A Vision for the Future
July 13, 2008 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: God has a plan for us, but can we see it?
Focus Passage: Jeremiah 29:11-14
Supplemental Passage: Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Introduction: About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway? Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.
I. Elements of God’s Plan:
a. Welfare, not calamity
b. Future
c. Hope
d. Restoration
II. Hindrances to God’s Plan:
a. Trying to submit our own plan instead of submitting to God’s Plan: JONAH
b. Being “Half-committed” to God:
i. “Half commitment is the hesitation between following Christ and being merely religious. Half commitment is spouting pious words about submission while resisting all authority. Half commitment is justifying everything you want to do because, if you were God, you would let you do it. Half commitment is choosing convenience as preferential to costly sacrifice. Half commitment is being an admirer of Jesus without being His disciple. Half commitment tips God instead of taxing one’s soul. Half commitment talks much, sings some, gives little, cares less, criticizes a lot, and serves never. Half commitment creates sour servants, frustrated fellowships, proof-text piety, belligerent believers, and witless witnesses.”
III. Success of God’s Plan
a. (Prov 16:3) Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established.
b. (Psa 20:4) May he give you the desire of your heart (put the desires in your heart) and make all your plans succeed.
Invitation:
