Stick To The Plan: Part 2

Stick to the Plan: Part 2

Introduction:  This morning I want to challenge you…not to just hear the word, but to receive the Word…The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit gives life.  That’s why for one person they Hear the Word and are Liberated by the power of the Word, but another person sitting right next to them walks out the same way they walked in…nothing gained, nothing changed.

Hab 2:2-3

2 Then the Lord answered me and said:

“Write the vision

And make it plain on tablets,

That he may run who reads it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.

NKJV

“Sight is a function of the eyes; Vision is a function of the heart…”

 “Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare.”

“The greater tragedy than being born blind is to be born sighted yet have no vision.”  Helen Keller

Introduction: 

As believers we must stick to the plan.  No matter what comes our way, our job is to stick to the plan.

Stick to the Plan

Jer 29:11-13

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.

NLT

  1. The Call of God
    1. I was asked recently an intriguing question…now the question didn’t catch me off guard as much as where the question was coming from:“Why did you choose the Ministry?”
    2. See I grew up in a time when Ministry was a Calling…not a carrier to be chosen…
      1. I mean…you knew God had called you into the ministry…and if you could do anything else…you would.
    3. My Calling
      1. 17 years old…dream of me in a line being inspected for the military…and an angel came up behind me in my dream and asked me why I was joining man’s army when God had called me to his army…
      2. I woke up out of the dream into an open vision…of me standing in the middle of a wheat field…seeing a face in the corner of the field blowing on the field…and the heads of wheat turning into faces of people…
      3. Immediately a bible flew into the field and the pages blew open to

Isa 43:1-3

43

But now thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

ESV

  1. I went and spoke to may pastor about these things and a mentor…because I had never met someone who had dreams and visions…much less the kind I had had…
  2. I did know that God had just called me into the ministry….and it was confirmed by others…
  • So I then began serving at a whole new level at my church…
    1. I didn’t know the details of the plan…I just knew God had a plan…so I thought…Let me know God and He’d lead me into the Plan.
  1. It was 5 years later before I launched into full time ministry…and that wasn’t glamours…we left good jobs to go make nothing…but to follow a call, not a carrier….

Transition:  Projection dangers – too often we hear a story and think ours has to be the same…but it doesn’t…I’m not saying mine is even right…I’m just telling you follow God and Stick to the Plan.

  1. Seek God and You’ll Discover the Plan
    1. Too many people seek the plan and not the God of the Plan

13 If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.

  1. Moses saw the Lord before he (Moses) saw the Plan
  2. Abraham left in search for the Lord before he knew the Plan
  • We tend to want to know the plan more than the Lord of the Plan…
  • Purpose Driven – Life
    1. Author, Pastor, Leader, Pioneer Rick Warren wrote a best-selling book in 2002 entitled: Purpose Driven Life…
    2. The book covered topics such as:
      1. You were Planned for God’s Pleasure
      2. You were formed for God’s Family
      3. You were created to become Like Christ
      4. You were shaped fore serving God
      5. You were made for a Mission
    3. Unfortunately, what happened is many secularized the book…all they read was Purpose…and made it all about themselves!Sadly, God was left our of the question much less the equation.
  1. Obstacles Don’t Determine the Plan
    1. All through scripture every plan met up with Obstacles
    2. Nehemiah faced Obstacles to his plan of building a wall

Neh 4:7-10

7 When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairs of the walls of Jerusalem were going so well — that the breaks in the wall were being fixed — they were absolutely furious. 8 They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could. 9 We countered with prayer to our God and set a round-the-clock guard against them.

10 But soon word was going around in Judah,

The builders are pooped,

the rubbish piles up;

We’re in over our heads,

we can’t build this wall.

from THE MESSAGE:

  1. The enemy began to pass rumors throughout the hearts of the people of God…
  2. A spirit of defeat and negativity began to infuse the hearts and minds of the people of Israel…
  3. If you continue to read…the people of God began to believe the report of their enemies more than they did the people of God…
  4. HEAR ME IN THIS: THEY EVEN PRAYED AND CALLED FOR PRAYER YET THE ATTACK STILL CAME AND WAS EFFECTIVE.
  1. Just because you pray doesn’t mean you still won’t have to fight for the things God has promised…
    1. Pastor, I’ve prayed for my marriage, and we are still having problems…Fight
    2. I’ve prayed for my kids, and they are still acting foolish…Fight
    3. I’ve prayed for my business and my job and it’s still a struggle…Fight
  2. So, he put a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. Just because there were obstacles didn’t detour him from the plan of building the wall.
  • Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was too old to have a child but that did not delay or determine the Plan.
  1. Christ on the Cross: My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me? Christ felt forgotten and could have called angels to come and deliver him, but he stayed with the plan…
  2. Pastor, I have had this happen: It doesn’t determine the plan
    1. had a divorce
    2. a child out of wedlock
    3. been in jail
    4. drugs, alcohol, etc.
    5. It doesn’t change the plan…Stick with the Plan…
  1. Keep Your Vision on the Plan
    1. Sampson had his eyes put out to try to kill his vision of the plan
    2. The enemy will try to blind you from the plan so you can’t see how it is going to happen
    3. Can you imagine Joseph going from the Pit to Potiphar’s House as a slave, to the Prison…Somewhere in there He has to be reminded of the Plan of God the Vision God had given him…
  2. Wait on the Plan
    1. All too often we try to speed up the plan instead of walking into it.
    2. Life is a journey not a destination and too often we forget that
    3. We are in a hurry to get somewhere instead of enjoying the process.

Hab 2:3

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.

NKJV

 

  • The Plan may be slow in coming but don’t try to rush it, you will only make a mess of things:
  1. Story of the Prodigal Son:
    1. He was destined to get his entire inheritance
    2. Everything his father gave him, he was going to get in time anyway, but he hurried the plan, the vision. You know the story, The Prodigal son ended up Broke, Busted and Disgusted due to the fact he hurried the plan.
    3. We must be faithful as well as patient:
    4. “They that wait on the Lord will renew…”

Transition:  Let me give a word of Caution…though we as Believers need to learn to Wait on the Plan of God…sometimes we need not be afraid to move in the Plan of God! 

  • Run Your Race, Not Someone Else’s
    1. Too many people try to run with other people’s vision and plan
    2. Kids trying to run with Grandma’s vision for there lives

2 Tim 4:7-8

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only,   but unto all them also that love his appearing.

KJV

  1. The King James Version uses the word MY COURSE and that is exactly what it is, it is my course, not yours. God will not hold me responsible for running your course, but he will ask me what I did in my life with my course.
  • Closing
    1. You may be here and don’t have any idea what God’s plan is for your life and that is okay. It doesn’t start by getting to know the plan; it starts by getting to know the God of the Plan…
      1. HONESTLY, I THINK GOD IS IN THE UNFOLDING BUSINESS….
      2. THE PLAN UNFOLDS AS WE GET TO KNOW HIM…
    2. You may be facing Obstacles to your plan, that is okay, God is an obstacle removing God
      1. Sometimes He doesn’t remove the Obstacles…sometimes he moves you…
      2. The fiery furnace…accomplished one thing for the three Hebrew Boys…it burnt off their shackles. The things that tied them up and had them bound…
    3. Pastor, I have been running with everyone else’s plan but not My Course and today I want to run My Course.
  • You may be the prodigal and you need to come back to the God of the Plan.

There is a song that I love….it actually was and has been a prayer for me at times:

Lord, whatever you’re doing in this season

Don’t do it without me…

Don’t do it without me…

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