God’s Good Plan for You
Jeremiah 29:11-13
Today we begin an adventure that your church leadership believes is the plan of God for First Church of Christ. I come as a pastor. I will join your staff for the next 3 months and follow-up with you for the following 3 years. I am a Stewardship Pastor guiding you in a Capital Stewardship Campaign
I know there is always some apprehension about stewardship ministry. Some question, "Why have we engaged an outsider to do this job? Will he high-pressure and coerce us? Will he beat us up to get us to give? I want to assure you that I don’t come as a “fund-raiser” but as a pastor who is concerned about God’s good plan for you. God’s word says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:11-13)
Jesus emphasizes the high importance of our money in the New Testament. At least 16 of His 38 parables deal with money and the use of possessions. One of eight verses in the Gospels deals with the subject of money. More is said about money than heaven and hell combined. For every verse on prayer there are five about money. More than 2,000 verses deal with money and possessions. Yet:
God’s plan is more about living than it is about giving.
John 12:24-26a (NIV)— "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me."
Living in the plan of God means that you must be a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ. How does that work out?
God’s plan involves purposeful Sacrifice
Romans 12:1-2 I love the way J. B. Phillips paraphrases this passage — "With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity.
Madison Avenue specializes in squeezing us into the mold of the world. The pressure is on every time I turn on the TV, read a magazine or look at a billboard.
To overcome this pull we must redirect our attitudes.
Proverbs 1:17-19 (New Living) — "When a bird sees a trap being set, it stays away. But not these people! They set an ambush for them¬selves; they booby-trap their own lives! Such is the fate of all who are greedy for gain. It ends up robbing them of life."
At a missions conference in Manila I heard a man from China who had suffered terrible persecution because of his faith in Jesus. This was the Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization. Some of the greatest preachers in the world were there, but I don’t remember much of what they said. It was this Chinese layman that impacted me and it was just one month after the Tianamen Square massacre. This man told of how the Communist government had imprisoned and tortured him because of his faith in Christ. His tormentors finally decided that the worst thing they could do to him was to force him to work in a cesspool of human waste. Day after day his guards gagged as they pushed him into the putrid mess. But that dear man said, “Oh how I praised God for the cesspool. There they would leave me alone and all day I could pray aloud and sing praises to Jesus!” And then in his quivering, accented English he sang a song that I has never been one of my favorites, but is beloved by many. He gave it new meaning as he intoned:
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He had turned a miserable cesspool into a glorious garden because of the presence of Jesus. Jesus can transform the cesspools of our lives into a garden when we learn to offer the sacrifice of praise.
Learn from Jesus’ attitude: “who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame…” The motivation for sacrifice is a changed devotion. It was His devotion to you and me that sent Him to the cross.
David lived 700 years before Christ, and could not fully understand that sacrifice, but he wrote of it prophetically in Psalm 22. He was fully devoted to His Lord and God — "a man after God’s heart". He was also a great sinner. After one great failure, he was told to build an altar on the threshing floor of a man named Araunah. David said to the man, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.” Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my Lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
This faithful man offered to give these things to the king. It was no cheap offer. His threshing floor was a priceless piece of real estate, his primary possession. The fuel he offered was not some scrap wood, but his threshing sledges which represented his ability to feed his family and meet his most basic needs. He was willing to reorder his lifestyle in deference to his king.
We must reorder our lifestyles
You might think it would be wonderful as we begin the "Forward in Faith" stewardship emphasis, if someone offered to pay your offerings for the next three years. Do you realize how tragic that would be. You would be deprived of incredible blessing if you allowed that to happen!
David’s response is an example for all who are moved to sacrifice.
1 Chronicles 21:24 (NIV) — But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
Al Wheeler served Christ as a missionary in Cambodia. The only mail service he got was via a periodic parachute drop in his remote village. One day, a letter arrived from the University of California at Berkeley. Plans for a book highlighting the stories of successful alumni were underway. Since Al has a Ph.D. from there, they wanted his story.
The questionnaire asked:
1. “Do you own your own home?” Al looked at the two-room mud hut he was in and said, “Well, yes! I paid for this with a hundred dollars’ worth of machetes and trinkets. Yes, I own my own home” and he checked the box.
2. “Do you own a second home?” Al thought, “Well I have a one-room mud hut where we store things back at the jungle base station. Yep, I have a second home,” and he checked the next box.
3. “Do you own a boat?” He looked through the open hole that served as a window. In the moonlight, he could see the dugout canoe he had bought from the natives. “Yes, I own my own boat,” and he checked the third box.
4. “Are you traveling abroad this year?” With furlough coming up he could write, “Yes, we are traveling abroad this year.”
5. “What is your salary?” This multiple choice question started with salaries at $250,000 and went up from there. There were no choices anywhere near Al Wheeler’s missionary stipend, so he crossed them all out and put down his small amount. With a chuckle he thought, “I can hardly wait till this letter gets back to the school’s computer!”
Wouldn’t it have been fun to see the reaction when Wheeler’s questionnaire hit Berkeley! The world has a difficult time understanding those who are completely sold out to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
One writer proposes a scenario where all Christians in the American church have to declare bankruptcy. God forbid that should happen, but he says that if it did and all the church people agreed to tithe on their welfare checks, church income would double!
Historically the most generous givers in American churches have been those who came through the Great Depression. Something is wrong if we must be broke and desperate to respond to God. We need to respond out of love and devotion to what God wants us to do.
Sylvia Ronsvalle writes, “Giving is down because we don’t love God as much as we love a lot of other stuff.”
This requires that we must rearrange our priorities
Abraham is the great example. One day when Abe and Sarah were old God sent a message that the day had finally come. They would have a son. Sarah was eavesdropping outside of Abraham’s tent and when she heard the message, what did she do? Yes, she laughed. They named the boy Isaac, which translated means “laughter.” I’m not 100 and Nelda is not ninety, but if we got that message, I’ll promise you there would be no laughter. We would be biblical, but instead of laughter there would be “weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth."
Abraham and Sarah were overjoyed. Isaac was born and he brought incredible sunshine to their lives. Then one day God told Abraham to take Isaac to Mt. Moriah and offer him in sacrifice. I can’t imagine that. I have 3 daughters, a son, 3 grandsons and 6 granddaughters. I cannot conceive a greater devastation that losing one of them.
Abraham did not question God. He believed. At the foot of the mountain, Abraham left the servants and started alone, with Isaac up the mountain. Isaac said, “Father, we have all the wood and everything we need for the fire, but where is the lamb?” With faith beyond his comprehension, Abraham said, “My son, God will provide the lamb!”
At the top of the mountain everything was prepared. Finally, Abraham put Isaac on the altar and raised the knife. As it gleamed in the sun, God’s voice said, “Stop! I know you are completely devoted to me. You have proved it because you have not withheld that which is most precious to you.” Genesis 22:12b (NIV) — "Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
Some might think ill of God for asking Abraham to do so. How can you understand that? I don’t have an easy answer, but someone said, “When you cannot trace the hand of God, you can trust the heart of God.” God’s plan for you, as it was for Abraham is good. He just wants your complete devotion.
Everything we have belongs to God, including ourselves. God gives us the privilege of using and managing his possessions. He entrusts them to us, but never forget who owns them. God owns all that we are and all that we have and when He asks for those things we must give them back without hesitation. They are not ours, but His.
Sacrifice like Abraham’s is a willingness to say I’ll give the dearest thing I have. God may not take it, but we must be willing to offer it. Jesus challenges our lifestyles when He says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” He confronts our priorities when the world tries to squeeze us into its mold. He says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” Jesus challenges our idea of sacrifice when He becomes the ultimate model of sacrifice.
Like David, I want to say in response to Him, “I will not offer to my God that which costs me nothing.”
When Abraham came to his magnificent moment, he named the place, “Jehovah-Jireh”—the Lord will provide.
What is the real reward for sacrifice? Our personal sacrifice gives God the opportunity to truly demonstrate His power and His love. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would have meant nothing if not followed by the resurrection. A cross without an empty tomb means our faith is in vain. The opposite is also true. There would be no resurrection if there had not been a cross. Sacrifice had to precede the resurrection. God demonstrated His power in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The power of God is manifested wherever there is a willingness to give Him that which is most precious to us.
In John 12 Jesus spoke about a grain of corn being planted in the ground. Just a kernel of corn, a grain of corn, nothing more. Take a kernel, place it between your fingers. Talk about it’s heritage, whatever, but it’s still just a grain of corn.
You can put it on the shelf - admire it - even encase it in plastic - and say, "Isn’t that the finest kernel you’ve ever laid eyes on?" It’s of no value just sitting there in protective custody. But if you’ll take it and give it up — put it in the ground — it dies. In the process of death the power of resurrection bursts forth. For every kernel planted, thousands are produced.
Like the kernel of corn, when you simply sacrifice/surrender whatever you have, then it brings forth much fruit and life.
You may QUESTION - AND IT’S A GOOD QUESTION — What do I get out of it?
You get God’s good plan for your life, THAT’S ALL — it’s enough.JUST LIFE!
