filled with your company.
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But now I go to Jerusalem. Well, he's got to go there first to minister unto the saints. For it has pleased them of Macedonia and Chi to make a certain contribution to the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
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It has pleased them verily that in their debtors they are. For the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things.
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Their duty is also to minister unto them carnal things. And then lastly, verse 28. When therefore
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I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
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So what Paul wanted to do is this was a typical example because if you look at Acts, you see when he's on his first, second missionary journeys, that's planned out.
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There's a deliberate plan of where he's going to go, what he's going to do, confirming the saints, ordaining elders in the churches, teaching the
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Word of God, spending 18 months in Corinth, you know, the different places he went. There was a plan there.
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In this case here, in this example, we can learn from Paul that planning is essential when it comes to productive ministry.
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This is what this is all about. So when it comes to your Sunday school classes, when it comes to evangelism, when it comes,
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I mean, think about even just evangelism. Don't you have to plan who you're going to talk to and when and where you're going to go do that?
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Are you going to knock on different doors? Are you going to write letters or send tracts? Are you going to go downtown
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Worcester at a certain time? There's planning involved in that and that planning, of course, is to be committed to the
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Lord. The Apostle Paul's ministry here, when we look at him,
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I mean, he's the greatest church planter who ever lived. He accomplished more in his life for the spread of the gospel than any other person, and I think it would be good for us and we would do well if we took seriously his method and at least looked at the fact that he did plan and not just think,
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Oh, today, whatever goes, however the wind blows, the spirit lifts where it will, you know, and I will just go wherever it is that the
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Lord... No, I mean, there are times when that happens and it's out of our control, but there are most of the times and the normal thing for us to do is to plan and part of Paul's method was planning.
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Here was his general guideline. He wanted to preach where no one had ever preached before.
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Verse 20, we see that there. Then he developed his specific plan from this guideline.
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He would take the gift to Jerusalem, and that's in verse 26. We see that there. Then he would go to Rome.
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That's at the beginning of verse 28. We see that again. He's going to come back to them. And then after that, he would go to Spain.
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So you see his plan there. It's a good thing. It's a good thing to plan your Sunday school lessons. It's a good thing to plan the
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Bible study or the home group or just the phone call, the cards that you're going to write to people to exhort and encourage them.
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And what makes this especially significant in Paul is, as far as we know, as we were talking about earlier, from everything that we know, this plan fell through.
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He was arrested in Jerusalem. He went to Rome as a prisoner and probably never got to Spain. It's just like we saw in the
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Proverbs. God is the only one who finally makes our steps be established in the future or our plans to come to pass.
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But even so, we plan nevertheless. And God can use our planning even if he turns it in a different direction.
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And for an example in this that we can learn from, even though Paul's plans didn't fully work out,
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God had an ultimate plan that came to pass in Paul's life. And we see that as we read the accounts through in the
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Book of Acts. But we have been recipients of a blessing from Paul's plans falling through.
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What do you think that is? Exactly, the Book of Romans.
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He wrote them to tell them, amongst other things, of his intention, of his plan and what he was going to do.
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And with that, we have one of the greatest letters that the world has ever known, the
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Epistle to the Romans. And so planning is crucial in Christian living and Christian ministry, even when
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God overrules our planning. Any questions or comments to this point? So we see in the
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Proverbs the principle there of planning. It's important. It's of necessity in our lives.
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We need to commit our ways to the Lord, deliberate planning, prayerful consideration should be taken into mind.
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And then actually in the New Testament here in the Apostle Paul's life, is it's good to plan and it's a necessary thing and we ought to do that, but don't think that it's cast in concrete because God is greater than our plans.
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God is the one who, in Psalms, chapter 37 around verse 23, it says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the
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Lord. I think there's a proverb that says man's goings are of the
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Lord. Okay. Well, press on. All right, we've looked at Proverbs.
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We've looked at the Apostle Paul. What about the planning of God? Is our
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God a God who plans? I see some heads shaking there in the middle. How about over here?
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Yeah, I see one or two. Our God, and yes, our God is a
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God who plans. And we are created in his image to exercise dominion in the earth under his lordship.
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And I don't think it's even possible, if you really consider who
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God is, to conceive a God who does not act according to his own eternal planning.
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A God who is reactionary or has knee -jerk reactions is not one to receive glory.
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I mean, haphazard, the open theism God that we looked at a few weeks back to where if his plan
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A doesn't work, he has to come up with plan B. I don't believe that God is in heaven wringing his hands, wondering,
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I had this plan a long time ago about people to be saved, and I just wonder if they're going, if they're going to come on their own and be saved and come to Jesus, my son.
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Our God has a plan because he's a wise God who has done everything on purpose and according to his purposes.
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We won't look there for the sake of time, but in Psalm 31, in verse 15, at the beginning of that verse, it says that our times are in God's hands.
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And that means our seasons of our lives from youth to education to marriage to working to ministry years and then to old age.
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And in context there in Psalms 31, 15, God always has a plan when it comes to even protecting us if you read that verse.
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But the idea is that we don't control our time. It's not up to us.
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It's not up to us as far as what's going to take place. God knows, and there's a comfort in that.
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There's a security in that. There's a peace in that. And I guess maybe what I'll do here is ask you.
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When I said, does God plan, I saw some heads nodding. What has God planned?
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Give me some examples of things that God has planned in the Scripture. Maybe we can get through this point real quick. What do you think?
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What has God planned? Salvation. Okay, yes, we see that in Ephesians 1, 9 -10 that God has made known unto us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will according to His purpose.
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He's done these things according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite in all things unto
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Him in heaven and upon earth. So nothing happens, even when it comes to salvation, outside of God's intended plan.
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What did it say in Acts 2? When Peter was preaching in Acts 2, what did he say about the crucifixion of Christ to the people who had slain
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Jesus? He said that you with your wicked hands have taken and slain
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Him, according to what? The knee -jerk reaction of God? Because whoops, I didn't really think
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I put Adam and Eve in the garden. I had no idea that they were going to do that, and now I've got to have to shift and do it.
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My son will go. You know, it doesn't make any sense. It says there that it was according to the predetermined counsel of God, or according to the definite plan of God and the foreknowledge of God, Jesus was delivered up.
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So salvation was planned. What else was planned? Yes, Steve. All right, so the church is planned.
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God knows exactly who's going to be in it. He knows exactly where they're going to be and how they're going to manifest themselves in the
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New Testament, local presence in communities. Of course
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He did. How about what was something? Just think about planning in detail. What was something that Moses received that had all kinds?
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Remember I was talking about open the box and there's a lot of instructions. What did Moses receive that had precise, intricate descriptions for it?
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Does anybody remember? The tabernacle. Yeah, if you go back there and you study in the tabernacle, I mean, it talks about what kind of boards they're supposed to be and what kind of metal and the different weavings and the silver sockets and the cords and the veil.
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All of it is precisely given, and Moses was to make it accordingly.
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Yes. Anything else? Plan. Charlie? Falling of every sparrow.
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Exactly. Because what does the Scripture say? What did Jesus say in the New Testament? None of them fall without your
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Father's knowledge. Of course. How about the hairs on your head of the lack thereof?
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Planned. Of God. The purpose of God. Yes. One of my first pastors in the church told me that God has a purpose and a plan, and He always does everything on purpose.
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And when it comes to our lives, that gives us a great rest of mind and a peace of heart and mind, because we know that things are just not tipsy -turvy.
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Whatever might happen, it is just going to be in our control. No, because if it's in our control, it's a big mess, isn't it?
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So God is a God who plans. And what I'm trying to say here is since God is a God who does all things according to a plan, it behooves us to approach the most important things of life with forethought and a plan and not haphazardly.
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And if we do plan for nothing, that's probably what we'll accomplish. And consider this phrase, not to plan is so unlike God.
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If that's true, then what we ought to do as His children is to plan and to live and to think and to move and to act as He does.
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Okay, well, I got through three -quarters of the lesson, not all of it.
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Maybe I'll finish and add a little bit more to this and do some continuation of this teaching.
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But what questions might you have or what comments do you have? What examples? What has worked for you?
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And I guess, okay, let me finish this in case this is the only one that you get. When it comes to our lives, physically we see that it's good for us to plan.
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But when it comes to our spiritual necessities, do you ever give thought to, okay, this week
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I am going to purpose and I want to plan to read this portion of the Scriptures. This is where I'm going to go.
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So some thinking, some deliberate consideration. Or for this year, in 2009,
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I have been saying that I'm going to memorize Scripture for years and I haven't done it.
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Or I will be consistent in my Bible reading. Or I will set aside a period of time every day to pray. The spiritual disciplines that Don Whitney brings out in his book.
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But we just seem to, I think what happens sometimes is we think, I am just missing it in 12 areas and it's so overwhelming
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I'm not going to get it done. I would suggest and I would encourage you to pick one thing for 2009.
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When it comes to your spiritual walk with the Lord, maybe it's his fellowship with Christ, maybe it's evangelism.
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Maybe you're going to say this year I am going to be intentional when it comes to giving out tracts and speaking to the lost and bringing the
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Gospel, the good news of Christ, so that they might be saved through faith in him for the one who loved sinners, died on the cross, was buried and rose again.
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And I'm going to present that to people wherever I go as often as I can and be as intentional as I can with a plan.
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Buy some tracts, get some tracts, get some books. And that's going to be my focus. I want you to make it obtainable.
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I don't want you to get discouraged. And one of the things that you can do is just to set aside maybe
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Sunday. It's kind of a down day as far as maybe obligations. Hopefully it's a more restful day.
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And you have times to reflect upon what am I going to do this week. Who am I going to talk to?
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What appointments do I need to make? What do I need to purchase to take care of the things of the week? And for my spiritual walk, what is it that I need to get my hands upon?
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Or who do I need to speak to to help me to get what I need to have in my hands to be able to get this done this week and give it some deliberate forethought and planning and preparation and then prayer, committing it to the
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Lord. And think of one thing for this year maybe. And every Sunday just kind of re -look at that and see where you are and re -evaluate and bring it before the
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Lord. And who knows what the Lord might do. Because with committing it to the Lord, the plans can be established or made sure.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time that we've had together. Lord, we look at our lives and we know that in so many ways we are lacking in the things that we know that we ought to do.
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And sometimes it is because we don't have a plan. Sometimes it is because we're just not putting forth an effort for you.
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We're wasting our time. And maybe someone in the room would need to take and make plans and bring them before you and commit them to you.
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And I pray that it might be so. That it might help them this week. Consider the scriptures of the
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Proverbs. Consider the Apostle Paul's life. Consider how you plan.
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And even the Lord Jesus in so many ways planned in his ministry. And look at those examples, those principles, and commit our ways to doing the same thing for the glory and the honor of Christ in whose name we pray.