PREACHING 3-1-16 AM
God has plans for your life. Being a Christian is inherently about doing life with God who of course is much bigger and smarter than you or me. He has always demonstrated that He is a God of purpose and plan. Life with God is not some random series of events unrelated to any deeper direction or purpose. Life is a constant discovery of growth and maturity as we will discover in today’s message.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
God had plans for Israel, and God has plans for your life. The New Testament reveals God’s plan hidden from the ages was revealed in and through Jesus Christ and we get to play a part in that enormous and overarching plan that culminates in the second coming of Jesus when all things are gathered together in Him for eternity.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight9 making known[c] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
It’s a calling, you’re not an “also ran”. Every day you get up out of bed as a Christian you are on mission. You are under the control and instruction of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means “Master Controller”. It’s not only a journey of subjugation but Jesus describes it as a yoke, where He is the main power in the relationship. He describes it as being joint heirs with Him and also as being in partnership. He calls us His friends and that’s a lot more than a slave relationship, it’s Sonship! Yet there is this overriding sense of destiny and purpose in all that we do with Him. Our life is not our own, we are bought with a price and we willingly receive His direction and listen for His instruction about what to do next and how to live. Some may think that this is a moment by moment waiting for instruction where we never know quite what to do from one minute till the next; but we know what to do, and how to live so the instructions are usually serendipitous in the sense that each day God has some detours or diversions for us to pay attention to in the midst of the normal pathway that is well known and thought through, because God has given us His leading in times past. Yet here is still this moment by moment relationship with Him. There is this “pray without ceasing” lifestyle that marks the Spirit led life where we find the relationship with the Holy Spirit to be fresh, real and connected as we walk with our best friend.
Some people don’t believe in destiny. One day a famous Australian Peter Daniels published a book about reaching your life goals; and in it he tells how he researched the lives of thousands of people who achieved greatness and read their biographies. He shows how the one overriding attribute they had in common was a sense of destiny. He recounts the life of Winston Churchill who being elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain early in World War II who declares to his wife Clementine, “I believe I was born for this hour”.
What were you born for? The tag line of our INC church movement is “Born for more” because we believe every person is born for more than what they experience right now and the way to achieve that is to walk hand in hand with Jesus Christ. For me, before I met Jesus as my Lord and saviour, I was a person without any direction. My high school and early days at university were random times of experience with no plan and no direction. I wasn’t even sure about why I chose to study engineering as I did. When I was born again, the very first thing I discovered was a sense being in God’s hands now and that meant purpose! The realm of the eternal was opened up and now I could see what God’s plan for the world and for me was. I was no longer a random being and directionless. I was now birthed into a divine plan and process of bringing the gospel to the world and filing heaven in preparation for His soon coming.
God took me on a journey of learning as I experienced kid’s ministry, teenager’s ministry, youth ministry then pastoring a geographical section of the church. We went through good times and bad. There were hardships, but through every experience, it is a journey with Jesus where you learn about Him and about how His kingdom works. Through these many experiences I discovered three important things.
- What is important in life.
- Who’s in control in my life.
- The journey is about preparation.
God is preparing you for eternity. You’re going to live with Him forever and there are things He has prepared for you in eternity. So there is much to learn down here on the way through. This is your testing ground, your Spirit University. So everything you experience here in this life can be preparatory if you let God guide you through the process. If we complain about the journey we can’t enjoy the journey and we won’t get the most out of it and become prepared. One of God’s pictures of doing life with us is the potter and the clay. (Jer 18:1-17) This year is for you. It’s a year to discover the plan and purpose for God in your life.
It’s time to consider leadership. I want to encourage everyone to consider acting like a leader. Everyone one of us is leading someone and we can learn how to lead more effectively as we grow through this journey with God. In the early part of this year we are offering leadership training on six Monday nights from February 8th until March 21st. This opportunity is for anyone who has a passion to be more available to God and better equipped to serve Him this year. Also our HUB leadership training is quarterly now and the first HUB night will be on Wednesday February 3rd and everyone is welcome to attend this Leader’s Engagement night.
To assist in preparing you for Gods plan and purpose this year our preaching will go to a new level. We will have four Preaching pathways this year.
- Matters of the heart – preparing your heart for victory
- The deeper things – Going deeper in the word with specific teaching.
- Logos injection – working through the book of Ephesians.
- A changed life – a testimony preach from someone who has an impacting life change story. This will be our opportunity to invite new people to come along and hear a message that will give answers to them and help them come to faith in Jesus Christ.
This will also be a year of deepening your prayer life. In the month of February we will be holding the “Fresh Air” time of prayer and fasting. As we seek God for our own lives and for this community we will open the door for the Holy Spirit to move in our lives and our church.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Why is it important to consider the year ahead as you enter this new year?
- What do you believe God has planned for you this year?
- How can you express leadership as a Christian in your own situation.
- Are you willing to be trained and equipped for leadership?
- If not, why not?
craigmanderson 