The Wise and Planning

Okay, good morning, everybody.

That's not bad, not bad.

Today we're continuing our series in Proverbs, and again, we're going to do a tag team approach.

Oscar's going to be sharing for part of the session.

I'm going to be sharing as well for part of the sermon.

And really, one of the hearts of what we're trying to do as Watermark is to be able to

use different gifts to develop and to grow as God moves us on, and as we raise up and

develop leaders and people who can preach in different ways.

And so it's very much some of the heart of what we're trying to do as a church, which

is why we have different people preaching at different times.

This sermon, how many of you thought there was going to be a typhoon today?

Okay, there's a few people.

We're talking today about planning, and I think it's totally ironic because we were going to

talk about this sermon last week.

And then a typhoon 8 comes in and completely messes up all of my plans.

My whole sermon series has been changed completely because God seems to know that we need a life

lesson sometimes in what planning looks like and the sovereignty of God looks like in our

lives.

And I don't know about you, but actually, a lot of the struggles that I think we have in

faith in our lives are actually because of that collision between our plans and what God

seems to be doing in the world, right?

You see, I've got a really good friend.

Seven years, he was planning language learning, planning, gathering a team to go and do mission

work in Kurdistan in Iraq.

Seven years.

Finally, he'd got the team together.

He'd got everything together.

It spent a lot of time, a lot of effort.

And then a few months before, his wife gives birth to a child, and the child has Down syndrome.

And they're unable to go after seven years.

And those questions come, well, it was supposed to be for you, God.

So what's going on here?

Why do you sometimes, God, seem to interrupt the plans, even the very good plans that we

seem to make?

And sometimes, I don't know about you, but we ask those questions which are, well, if

God is really good, why has he let this happen?

Why has he not worked things out the way that I thought they were going to work out?

And so that's kind of what we're going to have a little look at today in terms of how God

works in our lives through these plans and what he's up to in the world.

So if I can ask you a question, what's your plan for your life?

What's your plan for your life?

Some of you may say, I have no idea.

But if I asked you, in 20 years' time, where would you like to be?

What would you like to be doing?

How many kids would you like to have?

Would you like to be married or single?

How much money?

What level of comfort?

What would you like to happen in your family?

Those are things which actually tell you what your plan for your life is.

That's your vision for where you want to go in life.

And so we're looking at this book of Proverbs, and we're looking at what it means to have

chokmah.

Do you remember chokmah?

Chokmah is the word for wisdom.

It's a world where there isn't a formula, a kind of plug-and-play formula for how to live.

And there are many situations, we just don't have a set answer.

The Bible doesn't kind of say, okay, go to page three, and there you go.

You're going to be able to sort out all your problems in life.

It doesn't work quite like that.

And we need chokmah.

We need this wisdom which comes out of a healthy fear in this relationship with God, getting

Him in the right place in our lives to enable us to be able to navigate the complexities

of life.

So in this series, we've talked about a number of things.

Two weeks ago, we talked about affirmation, okay?

And we talked about using our words.

Who was here two weeks ago?

Who was here two weeks ago?

About five of you admit to being here.

We talked about how God wants us to be wise with our words.

We talked about three to one ratio in terms of affirmation and correction.

And I asked you to go and affirm someone who you don't normally go and affirm.

How do we do with that?

Anyone do that?

Because we want to be people who don't just hear the word.

We want to be people who actually do the word.

And actually, I went out and I decided I was going to contact a relative of mine to just

encourage her.

And I was going to WhatsApp her, just some things that I'd noticed.

And suddenly, as I got to WhatsApp, I realized I was really nervous about WhatsAppping her.

And I realized that having the wisdom that God wants for the words that I use is totally unnatural

in so many ways.

And God calls us as a church to be this church of wisdom in our words, in our friendships,

in our relationships, and in our plans.

And today, God is going to say to you, He wants you not just to hear His word, He actually

wants you to do His word.

So, let me just pray for us.

Let me just pray for us.

And I want you to pray in your heart as well.

Father, I don't just want to listen to Your word.

I don't just want to hear words.

I want to hear from You.

And Father, I pray that with the words that I speak, Lord, we would not just, and Oscar

speaks, we would not just be talking, but Lord, this would create life in our hearts and

You'd change us so that we live out in a way which is consistent with what You say and call

us to.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So, we're looking at plans.

Okay, have your bulletin with you because we're going to go through some of the passages

here.

And we're going to look at God's plan and our plans.

We're going to go look at God's heart and our heart.

We're going to look at God's love and our confidence.

Okay?

So, God's plan, our plans to start with.

One of the really interesting things in the Bible is it contains some very hard truths.

Let me give you one very hard truth.

The world is not about you.

The world is not about you.

It's about God and it's about His glory.

The sun doesn't orbit around us.

We orbit around the sun.

In the beginning, Chris, is not how the Bible starts.

It starts in the beginning, God.

And though everything in me wishes that I was in charge of my life, the Bible story is that

God is working out a plan.

And He's working out a plan of flourishing and redeeming and restoring a broken creation.

And He invites us to be involved and part of His plan.

And the question is, how do we get involved with His plan?

Well, Proverbs 21 verse 5 says this.

Proverbs 21:5

The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage.

But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.

Okay?

The word diligent means someone who's strategic.

They plan.

They think through things.

Someone who is hasty is impulsive.

They do things just according to their own feelings at the time.

And what He's saying is this.

He's saying, what you plan has consequences in your life.

Okay?

What you plan has consequences.

You don't go into parenting or go into a war just saying, I'm just going to wing it.

Okay?

That's not a good strategy.

That's not a good plan.

We have to plan.

Now, our culture kind of looks at this and it says, in the words of Invictus, you know the poem Invictus?

It says, I am the master of my fate.

I am the captain of my soul.

Which is, I mean, we like that kind of thing.

Right?

We want to believe that we have this kind of, the free will to decide our lives.

And our plans are kind of the way that we shape our future.

We can act.

We can do.

We can make it happen.

You know, that's why we kind of love these rags to riches stories.

Or why we love, you know, movies about rats who become top chefs.

And one's about geeky celebrities who then, geeky kind of whatever, who become celebrities through talent competitions.

Because we want to believe that our plans, like, you can do anything.

You can follow your dreams.

Just plan your way and you'll make it happen.

Does anyone else's life revolve around your Google calendar and your to-do lists?

Because we can sometimes believe that our life is fully worth living if we've achieved everything we've done on our to-do list.

We believe we are the masters of our fate.

But it's quite interesting that, although some people think there's free will, other people will say, well, life is just determined.

Okay?

It's just fixed.

You know, there's quite a few brain scientists now who believe these kind of things.

And whether it's a God or the spirits or our DNA, they say, well, this has decided how you're going to live.

You know, we say things like, the fortune teller told me that this year was going to be a bad year.

And I reshaped my office.

I put in a water feature to get better feng shui.

But no matter what I've done, bad luck is happening to me.

It's just determined.

It's fixed.

It's fate.

So some of us think it's all about free will.

Some of us think it's determined.

Proverbs 16, 31 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.

It's every decision is from the Lord.

Casting lots is a bit like tossing a coin.

You know, you toss a coin, you know, you have a tennis match.

You toss the coin to see who's going to start first.

Right?

And what Proverbs is saying here is that even who's deciding first who's going to play at Wimbledon is under God's sovereign hand.

Every little detail of my life is ultimately going to work out in some way how God has planned it.

The fact that you're here this morning is under God's great plan.

The fact that my printer broke down is in some way under God's great plan.

And the fact that you're here this morning, I don't think anyone put a gun to your head.

I hope they didn't.

Okay?

That's not a great way to get people to service.

But we made a choice to come here.

But in some way, God is working through our choices to work out his plan.

And what it is, it's a bit like having a rope like this on a pulley.

And at one end of the pulley is my actions have consequences and I have freedom.

And the other end of the pulley is, well, God is completely in control of every aspect.

And it's difficult.

I can't put those two things together.

Intellectually, I don't know how it works.

Because either I think I've got freedom or I think it's fixed.

I can't put them together.

But the Bible says you've got to hold those both in tension.

It says, many are the plans in the mind of man, but the purpose of the Lord will stand.

I plan the sermon series.

God's not going to plan the sermon series for me.

The typhoon hits and the outcome is under his control.

And you see, the thing that we struggle with is if you just try and hold one end of the rope

and you don't hold the other end of the rope, life becomes actually impossible to live.

If you think that life is completely on God's autopilot and it's just fully determined,

you just become passive, you know, and you become cynical and become bored with life.

Why do I need to send out CVs to get the job?

Well, God's going to provide.

Right?

Or worse, some people say, I know I committed adultery, but God made me do it.

Really?

You see, we don't take responsibility for what God has given us.

But on the other hand, if it's all on you, that's really scary.

Really scary.

My best friend, when he was younger, he tried desperately to get a girl to marry him.

Who, looking back, would have been a disaster for him to marry.

Like, complete disaster.

And Tim Keller, pastor in the States, says,

Imagine you looking back in your life to whether you were a teenager or in your 20s,

depending on how old you are.

Think about the ratio of the goodness of your plans.

Probably about two-thirds of my plans were bad plans when I was a teenager.

Right?

Now, the question is, the more frightening question is,

what's the percentage for you now?

How good are your plans now?

Maybe I've improved a little bit.

Maybe I'm kind of at 50% good planning.

But still, if the planning is all on you,

then our lives, we can screw up our lives really easily.

But the Bible says, if you hold both of those ropes together,

God's totally in control, but you have free choices in what you make to make,

then there is a freedom to live well.

You know, in the Bible, there's the story of Joseph.

You know the story of Joseph?

Joseph.

You know, he's the favorite kid of his father.

He has dreams about his family bowing down to him,

and he tells all his family,

and it just annoys his brothers so much that they want to go and kill him.

So they go and throw him in a pit,

but eventually they change their minds and decide to sell him to slave traders.

Gets down to Egypt, and he's a great worker,

but he's thrown into prison anyway.

He's waiting, doesn't know what's going on in his life.

But eventually, the whole plan comes through where he becomes second in command in Egypt.

Yeah, you know the story?

And you know what's really interesting is that at the end of the story,

his dad dies, his brothers come back to him,

and they're really terrified about what he's going to say.

And they say to him,

Hey, please give us mercy for how we treated you.

And Joseph, with incredibly great grace, says to them,

he says in Genesis 50, 20, he says,

You meant this for harm, but God meant this for good.

You meant this for harm, but God meant this for good.

You were planning something evil.

God was working something bigger and greater.

You know, just for the ordinary things in life,

I signed up for a new broadband package just this last week.

It was my choice, okay?

I chose it.

But the company has tried to mess me around all this week,

and then last night, two hours late,

they turned up at my house to try and install it,

and they arrived at 11 p.m.,

and they didn't leave till midnight last night.

And it's driving me nuts,

because I've got to preach this morning,

and I want to get some sleep.

Was God in control?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

But have I made choices?

Absolutely.

But is God going to work in me

and wanting to change me in some way through this?

In my frustration and anger, absolutely.

So I'm going to pass over to Oscar

to share a little bit more about God's heart.

Thank you.

Guys, ever seen WWF wrestling?

Like tag team?

Yeah.

Leo's seen it.

Yeah.

Leo's laughing.

Morning.

Morning.

Great.

The microphone is enthusiastic.

So as Chris explained,

it is fundamentally good for us to plan.

God, in his infinite wisdom,

has given us the ability and responsibility

to plan for our lives

and for the lives under our care.

But I think the challenge for me

and perhaps for some of you here

is that oftentimes we have the wrong motivation

behind our plans.

Proverbs 16.1 says,

The plans of the heart belong to man,

but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Plans of the heart belong to man.

Our plans, our desires,

our future intentions,

they come from the heart, don't they?

If you've been to Watermark for any period of time,

you probably hear us talk about the heart a lot.

We teach about actions, what we do,

words, what we say,

but we emphasize the heart

because everything that happens outwardly,

it comes from within.

Our actions and our words,

they stem from our heart,

the core of our inner person,

source of our will and our desires.

But as Jeremiah says,

the heart is deceitful above all things

and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

The heart is deceitful above all things.

You can hear the pain in Jeremiah's voice.

He's talking about the people of Judah.

They had seen and heard the goodness of God

for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Their forefathers had told them

the faithfulness of God.

And at time and again,

they turned their back on their father

and they went and worshiped idols.

It made no sense.

It's totally illogical.

But as Jeremiah says,

the heart is deceitful.

This is the human condition.

We are prone to do things

that benefit ourselves.

We are inclined to serve ourselves,

to make plans that put us number one.

A few weeks ago, my wife Celeste,

a few months ago now actually,

my wife Celeste asked me

if I still had plans to run my own hedge fund,

start my own hedge fund.

I've been in this business for a number of years.

I love what I do.

I'm passionate about it.

I love going to work every single day.

And so she logically asked me this question.

And I think if she asked me five years ago,

I would have said,

100%, totally.

I want to do it.

Be my own boss.

But you know,

as I've thought about this

in recent times,

you know what I've realized?

My motivations weren't that pure after all.

He wanted to run my own hedge fund

because I wanted to be the boss.

I didn't want to have to report to somebody.

I wanted my name on the door.

And to be honest,

I also wanted to be able to work from home

so I can see my daughter every day.

You know,

there's nothing inherently wrong

with running a hedge fund

or being a CEO

or a leader in the political world,

in government or in academia.

Nothing wrong with planning your career either.

I think the issue that I have,

and maybe for some of you today,

is when we pray to the Lord about our plans,

our prayer is,

God, this is what I want.

These are my plans.

God, please help me to get where I want to go.

But our prayer should be,

Father, what are your plans for my life?

What do you want from my career?

And how can I fit into your plans

so that I can do your work?

One way to check or test our hearts

is to ask ourselves,

if I didn't have this career,

would I still be content?

Would I still be able to say that God is good?

And then there's the aspect of trusting God

with our plans,

which is so important.

We can make a plan today,

tomorrow.

We don't know the outcome.

One year down the line,

we don't know the outcome.

We didn't even know we could be at church today.

Thank God the weather's okay, though.

Planning typically involves

some aspect of the unknown,

of uncertainty.

That is why trusting God is so important.

Proverbs 3, 5 and 6,

trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding.

I think if you've been a Christian

for any amount of time,

you probably know this verse.

Trust God.

Pastors love to say it.

Elders love to say it.

It's probably one of the most commonly used directives

from Christian to Christian.

Trust God.

But what does that mean to trust God?

What does it look like?

Proverbs 16, 3.

Commit your works to the Lord

and your plans will be established.

Commit your works to the Lord.

Commit.

The word commit,

the word commit

literally means to roll.

As in to roll a ball

away from yourself,

out of your hands,

out of your control,

and into the control of another.

Like you roll a bowling ball

down the alley

and it's out of your hands

and in the hands of

gravity and air conditioning.

What the passage is saying here

is that if we

commit our works to God,

if we surrender our plans to Him,

God begins to shape our planning.

And this is where the wisdom

of Proverbs comes in.

Through the wisdom of God,

our planning improves.

We're better at planning.

Our plans become more efficient,

more orderly,

and we start to plan

what God wants for us,

not only what we want for ourselves.

For some of us,

our plans become

a weight on our shoulders,

a ball and chain

around our ankles.

So if we can release

that ball

and roll it to God,

a weight is released

and a lightness

and a peace

and a freedom

is what comes out of that.

How many parents

do we have in the room?

Parents?

Lots of parents,

don't we?

Yes.

My wife Celeste and I,

we have a 17-month daughter

named Kiva.

In the past two years,

I think I've had more conversations

about family planning

and raising children

than I've had

in the combined 30 years

of my life.

It's such a huge topic, right?

And if you're a parent

here this morning,

God has given you

a precious gift.

God has entrusted

His child

into your hands.

And as parents,

we have an active responsibility

to take care of our children

and part of that

is planning.

And in Hong Kong,

especially,

a huge part of that planning

relates to schooling,

doesn't it?

You know what I'm talking about

if you're a parent here, right?

We all spend a fair amount

of time

researching schools,

doing school site visits,

talking to other parents

about schools,

networking

to increase the probability

of getting into schools.

My daughter's only 17 months old

and I've done

all of those things already.

I admit to you.

And I also admit to you

that it's tough.

I get anxious.

I get worried.

Will my daughter Kiva

get into school in Hong Kong?

I don't know.

If she's as smart as my wife,

then yes,

I think she will.

But will she survive

the school system in Hong Kong?

It's tough, right?

The stress,

the pressure.

The question that I ask myself

and maybe you should ask yourself is,

do we commit the planning,

do we roll the planning

of our kids schooling to God

and do we surrender that to Him?

For example,

when we pray,

I think a lot of us probably

pray for our children

to get into school.

But when we pray,

is our prayer simply,

Father,

Father,

please help little David

get into GSIS or CIS.

That's a good prayer.

That's a fine prayer.

But it's only half the prayer.

You know,

rather,

we should be praying,

Father,

please help little David

get into GSIS.

But also,

we should pray,

Lord,

I know you're a good God.

Lord,

I know you're sovereign.

I know you're a faithful God.

You have proven your love to me

through the Bible,

the Word of God,

through my life,

through even giving me a child.

I know you're faithful,

Lord,

so I commit,

I roll this plan to you,

Lord.

I surrender to you,

Father.

Father,

I've done my responsibility.

Now it's in your hands.

You know,

there's an old,

there's an old TV show

in the 80s

called The A-Team.

Anybody ever see The A-Team?

Yeah,

Ed's seen The A-Team,

yeah.

I was made into a movie

a few years ago

starring Liam Neeson

and Bradley Cooper.

The basic storyline

of The A-Team

is that there's a team

of former soldiers

and they are part

of The A-Team

and in each episode,

effectively,

they have this elaborate plan

to outwit the bad guys

and they typically do

every single episode

outwit the bad guys

and at the end

of each episode,

Hannibal,

the leader of The A-Team,

he lights up a cigar,

takes a puff,

leans back in his chair

and says,

I love it

when a plan comes together.

But it never always

happens that way,

does it?

life has a way

of surprising us

and in some cases,

life throws us

massive curveballs

that we totally

never prepared for.

I became an elder

of Watermark

a year and a half ago

and when I became

an elder of Watermark,

I didn't verbalize

a lot of stuff

but in my head,

I had plans.

Yeah,

it was going to be

a smooth job,

really great,

you know,

no problems,

no heartache,

no difficulties,

no challenges.

Why was I wrong?

I didn't plan

for our lead pastor,

Tobin,

who Celeste and I

are very close to,

to have to go back

to the U.S.

I didn't plan for us

to have to leave

our community center

because the rent

went up three times.

I didn't plan for us

to have to move

from Satterport

to Ebenezer.

And I admit to you

this morning

that there were times

when I would come home

from elder meetings

and I'd tell my wife,

I don't know

what's going on,

I'm worried.

I'm not sure

if our staff

will be able

to go to the office

next week

because we may not

be able to pay our rent

because they've increased

their rent so much.

Many of you here today

have plans,

you've made plans.

And for many of you today,

your plans

also haven't worked out

exactly as you wanted.

for some of you,

maybe you plan

a certain financial

security level

or career.

But as housing prices

in Hong Kong

continue to go up

year after year,

you're like,

I still can't buy a house?

That wasn't part

of your plan,

was it?

And you're frustrated.

Maybe for people here

who are single,

you've wanted to be married

for a very long time

and you've been praying

to the Lord

and nothing's happened

and you're also frustrated.

But you know what?

And I acknowledge

this is not

that easy to swallow.

But you know,

in our multi-year journey

as Christians,

some of our plans

are going to go

very smoothly.

But others,

for some of our other plans,

the outcome

is going to be

the exact opposite

of what we had hoped

and desired

from the beginning.

But instead of seeing

these things

as bad things,

I just want to encourage

you guys today,

let's use opportunities

to learn and grow.

We actually want to be

in a place

where we have to say,

Lord,

I can't do this.

I cannot figure this out

with my own intellect.

I cannot fix this

with my own hands.

I surrender this to you.

I roll this challenge

to you, God.

Because, you know,

it's through these experiences

that God can teach us.

He can restore

our broken hearts.

The heart, right?

Maybe He needs

to humble us.

He does all these things

to change us,

to shape us,

to shape our hearts,

so that we can be used

to do His work.

For me,

as an elder of Watermark,

you know,

I've learned so much

in the past 18 months.

Firstly,

I've learned

that I lack faith.

But also,

I've learned

how amazing God is,

how much He's provided

for this church.

You know,

we're not perfect, right?

I'm not saying

that we are.

If we were perfect,

we wouldn't even have

to come to church

on Sunday morning, right?

What I see is today,

we're still meeting.

I see the community

is blossoming.

New friendships

are forming.

We have a community lunch

happening today.

I see God at work.

You know,

what I realize

is that

God is infinitely bigger

than my biggest impression

of Him.

And when I look forward,

I have confidence in Him

because of the amazing

faithfulness

that He has shown us.

So the final question

for us

before I hand it back

to Chris is,

you know,

will you allow God

to teach you something

about Himself

when your plans blow up,

when they don't go

as you expected,

when the opposite happens?

You know,

just as in a marriage

relationship,

a husband and wife

continually seek,

should continually seek,

to learn more

about each other

as they grow

in their journey

as a married couple.

And in the same way,

in our journey

as Christians,

you know,

the beauty

of being a Christian

is that

God uses

good things

and bad things,

good experiences,

bad experiences,

triumphs and tragedies

to teach us

about Himself,

about His goodness,

about His character.

The God of the universe

has said

that I know you

and He's asking us,

do you want to know me?

Let me hand it back

to Chris.

Thank you, Oscar.

Thank you, Oscar.

So we've looked at actually

God's plans,

our plans,

the heart

of how God

changes us

and wants to use us.

And I want to just

kind of,

for the final point,

to really think

about God's love

and our confidence

in this

because

the call to trust

to roll everything

to Him

is a call

to total surrender.

That means

I acknowledge

my responsibility

to plan

in life

and make decisions,

but I also acknowledge

that my plans

are not ultimate.

and John Newton,

a writer

of Amazing Grace,

he prayed this

beautiful prayer

of surrender.

He said,

Lord,

what you will,

when you will,

how you will.

What you will,

when you will,

how you will.

You know what

I tend to pray?

For my internet connection.

Lord,

what I will,

good broadband.

When I will,

now.

How I will,

in the smoothest

possible way

at my total convenience.

Amen.

But you see,

even though it's

a silly little example,

we do that

in all of our lives

because some of us

put so much weight

on certain of our plans.

A kid's getting

into certain schools,

as he said.

The internet company

turning up.

Whatever it is,

that when it doesn't

happen,

it's not just

disappointing,

it can be devastating

to us because

we've lent so much

on those plans

because we believe

that's where our future

is held.

Because our plans

can become our saviour,

our plans can become

our hope,

our plans can become

our security.

And if we get that,

that's when we feel

like life's happening.

And if we don't,

we feel like life

has failed.

But you see,

the surrendered life

is one where we become

the kind of person

who is able to make

wise decisions.

We should love our kids,

but when we make our plans

for them ultimate,

what happens is,

don't we often end up

being so controlling,

trying to make them

who we want them to be,

that actually it can be

devastating for the emotional

health of your kids.

Have you seen that

so many times?

Because you see,

trust means I plan,

but I say,

here's what I want,

but what you will,

when you will,

how you will.

And here's the key thing.

The degree to which

you know God's love for you

is the degree to which

you will surrender to Him.

Did you get that?

The degree to which

you know God's love for you

is the degree to which

you will surrender to Him

because you can see

that He is trustworthy.

Because God interrupts

our plans to show us

that we're not in control

because He wants to reshape

the way you view His love.

Because, do you know,

nobody ever knows

that God loves them

just by being told

that God loves you.

You know that?

I can tell you

God loves you a hundred times,

and it may intellectually

you say yes, yes, yes,

but it will only go down here

if God shows you

in your life

how much He loves you.

Because you see,

for Joseph,

God could have come in

and He could have fixed

everything for him.

Right?

You know,

He could have gone,

Jacob, okay,

here's a parenting book.

Okay?

Joseph, just keep your mouth shut.

Okay?

Brothers,

just kind of quit the jealousy,

and in 15 minutes

could have all been done.

Fixed the whole thing

for Joseph.

Why doesn't God do that?

Because, you know,

He could do that

with your plans.

He could fix everything

right now.

You know that?

He could change everything.

Why doesn't He?

Because if you look

as Oscar's story showed,

as Joseph's story shows,

that through the trials

and the frustrations,

Joseph learned

to trust God

through this experience,

and he knew God's presence

walking with him

every step of the way.

And at the end of the story,

he has now changed

from being an arrogant kid

to being somebody

who was so gracious

to the brothers that he had

that he could have been,

could have hurt

so much in his life.

And through it,

he could look back

and see,

wow, God has loved me

all the way through.

And that's what He wants

to do in your life.

Sometimes you can't see now

how He's loving you,

but it's only when you get

to the end of the story

that you look back

and say,

wow, I can see

how He loved me.

Because He's growing us.

I wouldn't have planned

many of the illnesses

I've had,

I wouldn't have planned

the failures I've had,

but actually what God

is doing,

He's taking my fingers

off the steering wheel

and He's wanting to say,

I know how to steer

this thing better

than you do.

Tim Keller,

again, he says,

any parent knows

that at some point

your child

is going to look at you

when you withhold

something from them.

And when you don't

let your child

have something

which they really want,

they're going to

turn around to you

and look at you

and say,

you don't love me.

Right?

And when that happens,

He says,

he says,

as a parent,

you've got to try

not to kind of blow up

and get angry

because you want to say,

how dare you?

You want to say,

you have no idea

of what I've done for you.

You have no idea

of the sacrifice

I've put in from your life.

You've no idea

the things I've withheld

to raise you.

You have no idea.

If you knew

all that I'd done,

you would never question

my motive

from withholding

that from you.

If you knew

that I had sacrificed

for you so much,

you would know

that I have a loving purpose

from withholding

from you right now.

in Acts 4,

Jesus is crucified

by the deliberate plan

and choice

of the Jews

and the Romans

and the Bible says

even it's what

we would have done

because we want

to plan our lives

and we want to be

in control of our lives

and we want it all

to work according

to my regime.

But the Bible says

it was actually working out

according to God's

predetermined plan.

You see,

Jesus goes into

the garden of Gethsemane

before he's about to die

and he says,

he says,

God,

I don't like this plan.

He says,

this hurts.

He says,

can I get out

of this some way?

I don't want to

have to take the weight

of the outcome

of all of your

and my plans

which have been

for my selfishness.

I don't want to take

the outcome

of their rebellious

plannings on myself

and this is the son of God.

This is the perfect human.

This is the one

who did everything right

but then he says

in a moment of surrender

he says,

but not my will

but yours be done.

He says,

I know you're good.

I says,

I know you love me

and your plan

is so much greater

than what I feel

right at this moment

because so many,

every one of us

in this room

is the result

of his surrender.

if you have turned

to Christ,

your relationship

with God

is as a result

that he was willing

to put God's plan

before his own.

On the cross,

what's the last thing

that Jesus says?

What's the last thing

he says?

It's a quote

he says,

it's a quote

from Psalm 31.

He says,

into your hands

I commit,

I roll,

my spirit.

it wasn't just

his kids' education.

It wasn't just health.

It wasn't just career.

It was his very life.

See,

that's what he paid

to secure your future

for you.

He paid with his own blood.

That means your plans

do not determine

your future.

His surrender did.

Which is why right now

God's calling you

to roll his plans

to him.

Because if there's anybody

you can trust

with your life,

you can trust him

more than you can

trust yourself.

D.L. Moody said this.

I'm going to finish.

Sorry.

Let God have your life.

He can do more with it

than you can.

I like that.

Let God have your life.

He can do more with it

than you can.

Some of us have placed

the weight of our decisions

and the weight of our lives

on our plans

and we're paralyzed

to make decisions.

Because we want certainty

that everything's going

to work out.

Some of you are in that

situation right now.

You know,

I remember before

I started dating Fiona.

I was in indecision

for a long time.

I wanted a sign.

I thought an angel

would come down

and say to me,

do not be afraid,

Chris.

She is the one.

I didn't.

But God did speak

to me very clearly

and he said,

stop looking for a sign.

He said it through

some friends.

He said,

okay,

is she godly?

Do you have,

can you be friends?

Is there a sense

of commonality together?

Do you like her?

I was like,

okay, yeah.

And he said,

now you've got

a decision to make.

Stop trying to make it

all about God

having to make

the decision for you.

Because that's

my responsibility

to walk out

prayerfully,

prayerfully saying,

God,

I want to honor you.

I want with your heart.

But actually,

I've got to make

a decision.

God's not going

to make it for me.

Right?

Some of you

are at that point

and you'll say,

what does God

want me to do?

And he's saying,

just do something.

Do something.

But some of you

are angry

because God

doesn't seem

to have kept

your plans

the way you thought.

He's turned

your world upside down

and you,

things just haven't

worked out

as the way you wanted.

There's cancer,

there's health issues,

there's all kinds of things

and you secretly wonder,

does God really care?

You secretly wonder,

is there something

wrong with me?

Maybe God is punishing

me for something.

And what God

wants to tell you

right now,

what the Father

wants you to know,

he wants you to say,

it's grace that I've

overridden your plans.

And you say,

how can it be grace?

And he'll say,

you know,

when this movie ends,

even though the scene

you're in right at the

moment seems bleak,

when you get to the end,

you'll see and you'll

look back and you'll see,

wow, that's what

you're up to.

That's what you're up to.

And he's leading you

right now to say,

will you take your hands

off the reign of your life

and will you trust me?

What you will,

when you will,

how you will.

Some of us right now

are waiting,

we're in a waiting game

and you feel like

nothing's happening

in your life right now.

You know,

God in your weight

is working in you

to make you

the kind of person

he can entrust

with your future.

So will you trust him?

So I want us just

to stop and pray.

And I want you

to think right now,

what is it that I'm

planning this week?

What is it that's

kind of wrapping up

my mind right now?

What are the plans

that I have in my,

that I'm so dead set

on at the moment?

Am I saying

what I will,

when I will,

how I will,

and God just kind of,

just bless my plans

or are you willing

to surrender those things

and start saying,

God,

I really want this.

God,

I want this relationship.

God,

I want this health.

God,

I want this job.

But Lord,

I'm tempted to complain.

I'm tempted to doubt

your love

if I don't get this.

Give me the grace

right now

to be thankful.

Help me to see

your love in this

because I don't see it

at the moment.

Lord,

I surrender to you

what you will,

when you will,

how you will.

So just bring that

now before God.

I just give you a minute

for the Spirit

just to touch you,

just to open up your hands

as a sign of surrender

to him.

Maybe there's something

specific you just right now

need to give him.

You've been angry

and frustrated.

That's a sign

you've been trying

to hold the control

of your life.

If you're worried,

just roll it to him.

Just roll it to him

because he loves you.

He says,

get off the throne

of your life.

Turn to me.

Never mind

You need to talk to me.

I know

that you might

like this.

He was

talking to

theлект

that you might

know what he is

and the

move the

which

takes

.

Jesus, thank you that you surrendered your life for us.

Because of that, our future is secure.

Our past is redeemed.

Our present is held.

And we can trust you.

Forgive us where we try and make everything about ourselves.

Help us to see you, Lord, where our plans, so often we make them about ourselves.

And they can be devastating for others.

But I pray, Lord, that you just keep us rolling it to you.

Help us to trust you.

And to love you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.