God Has a Plan
May 17, 2009 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: We must trust our future to God.
Focus Passage: Jeremiah 29:11-13
Supplemental Passage: Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)
Introduction: Hudson Taylor had definite convictions about how God's work should be done. We can make our best plans and try to carry them out in our own strength. Or we can make careful plans and ask God to bless them. "Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes."
I. Planning
a. We make our own plans, but we often mess them up.
b. God has plans for us, too, and is there to help us mop up the mess when we get it wrong.
c. 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)
II. Praying
a. You can’t find the answers in yourself.
b. Go to God for help
c. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. (James 5:16)
III. Seeking
a. God doesn’t ever move away from us; we move away from Him.
b. God will always be there for us.
c. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
