Encounter @ the Chapel
Pastor Joshua Goodin
Luke 19:28-35 (NRSV)
“When God Has a Plan”
God has a way of outthinking you, even when you think that you have out-slicked God. Do you wonder if the mistakes that you’ve made were written in the plan? God has a way of using mistakes to push you into purpose. He takes the ugly parts of you and makes them beautiful. He takes your mess and moves it in such a way that what is messy can be manure, something that stinks that helps grow things.
*When God has a plan, even when you don’t cooperate the plan will come to fruition. You spent a lot of time going against the plan and God should have counted you out of the plan, but he kept you in the play by granting you grace and mercy that you did not deserve so that what he spoke could come into existence. God allows things to work in such a way that while you’re trying to figure it out, he already worked it out. When you think you have things figured out, God says, “you don’t have it figured out, I’m just allowing it to work out.” One of the struggles you have in life is learning how to accept God’s plan because God plans some things in your life that you don’t agree with. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with it, because it will happen with or without your consent. Some of you can’t rock with God’s planning, because you don’t have organization in your life. Too many people are so spontaneous and free-spirited, but there must be balance even in your spontaneity. Sometimes you have to make a plan, because when you don’t plan you don’t count up the cost of what could go wrong. It’s an empty feeling when what you plan doesn’t work out.
*Some of you are riding the wrong things in life. You’re riding off what you have in the bank, but you don’t think about what you have today could be gone tomorrow. God shows you that sometimes you have to give opportunities to people that don’t have experience. Some of you are recipients of opportunities even though you didn’t have experience. Sometimes you miss out on possibility because you’re looking for people who already have experience, but the people with experience are so used up. The reason certain relationships don’t work is that you connect with people that are so experienced they have nothing left to give. Experience if not used in the right way can kill your possibility and potential. If you’re afraid of engaging in something new, you may miss out on the ride of your life.
*One reason why some you cannot move in the plan God has for you, is because you have been untied, but you won’t move. You are free but still bound, and the reason why is because your hands are free but your mind is still tied up. Sometimes you show up in your physical, but your mind is still at home. You’ve been freed, untied, but you have been conditioned to the same patterns and habits that you stay caged in even when the door is open.
*When God has a plan in your life you can’t just walk in the plan free physically without first freeing your mind. Free your mind and the rest will follow. You hinder the plan God has for your life because you stay tied up to things that God has loosed you from. If it has not been adding to you thus far, what makes you think it’s going to start adding to you now?
*When God has a plan, he already has every step figured out. The Lord has need of you. The Lord is calling you because your possibility is in your hands, but you keep staying in a position where your hands are tied. God can’t use you because you’ve told God you’re staying where you are because it’s safer to stay bound. It’s scary when people find more pleasure in being bound than being free. Too much experience can turn you away from possibility. It’s hard to be excited about something that you’ve done several times before. You keep riding rides, and you know how you will feel afterward, but you keep getting back in line. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is insanity. Some of you are operating in a plan of insanity. God has already orchestrated the plan for your life, but the problem is you keep trying to create your own plan. How has that been working out for you?
What if God said?
God:
“I’m tired of making a plan for my children and they do everything but what I planned. I tell them to go here, they won’t go. I tell them to do this, and they won’t go. I tell them to cut this one-off, but they won't cut them off. And guess what, at the end of the day, when I’m sitting upon the throne, I get a phone call up in heaven from down on earth.”
Child of God:
“God, can you get me out of this? God if you get me out of this, this time, I promise you I’ll never go back.”
God:
“Please hold?”
(God goes to the chart because he’s already put on your chart phone call number 5,789)
Then he says, “I’m going to get you out, but you ain’t walking out emptyhanded. You might have to walk out with some scars, but I’ll get you out. You might have to lose something, but I’ll get you out. Because maybe if I start taking some things away from you and allowing some things to happen to you, that you get to a place that the conversation will go a little different.”
*Aren’t you tired of having the same conversations with God? God has so much in store and planned for you, he just needs you to stay on the plan that he’s called you to. Stop trying to create your own plan because it’s not going to work. Trust God’s plan, because when he has a plan, it always works out. Even if you’re crying in the beginning because it will happen, you can avoid some tears and disappointment if you just go along with the plan. When God has a plan, he never runs out of supplies. Stop thinking that God doesn’t have enough to deal with your stuff. He has so much that he can deal with your stuff and everyone else’s, all at the same time, and not even blink. You put your trust in plans that you’ve never seen work, yet God has never disappointed you and you struggle to trust in his plan.