God's Purpose Is Greater Than Your Plans

Thank you

very much.

Thank you.

All right, let's pray real quick and we'll jump right in.

Father, we love you.

We thank you so much for this beautiful morning.

Pray today you just give us what you need us to hear today.

And we love you in Jesus' name.

I'm going to talk about some things I really love talking about today.

Let's start it this way.

Think back to a time when you were nine or ten years old.

Some of you, that might take a while.

I don't know. For me, it's at least 30 years ago.

That's a joke.

We can laugh in here, okay?

I know it's 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock.

But I'm really excited about what God has shown me

in my last 30 plus, 40 years of life.

And I think back to when I was 8 or 9 years old.

What is it you wanted to do when you were that age?

What is it you said when I...

up this is what I want to be think about it for a minute maybe it

was a I don't

know my turn my time was an astronaut or a fighter

jet pilot that's good or

retired that's good a wrestler Wahoo McDaniel mmm okay

those are okay way

before most of you but those things

You know, how are we doing with that?

How did you do with that?

Some of you are in different phases of life.

Some of you are older.

Some of you are younger.

How are you doing with those dreams?

You know, I heard this said one time.

Mark Twain said this.

He said, there's two days in our life.

Two most important days in our life are the day you were born

and the day you figure out why you were born.

Most of us struggle with the second one.

We should know the first one pretty well, but we struggle with finding

purpose.

And what I've discovered is that God's

purpose is much greater than your plans for your life.

I'm going to say it again because it's really hard to get.

God's purpose is much greater for your life than

your plans for your life.

we learned that the hard way and I'm gonna share that with you here

in a

minute I'm gonna expose some things I didn't sound right probably shouldn't

say it that way I'm gonna say some things today that might embarrass me

okay so

when I was growing up this is what I wanted to be nine

or ten years old I

wanted to be Donny Osmond

Are you a little bit country or a little bit rock and roll?

I don't even know what it is.

If you don't know who that is, look it up.

And I wanted to be him so much that I would sign my name on everything

Donnie.

Okay, that's how bad it was.

And don't judge me.

It was the 70s.

You know, in the 70s, everything's brown, too.

The cars are brown.

are brown the chairs are brown the sky was the only thing blue and so

we were

messed up in the 70s and that's what I wanted to be so

as I got older I found

out I wasn't the best singer so I started playing piano

so I started

learning how to play piano I'd buy journey books or you see you catch

my

age already

and I would learn to play those, and I did it all day long.

In fact, I learned every country song I could find.

And those days was George Strait, still George Strait.

But eventually I ended up playing in a band, a country band.

Listen to this.

One-Eyed Jack was the name of the band.

He might even know who they are.

I don't know.

But I started playing every Thursday, Friday.

and saturday night i'm playing in the band playing 70 songs a night and

picked up a bad habit of

smoking so i'm smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and i'm

enjoying this because i'm getting

to do what i think is my purpose this is what music was going to be my life

this is what i

was going to do you know i didn't care what anybody thought about it until

brenda my wife now

which was my girlfriend then and she said either you quit

or we're done

and i said well you can get out

i'm done with it no are you kidding me i hope she's not watching this but

she is

she is for sure but did she comment oh gosh um

but for me that was a wake -up call

call you know what what was I going to do with my life you're going to ask me to give up something

I love Brenda's like well what do you love more music

or me and so that was a wake -up call from

me what was I going to do with my life and as I went on I I

kept trying to decide what was that

going to be for me and she tried to get me to go to church

occasionally I would go I'm playing to

four in the morning, so I really don't want to go to church. And I had this crazy Sunday

school teacher, Tim, if you're listening, thank you, would call me

every Sunday morning

at 9 a .m. He'd say, Brian, get your butt to church. And I said, don't call

me again.

Stop calling me. And he'd keep calling me. And eventually,

I think they all wore me down

to the fact that I'm going to do this.

I'm going to try this God's way for once.

And I stepped into a Sunday school class, which I still think they have those in some places,

and began a journey of figuring out what God had for me.

What is my purpose?

And still trying to decide, is music going to be that, or is God

going to be that?

And so I'm fighting with purpose.

I'm fighting with my plan, and that's what most of you are doing today.

And before we leave today, I'm going to give you some simple things.

You're going to know your purpose.

You're going to know what you can do tomorrow or this afternoon before we leave today.

And I'm going to share that with you in a minute.

So maybe that's you today.

Maybe you're on that place.

You're on the fence with God.

I don't really want to do that.

I've been to church a couple of times.

It sucks.

People are.

mean, I don't really want you in my life. You know, I don't

really care for that. I

like where I am. I'm comfortable where I am. I don't want to change my life. Maybe

that's where you are. Maybe you need a wake up call. Maybe

you need something. Like for

me, part of my change in the past four years was my blood pressure. I

went to the

and he said you like 192 over 100 or something he said i might have to take you

to the hospital

it's a wake-up call and i believe today what i'm saying to you may be that

you need to think about your life there we go play some music

behind me yeah you need to think

about your life and your purpose what is it you want to do with it you probably don't think about

it much you just live your life but before you know it you're going to be

61 and you go oh what did I do with my life so

hopefully I can help you kind of put purpose

into your life today and help you move forward I want to read something to

you this is what God

says to us and I think

we all can share in that we're struggling to

find purpose right you agree

Has anybody found their purpose yet?

Boys, keep it down to a lower roar right here, okay?

That's amazing.

That's how important this is.

Because once you understand it, you can walk into it.

And it'll change your life, I promise you.

Jeremiah 29, 11.

This is a verse that you've probably heard your whole life.

I know I've read it many times.

It's on every wall in every kitchen in the world, probably.

it's one of those verses that it sounds great but sometimes we

don't understand the context

here it is 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 a hope and a future

didn't that sound great for i know the plans i have for you says the lord plans

to prosper you

so

that all the time but i have to remember something about that verse you ever had a

promise made and

it it had a catch to it like i went to disney

world they gave us two free tickets we got there

but we have to go listen to this timeshare thing it was horrible

they're ringing bells

every time somebody buys the property and it was like lord get me

out of here

In some ways, now, don't misunderstand me, this

verse gives you a promise, but there is a catch.

Because when you understand why it was written, Jeremiah wrote this, and God's

people had been conquered by the Babylonians.

Okay?

And they had been enslaved.

And God said, this is what I'm going to do for you, Jeremiah.

I know the plan.

Plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper you, not to harm you.

To give you a hope and a future.

And Jeremiah, that's great.

But guess what?

It's going to take 70 years

before I deliver you.

The promise is good.

God's promise is always good.

God's promise is always better than our plans.

Just sometimes, the purpose may take longer.

the purpose outlives what you do your job

that makes sense to you your purpose

will outlive you that's the beauty of

purpose that's why it's difficult to

fall in line with because we want immediate we want God's plan now we want

to see what he's doing now God give it to me now right

I want to be a millionaire tomorrow.

Can we do that?

Yes, Aaron, let me do that.

You know, we want, that's what we want.

And sometimes when God doesn't do what we want,

we back up.

But I want you to hear what God tells Israelites to do.

This is actually the verse before 29-11.

And this is what I'm going to help you with today.

is Jeremiah 29 4 through 7 listen this okay build

houses build houses plant

gardens and eat what they produce marry

and have sons and daughters seek peace

and prosperity this is the key in the city where you are in

other words

Yes, you're in captivity, but this is what I want you to do. This is your purpose.

Build. Plant gardens.

Make peace.

Trust me. The plan is coming together.

That's what I'm saying to you today. A couple things I want to give you.

You can do this. Surrender, first of all. If you don't surrender, you don't get it.

It's true.

Everybody do this.

right here. This is great. This is fun right here, isn't it? This is what we do

with God

almost every day. And I promise you, God's arms are longer. He's going to win.

But we

have to open our hands. We have to open our hearts. If you want to know the purpose of

God, you've got to make that first step. You've got

to open up. And it's hard to do. Like

I said, don't wait till you're 60.

Do it now for 70.

Open up.

Because God's plans are way better than your plans.

This one I'm working on.

Build good habits.

I started working out at 5 o'clock every morning.

My wife made me.

She's still making me.

But it's been great for us.

It's been a habit that's been good for us.

Build some habits in your life that are good for you.

That's a good purpose.

I find out my kids watch me as I work out,

and they see me going to the gym,

and they see me trying to take care of myself.

That's an influence.

That's a purpose that lives beyond me.

Make a habit of going to church this Sunday.

Pick one church.

church out of four Sundays, one Sunday out of four and go to church. Maybe

you can say

a prayer today. You make a habit of coming here every Tuesday. It's

real simple. And

it's so simple, you can almost just forget about it. So

what are we doing? We're going

to surrender, right? We're going to build, and we're going

to plant, which I would say,

what are your priorities?

Like for me

I'll tell you another story later

But

I've had to learn to spend time with my family

Because I'm a workaholic

I love to work

When I was a pastor

I never went home

I was always working for other people

More than I was for my family

Other people mattered to me

More than my family

That's not good

and we've had to work through that as a family.

I've had to make up for those days.

So part of that is that we have dinner at the table at least once a week.

Doesn't sound like much, but it matters, and we talk.

Make it important.

This one's the hard one.

Make peace.

Make peace of where you are in your life right now.

You might not like where you are.

you are. You might not like what's going on. I didn't like not having

a job for a year

and a half. I had to make peace with what God was doing in my heart. And

it's still

difficult. I had to make peace with those. Honestly, I just couldn't stand.

I didn't

want to talk to them. I didn't want to see them. You know what I'm saying? Some serious

hate in my life.

And God said, I can't use you with hate.

I understand you've had a tough life,

but that doesn't make any excuse for you to be this way.

Make peace with people.

And so I'm going to leave you with that today.

There's four things.

What are they?

Young members, surrender, build, plant, and make

peace.

I ask you

do one

do one today

we're going to need an outline soon

yeah if this is too much

I can narrow it down a little bit

S-B-P-P

but

I do

want you to understand

that for me

I might have shared this last week

I'll say it again

Honestly and truthfully, it took me 40 to 50

years.

Is it 50? No, it doesn't go that high.

Let's say 40.

To figure out what God is really doing in my heart.

It took me that long to really kind of understand

that His ways are higher.

His ways are better.

And I'm going to leave you with this verse.

For my thoughts...

Isaiah 55-8

For my thoughts

are not your thoughts

neither are your

ways my ways

declares the Lord

as in the heavens are higher

than the earth

so are my ways

higher than your ways

and my

thoughts are higher than your thoughts

he has a better plan

he has

a purpose for you we just need to move a little in

his direction and he'll give

you a glimpse of what he wants for you all right let's pray

father we love you

I can tell that some today in this room maybe

I'm watching online they're trying

to figure out why they're here

what they're made for what's their purpose i pray you speak to their hearts

today

encourage them to do one thing step closer to you and

i pray you would bless them encourage them

and show them how great and amazing you are

and we love you and we thank you for this day

in jesus name amen amen

All right, can I make one quick announcement?

Yeah, go right ahead.

So I want to welcome Brian to,

he's our new house band, right?

House band.

So we still may have testimony Tuesday sometimes,

but Brian, after last week, both Cole and I,

we were like, we ran to Brian to say,

man, would you consider doing this

and having us as your own, right?

So Brian graciously accepted, I think you accepted.

I did, yes, I did.

I signed something.

Yeah, and man, we're so excited to have you.

Thank you.

I'm excited to be here.

Dude, you're incredible, and I can't wait to see what happens.

Thank you, guys.

Dude, have a great day.

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