WHY ARE MY PLANS FALLING APART? | PASTOR LUKE LEZON

It is great to see you and to be here

with you all this morning. I am so

grateful that we are gathered together

in this house. And I'm grateful because

we are continuing a collection of

conversations that at this point we've

been in for many months that we have

been calling Walk the Walk. Walk the

Walk is a collection. It's a discussion

that has had us living and lingering in

the book of James. And we know at this

point, James wants to make sure that

we're a people who practice what we

preach. So, we've taken this title from

a phrase that many of us know that says,

"Hey, don't just talk the talk, but

rather walk the walk." And so, we know

that James understands what that

Christian walk looks like. That we live

in a broken and a fallen world that is

sick with sin. Sin which separates us

from a holy and a perfect God. In fact,

Romans chapter 6 vers 23 would tell us

Romans 6 · chapter mention

that the wages of sin is death. And we

know that that's not just a physical

death, but it's eternal separation from

God. It's an eternal death because if

God is going to be holy, perfect, or

just, then he cannot allow sin in the

camp. And so, you and I had no way to

hope unless there was a radical rescue

and intervention on our behalf. And the

good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ

is that in a merciful demonstration of

sacrificial love and grace, we see that

in Jesus Christ there is salvation. Yes.

that Ephesians chapter 1 would say that

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

in him is redemption and the forgiveness

of sin. And so we gather together today

knowing that we are not a people that

are trying to achieve our way in

salvation, but rather we receive

salvation as a free gift in the finished

work of Jesus Christ. That we've

repented of our sins and turned our face

toward him. put our faith in his

finished work on the cross and in his

resurrection from the grave that we

might be a people that experience life

in his name as well. And so we gather

knowing that we are not trying to climb

our way to God, but rather the good news

of the gospel is that God came down to

us in his son. That we are not saved by

our works, but the saved will

demonstrate works. that we have renewed

and regenerated hearts and yet engaged

heads and hands in the work of God's

kingdom happening here on earth as it is

in heaven. And so that's what we're here

to continue to do today as we enter into

James 4 beginning in verse 13. James 4

uh verse 13. If you have a copy of the

scriptures, please get there with me. If

you don't, I hope today is the day of

your salvation. And um what we're going

to do is we're going to jump into a

passage that's a little bit shorter than

what it is that we've been going through

over the past several weeks. And yet it

packs quite a punch. And so James

James 4:13

chapter 4 verse 13, I hope that you're

with there or you're there with me right

now. Y'all ready for the word? Says

this, "Come now, you who say today or

tomorrow we will travel to such and such

a city and spend a year there and do

business and make a profit. Yet you do

not know what tomorrow will bring, what

your life will be. For you are like a

vapor that appears for a little while,

then vanishes. Instead, you should say,

"If the Lord wills, we will live and do

this or that." But as it is, you boast

in your arrogance. All such boasting is

evil. So it is sin to know the good and

yet not do it. Let's pray together. Uh

Lord, we are

uninterested in knowing what to do and

not doing it. And yet, Lord, the truth

of the matter is that most of us could

sum up our week in that way. That we

know what we should be doing and yet

we're not doing it. And so, Lord, we

just take a moment to repent of the fact

that for some of us, the most scripture

that we read right now is what we just

read together all week. And Lord, we

repent of attempting to live our life

without you. To claim with our lips that

you are Lord of our life. And yet in

every aspect of our life, it would be

difficult to identify where you're

present. And so Lord, as we enter into

your presence today and as we gather in

your name and as we're proclaiming all

these great truths about who you are and

worshiping in defiance of circumstance,

Lord, I ask that right now we would be a

people that have fertile hearts. that

we're not here just kind of checking a

box, that that we're not here for social

hour. And Lord, if any of those things

are true, I pray that they're just on a

minuscule level true, but rather that we

are here to commune with you and Lord,

to recognize who you are in our life and

what that means for our life. That we

would walk in your ways and Lord, that

you would do what only you can do

through the power of your word. We ask

this in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, May 30th, 2003 was a really big

deal in human history because it was on

that day that Disney ended up releasing

Finding Nemo. Has everybody in here seen

uh Finding Nemo? Just out of curiosity.

Uh Finding Nemo, for those of you uh

that have seen it, you you maybe need a

little bit of a refresher, but for those

of you that have not seen it, uh number

one, kind of a character flaw in you as

a person. Uh and number two, just want

you to know you're you're 22 years late,

so I am in good faith about to ruin this

movie for you. Okay, but uh if you

recall, Finding Nemo has a main

character in it, a clown fish named

Marlin. And Marlin has a son named Nemo.

Nemo is born with a gimpy fin as a

result of a freak accident that happened

very early on in his life. That a

barracuda ended up scraping up all of

the rest of his siblings and killing his

mother in the process. But we see that

Marlin would end up living and that Nemo

himself would be the lone sibling that

would end up making it. but he would

have a scar to show that he survived.

And so what we see is that in Finding

Nemo, he and Marlin end up growing up

throughout Nemo's life and things look

amazing. They're living on the edge of

the Great Barrier Reef, but Marlin

understandably is an overprotective

father because of that happened early on

in his life. He is unbelievably

concerned that something's going to

happen to Nemo. He's all that he has

left in this world. And one day when he

allows Nemo to go to school, we see that

he will go and he'll touch the butt, but

he'll end up coming back. And as he does

that, we see that what he doesn't

recognize is that there are all of these

divers that happen to also be there off

the Great Barrier Reef. And one of them

will end up scooping Nemo up, bringing

him back to the boat, putting him in

that boat, and then sailing away with

him. And in the process, Marlin, just as

a father in general, but then in

particular as an overprotective father,

is petrified that his worst nightmare

has just happened. And so he swims after

this boat. He's given it all he's got.

But he recognizes that he just can't

seem to gain on this thing. And as it

starts to go out of sight, we see that

Marlin swims deeper in his panic. And as

he does, trying to ask people, "Have you

seen this boat? Have you seen where it

is?" He ends up running into a forgetful

friend in Dory.

And as he quite literally runs into his

forgetful friend Dory, we see that they

will begin to forge a friendship, living

on mission together, to see Marlin be

reunited with his son Nemo. And they'll

go through all of these different diff

difficult obstacles. And as they do so,

we see that inevitably they end up

catching a break, that the goggles on

the back of this boat had accidentally

been knocked off by the elbow of one of

the divers. And we see that they ended

up descending into the ocean. And they

find these goggles in the midst of some

really precarious circumstances. And

despite the fact that Dory can't

remember anything in her life, she

remembers in this moment, I can read.

And she ends up reading on the back of

these goggles an address that has been

permanently seared into the minds of

every person that has seen this more

than twice. P. Sherman 42 away,

Sydney. What they don't realize is that

that address is a dentist's office. that

one of the divers that had stolen Nemo

also happened to be a dentist. And so

then the movie pans and you see that

Nemo is in a fish tank in a dentist's

office with all of these different

characters that we'll become accustomed

to and that we'll know and love that

he's striking up a friendship with.

People like Bloat and Bubbles and Deb

and Pete and Jacques and despite the

fact that there are all of these

different characters in there, one

reigns

supreme. Gil is the unquestioned leader

of the tank. Gil's the fish that

everyone rever. He's the one that is

currently living in the tank, but at one

point he lived in the ocean. He's the

one that's going to initiate fish in a

tank hood at Mount Wanahakalugi. He's

the one that's going to distribute

tribal nicknames like shark bait. Uhaha,

right? And they realize that he has

superior knowledge to all of the other

fish in this tank. And so when he comes

up with an escape plan, they understand

that he would know best. And yet they

hesitate. They're concerned about this.

They realize that it's dangerous. It

could result in disaster and even in

death. And when they try to execute it

the first time in order to get out of

this tank, what they see is that that's

exactly what happens. It doesn't go

well. That Nemo himself almost ends up

dying in the midst of this escape plan.

And so they kind of blame Gil for this.

And they're like, "Hey man, don't make

him do this again. Like this was really

hard. I I don't I don't think we can

make this happen." And so they just end

up kind of fading into the background.

and you see that the tank all of a

sudden becomes a place where they

recognize, hey, there's got to be better

for us than this. I actually don't think

that there's any purpose to being in

here. I think that we're boxing

ourselves into a much greater mission

that's out there and we need to get out

of this tank. And they start to go, I

don't know that the plan was flawed so

much as I I think that we need to give a

better shot at executing this. I don't

think that our leader had failed us in

some type of way. What I actually think

is that we need to listen to what he

said and execute it with more precision.

And we see that in that moment they give

it one more faithful try and they'll

experience the freedom that was promised

to them. That we see that Gil is the one

who understood what escape plan would

work and wouldn't because he had

superior knowledge. He understood the

interior mechanics of the tank and the

exterior terrors that they would have to

navigate should they actually get out of

this tank. And as they did, we see that

Gil is the one who they saw as the

ultimate authority. He is the one that

they would look at and they would

realize, oh, we can't just kind of

gather some input from him. We need to

follow his every instruction that there

was a recognition of him as the ultimate

authority. And as a result of that

recognition of who he is became devotion

to all that his plans were for them. And

the reason that I say that to you right

now is because it's very easy to

understand that principle while you're

watching an animated film about your

favorite fish. But it is a completely

different thing when you need to

exercise that same principle in your

daily life in faith as you are walking

with God where all of us in here would

say he's the supreme authority. He's the

Lord of my life and yet at the same time

we make plans for ourselves and we don't

include him. And what we see is that as

we're walking through this all of us

have made plans for our life. Every

single one of us Windermir have a plan

for our life.

We have made plans. Like every single

person in here has an idea of the way

that our life could be going or should

be going. Maybe you haven't written

every detail down on paper, but you've

got hopes and you've got dreams that you

can look at your life and you can look

at where you are right now and you

either feel like you are exactly where

you expected to be or for most of us,

you feel like you're failing your

expectation. You feel like you're back

here and you should be there. You feel

like you're failing yourself. You feel

like you're failing your family. You

feel like you're failing God. How am I

not where I'm supposed to be? And every

single one of us that has ever made a

plan for our life has sat down at one

point with tears in our eyes and broken

plans in our hands and gone, "Where are

you? Why does it feel like all my plans

fall apart? Why does it feel like I

can't catch a break and nothing's going

right for me? What is happening right

now?" And the problem is that honestly,

I think all of us have been here before.

You might be there right now and the

issue is that it's a pendulum. It's like

there's no in between. You can either

feel like things are going really well

and you're excited about life and it's

just like isn't this great? And just the

very next day you can be like nope nope

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. I I

don't like anything the way that it's

going. This is all really bad. I'm

contemplating every step I ever took

that brought me to this place in my life

and I don't think this is the way that

things are supposed to go. And so you

can go from, man, things are really

good, to being like, you know what,

actually, actually, I'm going to sell

everything that I have, book a one-way

ticket to Hawaii, and just kind of

figure it out when I get there. I I just

don't know what to do from here. All of

us have been in a situation or a season

where you're lamenting and praying over

broken

plans, saying, "Lord, why are my plans

falling apart? Where are you? Why are

you not operating in this with me?

And honestly, that's the question that

James is raising today. We say, 'Lord,

where are you? Are you even in this with

me? Are you even in my plans? That's the

million-dollar question. Is the Lord in

your

plans? Can you even find him in

them? Many of us will declare that Jesus

Christ is our King, that he is the Lord

of our life. But do you plan like that's

true? Is Jesus Christ your great king,

or is he a part-time consultant?

I I'll take this and I'll leave that.

That feels more like it's an option

rather than it's an instruction. But

yeah, you know what? Actually, I'll I'll

take this now rather than that. Do we

just kind of want to take and leave

whatever we want? Or are we a people

that say, "I'm fully surrendered to you.

No matter what it is, even if we've got

to scrap my plan, I am rolling with you

because the same one who rolled the

grave back is the same one that I'm

going all the way to it with because I

know he's going to bring me through it."

And here's the problem is that if God

executed your plan, you'd be a weak

person and a weak believer.

And it would be dangerous for the rest

of the world to have people like us who

are operating in the plans that we have

for

ourselves. You'd skip things that

strengthen your faith. You would amass a

lot of wealth and you'd look a lot like

the world. You would gravitate towards

things that take you out rather than

deeper into the arms of your great king.

It is dangerous to make plans in your

life and to leave the Lord Jesus Christ

out of them. And that's what we see that

James is going to say to us today in

verse 13. He says, "Come now, you who

say today or tomorrow, travel to such

and such a city and spend a year there

and do business and make a profit." What

is James saying? He's saying life is

complicated. Anybody in here ever had a

broken plan before? I'll do a show of

hands right here. Anybody had a broken

plan before?

Okay, I'm trying to see if there's a

section I can make fun of. I don't think

so. Okay. Um, that's good. We've all had

broken plans. Here's the scarier thing.

Some of you have had plans go exactly

the way that you want, and you realize

there is no purpose in

these. I'm getting everything I want.

And God is passively letting me do it

just to realize I got a lot of things on

earth and I don't have a single thing in

heaven.

And he's saying life's

complicated. But but he also makes very

specific mention of you. Who is you?

Come now you who say. And then what's

interesting is he will list five very

specific things after he does that. He

says come now you who say. And you go

who's you. And it's like well let's look

at it. What he says is come now you who

say today or tomorrow we will travel. He

is talking to people that say I'm here

right now but I want to be there to such

and such a city. He's talking to people

that say, "I'm here right now and I want

to be there. And not only do I want to

be there, I'm gonna get there." And then

he says, "Come now, you who say, "Today

or tomorrow, we will travel to such and

such a city and spend a year there."

He's not just talking to people that

say, "Hey, I'm here and I want to be

there." He's talking to people that say,

"I'm going to get there and I'm going to

spend a determined amount of time,

however long I want to be there or

however short. That's how long or how

short I will be there." And then he

says, "And we will go and do business

there. I'm here right now. I want to be

here. I plan on arriving there. I'm

going to be there for a specific amount

of time and I'm going to do the

following things. And then he says, "And

make a profit. And as a result of my

presence in this place that I determined

that I need to be for a specific amount

of time, I'm going to do things and it's

going to result in me experiencing the

results that I want to experience

because I said I

would. Who's James talking to?

You me? I mean, do you see where this

church sits?

He's talking to us. And some of you are

like, "I don't live right here." You

live close

enough. Quit trying to escape the wrath

of God this

morning. Yeah. He's talking about us. He

ain't talking about people that want to

live in their mom's basement. He's

talking about people that want to make

an

impact. He's talking about people that

do have hopes, dreams, drive, and

desire. He's talking about

us, a group of

individuals that desperately want to

make an impact with our life. Even if we

don't really know what that would look

like, but that list, that's all of us in

this

room. You're here and you want to be

there. Not only am I here and I want to

be there, I expect that I'm going to get

there. I presume that I'm going to be

there for a certain amount of time. I

presume that I'm going to do things and

I presume I'm going to experience

results as a result of that. And some of

you probably hear that and you're like,

"Well, what's wrong with

that? What's wrong with that? Why is

James frustrated by that? Is that what

James is saying? If I'm in here right

now and it's like after church, I plan

on going to

Epcot. And when I get to Epcot, I plan

on being there for four hours. And when

I'm there for four hours, I am going to

spend a sinful amount of money. And

while I'm spending a sinful amount of

money doing questionable things at

Epcot, I am going to find myself in a

position where I expect to experience

joy. And James is going, how could

you? Is that what's happening? Some of

us are like, that's a little ridiculous.

Like if you were to say right now,

tomorrow I'm going to go to Jag Cantina,

which is a new place opening up in

Windermir. It's very good, by the way.

If I'm going to go

there and I'm going to find myself

gathering with an old friend and

reminisce on old times cuz I miss them.

James is saying, "You monster. Is that

what's going on here? What is the issue

with that?" Here's the thing we got to

make sure we understand in this text.

James does not have a problem with

planning. He doesn't. We see that later

on in the text. He's going to make that

super clear.

He has a problem with us creating a

plan, presuming it's going to

happen, verbalizing it, telling

everybody else what our plan is. And if

I were to say, "Hey, where's God in

that?" You'd be like, "I I actually

don't

know. He's not there. I I did not go to

him with this at all." And it can create

a people who will claim that Jesus

Christ is king and lord of our life, but

we're living with a very temporal view

rather than an eternal

one. Here's the thing is when we make

plans for our lives, we like to play God

with our

lives. And there's a big difference

between planning and presuming.

Planning, the difference between

planning and presuming is that planning

will have you in a place of dependence

upon your designer.

Planning recognizes that life is

complicated, that it's complex, and

presuming just kind of ignores those

things. Yeah, I'm making this plan, but

it's just like, well, did you think

about, well, it's fine, whatever. But

that

planning understands that this life can

be chaotic. There can be unforeseen

circumstances that end up happening. But

presuming doesn't really do that. It

doesn't account for those things. That

planning will have you in a place where

you realize my life is concise. It's

brief. But presuming doesn't even think

about that at all. Some of us are like,

man, you know what? Like, if I live

another, you might not live

tomorrow. That

planning should be a place where the

believer in Jesus understands planning

is where I have humble confidence in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Where presuming is

arrogant boastfulness in my own self.

And we see that James is vehemently

opposed to that. That you'll see that he

continues on. He says, "Come now, you

who say today or tomorrow we'll travel

to such and such a city. spend a year

there, do business, make a profit. Yet,

you do not know what tomorrow will

bring, what your life will be. He says,

"Life is complicated, but it's also

chaotic." And some of you like,

"Complicated? What's the difference

between complicated and chaotic?"

Whether God's involved in your plan or

not, to execute that through for the

rest of your life, that by itself is

difficult, minus any unforeseen

circumstances that might end up

happening in the midst of

that makes it chaotic. Spurgeon had a

great commentary on this passage. He

said, "There are two great certainties

in this life. One is that God knows. The

other is that you

don't. See you next

week." I think the Lord

laughs at our fiveyear

plans. I mean, he laughs.

If you think about where you were five

years ago and where you are, ju just

absolutely is gathering heaven to just

chuckle at

us. I I'll tell you out of my own life

and testimony, there was not a world

where I was planning on doing

this

ever, ever. Like being a pastor or a

preacher was like it was like not even

in the cards. And I hate when pastors

say that. Don't you feel like every

pastor was like, "I was never going to

do this." Like, "Dude, you're like a

seventh generation preacher. Like, of

course you were gonna do this. You had

no options." Like, I don't have anyone

in my family that does this, right? Like

people are just like,

"Really?" Like, you know, like nobody,

not a single. So, people, is this

something that you were interested in?

It's like I It wasn't even that I was

like against it because quite honestly,

I was like, it's not even on the table

of possibility. Like, so that is just

crazy talk. I had a very simple goal. I

wanted to make as much money as humanly

possible and do so in a way that was

intellectually stimulating. That was my

goal for my

life. And so when I was studying at

Texas A&M, my farmers fight. Uh my whole

goal was truly at first I was like, I'm

going to be an anesthesiologist and I

was like, I don't like the insurance

situation there and that feels like a

little bit much. So I'll just settle to

be a CRNA and I'll be a nurse and nest.

That's fine with me. I can travel

around. I can spend time in New York. I

can do whatever I want. Kind of have a

fun life, make some money. don't have a

whole lot of boundaries on me. That'll

be a really great thing. And here's the

thing, in the midst of that, it's not

like I hated God. It's the other thing I

hate that preachers do is they'll act

like we have the highest calling in

human history. There's standards on our

calling, but it's not greater than

yours. Just bit, man, you the highest.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Like, like you

in your sphere of influence have just as

much role and responsibility in the

kingdom of God. This is what I'm called

to steward. you've got yours to steward.

It's all important. But it it's amazing

like I it I I still loved God despite

the fact that I was leaving him out of

my game plan a little bit. And so I was

involved in different things in college.

I would end up being a part of a church

plant in College Station. And as I did

that, people would ask me to do some

disciplehip things. And anytime someone

had to speak like, "Well, have Luke

speak." And I was just like, "What?" You

know, like and so just as a result of

that, things like that just kept

happening. And I'll never forget going

to visit my family in Dallas. And I'll

never forget it because Texas A&M was

playing Alabama. And as I got up there

and I was getting ready to leave, I just

started weeping on the way out the

door. And I mean like I don't character

flaw. I don't like to cry at all, but I

mean like I'm ugly

crying.

[Music]

Snot mixed with salt of tears mixed with

is he dying and we don't know it. Like

just all that. And I just I knew that

the call was inescapable. it was it

wasn't leaving and so I surrendered to

it. And that's just one of a million

different examples that I could use in

my own life. And you have your own

examples. This one just happens to be

the most obvious one for here and now

where you can realize I had a plan that

wasn't necessarily evil and sinister,

but the truth of the matter is that I

had left God out of it. He wrecked that

plan and he redirected me onto the path

that I'm on now. Or you're in the

process of being redirected and you're

resisting the King of

Glory. It's funny. I remember when we

were interviewing here, Lindsay and I

were coming down downtown Windermir and

we were passing through Chase Road to

get here and there's all these

monstrosities of houses and Lindsay's

like, "Who lives in these?" I was like,

"Annesthesiologist, nurse anesthetist."

Like, you

know, you

know, I'mma have treasure in heaven,

y'all. So, if you need something, call

me. All right? Like

Proverbs

Proverbs 27:1

27:1 says, "Don't boast about

tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow's

going to

bring. You don't have a darn

clue. So don't

presume. Lean into your dependence on

Jesus

Christ." Says, "Come now, you who say,

"Today or tomorrow, we'll travel to such

and such a city and spend a year there,

do business, make a profit. Yet you

don't know what tomorrow will bring.

what your life will be. You're like a

vapor that appears for a little while

then

vanishes. He says your life's

complicated. Says it's chaotic and it's

concise. It's brief. He uses the word

appears. And in the original language,

appears is like uh it's like the word

shine. You see it and then you look back

and you're like, "Oh, where'd it go?" He

says, "Your life's like that. It's

brief. It's like vapor. You're there a

little while then vanish. How are you

using your

shine? How are you utilizing your time,

the very little amount of time that you

have

here? How are you doing this? And we see

that he's going to say in James chapter

4:15, instead you should say, if the

Lord wills, we will live and do this or

that, which is amazing. It's great.

James will end up saying here not just

that this is not the correct path, but

that this is the correct path. that he's

not just going to say, "Hey, that's bad.

Don't do that." He's going to say, "Do

this instead." And he'll say that we

ought to be a people that mention if the

Lord wills, which is just him saying,

"Hey, we need to acknowledge his

lordship over our life, his sovereignty,

that we're not just operating here just

kind of as independent beings, but we

trust the Lord with every breath in our

lungs and every step that we take." But

I think this is where many of us, and I

would say somewhat justifiably so, go,

"Wait a minute, this is weird. We got we

got to talk about this."

What? But is do do I need to say that

every like future endeavor that I plan

on embarking on I've got to say if the

Lord wills like it's a conditional

clause. Go and eat lunch after this. The

Lord wills

it. Might go shopping after that if he

lets

me. Going to hit the bathroom if I can

make all the steps

there. Is that what we're saying right

now? because that's where I draw the

line. Like it would be hard to just be

with other people and it's like you know

what I just love Jesus Christ so much

and I'd like you to if he wills it. Like

I mean what do you do with

that? The Lord being involved in our

plans does not include us trying to

conjure up some

charm and using some kind of a

conditional clause at the end of every

single thing that we say that involves

some kind of future engagement with our

life. You cannot manipulate the Lord

with

language. And he is not so interested in

semantics and the pronunciation of

everything that you do and say to make

sure that you do it all absolutely

correctly and every word that comes out

of your mouth. He is much more

interested in the attitude of your mind

and the posture of your heart. The Lord

is not interested in your formulas. He's

interested in your

faith, in your

plans. Where is

he? And when I say that, you might be

like, "Well, practically, what does that

look like?" When when I make plans for

my life, us as a church, I I I don't

make plans and just say, "Hey guys, if

the Lord wills, if the Lord wills, if

the Lord wills, if the Lord wills, like

I I I don't." But there is a full-blown

understanding in me and the people that

I am around. We are submitting this to

you. The human responsibility that I

have in this life is fully submitted to

the holy sovereignty of the king of

glory who purchased my life with his own

blood. And so I am not going to be so

adamant about what we need to do next

that I would say get out of here so that

we can execute my plan. I am willing to

put my plan on the altar of your grace

and let it burn up that I might walk in

the ways that you're calling us to go.

And if it means that I need to get out

of the plan, then do

it. I'm submitted to you fully. That's

what he's talking about here. And you

see that he'll go on and he'll say, "If

the Lord wills, we'll live and do this

or that. But as it is, you boast in your

arrogance. All such boasting is

evil. And so, not only is life

complicated and chaotic and concise, if

you're not careful, you'll misplace your

confidence. Above all, we're being

issued a warning about our own arrogance

here. We're being issued this warning

about our own arrogance. And here's the

problem. we will start to find ourselves

really outside of our depth when we

become more reliant upon self and the

beginning of believing and trusting in

our own self tends to be the ending of

having any kind of depending and relying

upon the Lord. Why is it that often

times we feel like our plans are falling

apart. It's so that the Lord's can fall

into place but we have so much

frustration and we absolutely detest the

idea that we are not in control of our

own destinies. We don't like anything

about that. But what we see is that the

Lord is pretty much asking us here, hey,

am I just kind of somewhere out

there in the ethereal space of your

thoughts and planning and I'm just out

there in the solar system just kind of

floating around with everything else? Or

am I the thing upon which all of your

thinking and planning orbits?

I think some of us get really frustrated

with God because if you picture like a

pie

chart you've got family,

job,

friends,

responsibilities, whatever that you

would put in that chart. You'd put God

in that chart as well. And you feel like

this unbelievable amount of stress to

make sure that God's got the biggest

slice of the pie, but you just feel like

you're failing in that. It's like, man,

I feel like God only got 10% this week.

Got to try to figure out how to get that

up to 12. And and that's what's at least

getting closer to the other thing. No,

no. God God's not a slice in the

pie. He's over the

pie. Like some of you feel like, man,

when I I'm at work, I'm not spending

time with God. Why

not? Why

not? Everything in this life is used to

glorify God. the people that are around

you in those different spheres of

influence that you have, those abilities

that you have to reach out to him, even

as you're stepping into a meeting or

just having some free time as you're

walking to lunch, whatever that looks

like. He's sovereign over the whole

thing. Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9 would

Proverbs 16:9

say, "A person's heart plans his way,

but the Lord determines his steps." I

hate

that. Don't you? I plan, but you

determine the

nerve. But honestly, if if you're like

me, just in a moment of honesty, you

have a very difficult time submitting to

the Lord's plan, involving him in your

plans. Because sometimes when you've

done it, you're just like, why is he

making me take the long road and the

difficult path? Why? Anybody in here

been there

before? Lord, why are you leading me

from A to B through

Q? What's going on? Why are we doing

this? But the truth of the matter is, if

the good

shepherd guided you down your preferred

path and plan for your life based on the

limited knowledge and understanding that

you have rather than the better plan and

path that he has for your life, based on

the fullness of knowledge and

understanding that he has, he'd cease to

be good. that if we're in here and we

really would proclaim that the Lord's

ways and thoughts are higher than our

own, but we kind of want him to just

dumb it down to our ways and thoughts,

that would be irresponsible and unloving

of him to do

that. And in his love and grace, the

good shepherd will not lead you down the

path of your preferred destination. He

will take you into green pasture. And we

see that oftentimes, yes, that might be

the longer road, but it is also the

narrow path that leads to fullness of

life in his

name. I hate that I bring him up so

much, but I got to tell you, I I see

myself in him, and it scares me. And

quite honestly, I see a lot of us in him

as

well. The scariest thing in the

scriptures to me is not the verse where

Jesus says, "Depart from me. I never

knew you. I'm covered by the blood. I'm

good. I The scariest scripture to me is

the rich young

ruler. That's the scariest passage in

scripture because he he's seeking God.

He is he comes to Jesus and he says,

"Teacher, what must I do in order to

inherit eternal life?" Jesus knows that

he's already messed this up. There's

nothing you can do in order to inherit

eternal life. But he indulges him

knowing where this is going. He says,

"Well, you know the commandments. Don't

steal. Don't murder. Honor your father

and mother. all the commandments are

listed and then you see the rich young

rulers like I understand what you're

saying. He says, "But I I've kept all

those from my youth. So, I'm good to

go." And Jesus says, "That is so great.

I'm so happy for you." Hey, one one

thing before before you go. Um go ahead

and sell everything that you have, give

it to the poor, store up treasure in

heaven, then come and follow me. And it

says that he was dismayed by this demand

for he had many possessions.

The rich young ruler is invited to

become the 13th

disciple. And when the Lord asks for

something from him, he says, "Ah, that

wasn't in my

plan. That wasn't in the plan. I can't

do

that." He misses

out on walking through the greatest

story ever

told for his plan.

Woe to me that that would be my

story. And James says that in verse 17,

he says, "It's sin to know the good and

yet not do

it." Humble dependence on the Lord is an

unbelievably simple concept to

grasp. It is equally difficult to

do. And the Lord's not

anti-planning. He just wants to be

involved in your planning. And and some

of you feel like God's just cosmic

killjoy. Like there are lots of things

in the human heart that we feel like are

naturally wired into us and that we like

and that we want to pursue. And a lot of

those they do need to be ripped up and

burned. But there are a lot of good

things that he put in you that you feel

like oftentimes it's like is does God

just exist for me to be like, "Hey, I

feel really passionate about doing the

following things." And he's like, "No,

go this way." And you're like, "Why?"

Like, he's he's not like

that. He's a better parent than you

are. He knows that some of you like to

travel and some of

you unbelievable skill acquiring

wealth, doing all these different

things. He's not anti you planning with

those things in mind. Just wants to make

sure that he is at the forefront of your

mind.

How do you know that God

is pro- planning beyond what we just

read

here? And honestly, how how can we sit

here and

say, and he's worthy of having my trust

with his plan?

Well, God's been executing the greatest

plan in all of human

history for

centuries. When Adam and Eve sinned and

broke faith with God, sin and death

entered into the

world and we were fractured, separated

from him, communing with him.

And God made a

plan. Genesis 3:15, he said to the

Genesis 3:15

serpent, "I'll put hostility between you

and the woman and between your offspring

and her offspring. He will strike your

head and you will strike his heel." In

other words, you will wound him. He'll

deliver a death blow to you. I'm sending

my son. I'm sending a savior that's

going to stand in our place that we

might be brought into his

family. And some of you, you're not

moved by

that. And you're not moved by

it. Not because you don't think it's

true. You do think that it's

true. It's just that you're living like

this and not like this.

I am amazed how many

Christians trust God with their

eternities, but they don't trust him

with right

now. It blows my mind. And I'm the chief

sinner.

But I am amazed by how many

Christians will gather together and

proclaim that you span the gap of the

cosmos between heaven and earth. You put

on human flesh. You live the perfect

life that we could not. You died the

death that we deserved

willingly. Your perfect innocent sinless

blood was shed. And for those of us that

have repented of our sins and put our

faith in you, it takes away our sin,

past, present, and future. That you were

buried in a tomb for three days, but you

rose to life again, and I can have life

in your

name. But then if it comes down to

needing a job, you're like, I don't know

if he can do that.

If you trust him with your

salvation, you can trust him with your

circumstance. A couple options.

Some of us just need to repent of our

faithlessness. Our planning that has

just not involved him at

all. Some of us need to repent of just

resisting his hand at trying to redirect

you onto a better lifegiving path than

the one that you've created for

yourself.

Some of us just need to lay some things

at the altar and say, "I have been

pursuing this over you or that over you,

but I just want

you to lay it down before

him." If you believe that he's got your

eternity

secured, you can absolutely come to him

with that situation knowing that he has

not forgotten you there either.

Lord, would you wreck us with the

radical

realization of your good and loving

kindness that we so often ignore out of

our own

fears? Lord, there might be someone in

here right now that's like, you know

what, step one is that in my

plans, I've just chased down everything

that I can, but I actually have never

even fully surrendered my life to the

God who wants it.

If you're in here and you've never put

your faith in Jesus

Christ, but you feel that the Holy

Spirit is doing a

work in making you surrender. Would you

just say, "Lord, I believe that Jesus

Christ is the perfect son of God.

I realize that I've chased down every

sinful road that I can and I repent of

my sin and I want to put my faith in the

finished work of Jesus who took on human

flesh who went to the cross that his

blood poured out takes away my sin that

he was buried in a tomb for three days

and rose to life again and I believe in

him and want to have life in his name.

God, for the rest of

us, I ask that we would

be a church that is filled with

repentance. Just seeing ourselves as

vessels where it's like, I don't want to

serve water out of a vessel that's got

even a

speck unclean. Lord, would you do a work

in me? Would you clean

me of

anything that has hold of my decision

makingaking? and quite honestly is

fighting for the throne of my heart

above

you. Lord, would we find ourselves on

our faces seeking

you? We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.