YOUR PLANS: GOD'S PLANS
PROVERBS: WISDOM THAT WORKS • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
You make or break your life on the basis of your choices.
Is this the right job for you? Is this the right amount of freedom to give to your child at this age? Is this the right person to confide in? Is this the right person to give this responsibility to? Is this the right person to marry? Was it right not to marry that person?
You make or break your life on the basis of your choices.
In every one of those situations, the options in front of you are many, and most all of them are moral. Most all of them are legal. Most all of them are allowable, but most of them aren’t wise. We need guidance to make decisions.
GUIDANCE
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word guidance comes up quite a bit, especially in the book of Proverbs. In fact, it shows up in the first verse that was read.
ROPE - GUIDANCE
Guidance comes from a word for rope because ropes were the method of navigation for sailors in those days.
ROPE - GUIDANCE
You would use ropes to lower the sails when the wind was in your favor or to move the sails when the wind changed or to raise the sails and tie them up when a storm came up. Otherwise, you would be blown totally off course, so ropes were ways of navigating.
How do you get God’s guidance?
How do you get God’s navigation? We’ll find out by looking at these proverbs and understanding, first of all, the guidance God does; secondly, the guidance God gives; and thirdly, the guidance God purchases for us.
THE GUIDANCE GOD DOES
According to this list of proverbs, there are two ways in which God does guidance. He guides paradoxically, and he guides non-obviously. What do I mean?
PARADOXICALLY
Take a look at the second last and the third last proverbs in the list. The second last proverb is something that probably is not going to raise any eyebrows.
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
The word hasty means impulsive. The word diligent can be means strategic, thoughtful, reflective. It’s saying, “Instead of just letting life happen, if you act, if you plan ahead, if you’re strategic, life will go better.
Making choices, making decisions, and acting makes a difference.
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Casting a lot is very much like flipping a coin or drawing a straws. Every little detail, every coin toss comes down exactly the way God planned.
Even the smallest things are fixed by God’s plan.
We do not know as human beings how to hold those together.
We’re told we are absolutely free and we’re absolutely determined at the same time.
In the Bible we’re told that we are absolutely free and absolutely determined at the same time. Those are even the words it uses.
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
It says your plans are yours. Your choices are yours. You are responsible for them.
No one is forcing. God is not forcing you in any direction. If you do something dumb, wicked, selfish, or cruel, there are going to be bad consequences. You will be held accountable by God and people.
Nothing happens that’s not according to his plan. Your plans belong to you.
Your plans are yours, however as a result of those plans, what actually happens in history, whether it’s words in verse 1 or actual deeds in verse 9, are absolutely controlled and totally fixed and set by God. Nothing happens that’s not according to his plan. Your plans belong to you.
Your choices belong to you. What actually happens is completely set.
It’s completely fixed, both at the same time, not 50–50, not like 50 percent free and 50 percent fixed. No, 100 percent free, 100 percent determined under the sovereignty of God.
Our Struggle
We struggle with this because we don't have human categories that can work this truth out. We just don’t think that can happen. It’s oil and water to us. It’s one or the other or some mixture.
OEDIPUS
Literature proves our struggle that “things are basically set, or things basically are free and open.” Let’s take the more fatalist approach: the famous legend of Oedipus.
OEDIPUS
Oedipus, when he is born, the Delphic Oracle says he will kill his father and marry his mother. That’s his fate. He grows up, he hears the prophecy, by the way, and he does everything he can to avoid it.
OEDIPUS
He makes all of his choices to try to avoid it, but in the end he kills his father and marries his mother. In other words, his choices have no connection to his destiny.
OEDIPUS
His destiny is fixed in spite of his choices. There’s no connection between them at all. He can choose and do everything he wants. It doesn’t matter. It’s going to happen.
MARTY McFLY
Let’s take another famous figure in literature: Marty McFly. At the end of the Back to the Future trilogy of movies, Doc Brown explains the message of that profound set of movies,
“Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one …”
This is what US popular culture believes. “Your future is not set. It’s not written. It’s whatever you make it. So make it a good one.”
We either believe we’re determined, or we believe we’re free.
If you believe either of those, you’re cooked. It’s impossible to live a decent life that way.
If you believe everything is fixed no matter what you do, that there’s no connection between your choices and the destiny, you’re going to be totally passive.
You’re going to be totally bored. You’re going to be totally cynical, totally hard, totally indifferent. “Who cares?”
If you believe there’s a total connection, that your destiny is completely set by your choices you’re going to be paralyzed.
PASSIVE OR PARALYZED
When I was 21 I did everything I possibly could to get married to a woman who, if I had gotten married to her, would’ve been the wrong woman. As I look back at my younger self, I now believe much of what I wanted were wrong, were bad things. If I had gotten them, they would have been very bad.
Knowing how little we know only a fool would want to live in a universe where your future is completely and totally fixed by your choices!
The biblical understanding, which is intellectually difficult to hold onto is utterly practical. The Bible does not say your choices have no connection to your destiny or that your choices determine your destiny.
Rather God in his sovereignty relates your choices partially to your destiny, but he is the One who fixes everything.
Therefore, you are held responsible, you are completely free, and yet you can relax. If everything was just all fixed, there would be no incentive, but since your plans are yours, they belong to you, and your consequences will come from bad choices.
You have every incentive to work with every fiber of your being to do well and to do right and to be wise, but on the other hand, since everything is under the control of God, who is working things together for good, you can relax and not freak out.
This is the reason why Paul acted the way he did when he was in the boat in Acts 27.
ACTS 27:13-32
He was in a boat with soldiers and sailors in the Mediterranean. There was a terrible storm that came up. The storm was so bad the men were afraid for their lives, and God came and spoke through an angel to Paul and said,
For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship,
and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.
ACTS 27:13-32
Once God had told him that was the way, that was the way. Yet the next day in the midst of the storm when the sailors try to abandon ship, Paul grabs the soldiers, takes them to the part of the ship, and forces them to stay and says to the sailors,
Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
PASSIVE, PARALYZED, OR PLACID
You say, “All right, well if they’re all going to die, then it’s not sure they’re all going to live, but if it’s absolutely sure they’re all going to live, who cares how they act?” If either of those is true, you’re not going to be wise in the storm.
PASSIVE, PARALYZED, OR PLACID
You’re going to be passive, or you’re going to be paralyzed. Paul was PLACID because he understood he’s absolutely free and absolutely in the hands of God.
NON-OBVIOUSLY
Here in the middle, pretty much in the middle of the reading, this is 16:4.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
Do you know what that’s saying?
It’s saying not only are little things part of God’s plan, but bad things are part of God’s plan, the evil deeds are part of God’s plan.
NON-OBVIOUSLY
If you had not just been through what we’ve just been through, if you hadn’t thought through Proverbs 16:1 and Proverbs 16:9, you’d say, “Oh no, if bad things are part of God’s plan, God is the author if evil.”
NON-OBVIOUSLY
The plans of a man belong to him or to her. That is to say evil deeds belong to the evildoer. They are responsible for the evil deeds. God does not force anybody to do evil deeds. They are yours. He hasn’t made you do that.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
Yet God is going to overrule, work and weave in even the worst things into an ultimate good in the end. The perfect example of that is Joseph. He’s one of many brothers, and Jacob was utterly poisoning that family destroying that family system because he was favoring Joseph over the rest of his brothers.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
Joseph was on his way to becoming proud, becoming cruel, becoming haughty, becoming shallow. He was on his way to being wrecked, and his brothers were all becoming murderously bitter. Of course, we know what happened. The brothers threw Joseph into a pit and sold him into slavery.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
When he was in Egypt as a slave, he was accused of rape, and he was thrown into a dungeon. If you read the story of Joseph you’ll see years go by. Over and over he’s thrown into these dark pits, and he cries out to God. There’s no answer. God seems to be absent.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
Year after year after year, one thing goes wrong after another. there’s slavery and injustice. there’s screaming, fighting, running and crying.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
Despite the many trials and challenges that Joseph and his family faced, God's providential hand was guiding their journey. Through a series of seemingly unfortunate events, God orchestrated a greater plan, which ultimately led to Joseph's rise to greatness and the reconciliation of his family.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
It was only in hindsight that the significance of those difficulties became apparent, as God's providence unfolded, saving not only Joseph's family but also countless others from starvation during a time of great need in the world.
JOSEPH - GENESIS 37-50
Genesis 50:20 is almost an exact restatement of Proverbs 16:3, when he looked at his brothers and said,
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
What does that mean? It means never, ever, ever think God is not working, no matter how much it seems like he’s absent.
GOD WORKS NON-OBVIOUSLY
At the same time never, never, never think you’re going to be able to figure out for a long time what he’s up to. Don’t say, “He has till Saturday to tell me why he’s letting this happen!” No, God works non-obviously, but God works.
God’s guidance is more something God does than something God gives.
Do you see how important it is? People are always saying, “I need God’s guidance. I have to figure out his will.” God’s guidance, according to the Bible, is more something God does than something God gives.
God’s guidance is more something God does than something God gives.
When somebody says, “I need God’s guidance,” you’re standing in it. You’re in the middle of the current. It’s moving you right along. You are being navigated. You just may not think so.
THE GUIDANCE GOD GIVES
We do have to ask the question … How does God give guidance? Because you do have decisions to make. How do we get the guidance God gives? Now again we have two principles we get out of the Proverbs.
PAY THE PRICE
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
You read that, and right away you say, “That’s great,” and I’ll bet you think you know what it said. I thought I knew what it said.
WORK/PLANS NOT PLANS/WORK
This is a complete reversal of the way people think. You would think they would say, “Commit your plans to the Lord, and then your deeds will succeed.”
WORK/PLANS NOT PLANS/WORK
In other words, commit your plans to the Lord and then the execution will succeed. That’s what you think it’s saying. It’s not saying that. It says the opposite.
WORK/PLANS NOT PLANS/WORK
It says, “Commit your deeds to the Lord, and you will become more and more a person who makes smart plans, more and more become a person who makes successful plans.” It’s exactly the opposite of what you might think.
The word commit is a word that literally means to roll over onto, to put all of your weight on.
This is saying unconditionally trust God for all things that happen in your life and you slowly will become a person who makes wise plans.
Why do I call this “paying the price”?
I don’t mean by paying the price earns guidance. I’m saying paying the price receives guidance.
God’s fee is the highest one of all.
It costs everything. The guidance of God requires abandonment. We no longer say, “If I trust you, you will give me such-and-such.” Instead, we must say, “I trust you. Give me or withhold from me whatever you choose.” As John Newton says,
“What you will, when you will, how you will.”
Finding God’s will is not coming to God and saying, “If I trust you, you will do such-and-such.” That’s the way we read the proverb before we thought about it.
“What you will, when you will, how you will.”
If you want guidance, you come to God and say, ‘I trust you. Give me or not give me whatever you choose. Lord, what you will, when you will, how you will.’ ”
“What you will, when you will, how you will.”
What does it mean to unconditionally trust God for every part of your life? It means,
Lord, from this moment on I will obey anything you tell me whether I understand it or not, I will accept anything you send me, whether I understand it or not, but I’m not going to bail on you no matter what.
What you will, when you will, how you will.
The Bible is saying only if you go through life like that, not bailing on God, obeying unconditionally, trusting unconditionally, committing everything, as time goes on, both your good times and your bad times will turn you into the kind of person whose plans are wise, whose plans you plan more and more successfully.
WE WANT THE HOLLYWOOD VERSION OF JOSEPH
An angel shows up and says; I’m going to settle this right now. We don’t need 40 years of misery and pain. You, Joseph, you’re turning into a spoiled brat. Stop it.
WE WANT THE HOLLYWOOD VERSION OF JOSEPH
He’ll say, to the brothers, you’re turning into murderously bitter people. Jacob, watch out. They want to kill him. They want to sell him into slavery. Don’t let them do it.
WE WANT THE HOLLYWOOD VERSION OF JOSEPH
To Jacob he would say; you have to stop your favoritism and oh, by the way, everybody, 25 years from now there’s going to be a terrible famine, so you’d better start saving up. Otherwise, you’re going to die of starvation.
WE WANT THE HOLLYWOOD VERSION OF JOSEPH
What took 40 years of misery and pain is done in 30 minutes. Now let me tell you how it works in real life.
Nobody has ever learned they were a sinner by being told.
In reality you never become wise like that. Nobody has ever learned they were a sinner by being told. No one has ever learned about their flaws by being told. You have to be shown. The only way you’ll see your flaws is in experience. Until you see your flaws, they’re going to control your life.
No one ever learned God loved them by being told.
No one ever learned God loved them by being told. I tell you every week and many still do not believe. If you did you wouldn’t live the way you do if you believed that. Do you know what you need in order to really know? You have to be shown.
No one ever learned God loved them by being told.
Over and over and over as life goes on, you have to be in positions where you’re absolutely sure God has abandoned you and then find out later on you were wrong. That has to happen over and over and over.
When you commit everything to him you will find in time yourself becoming wise. You’ll understand more fully your flaws and therefore your plans are more than they would be otherwise.
When you commit everything to him you will learn God loves you and therefore your plans are bolder than they would be otherwise.
Therefore, by paying this price, by committing everything to him, by then saturating yourself in his Word so you not only see the solid lines to your decisions but the dotted lines …
For example, look at the first proverb.
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
What does that mean? Your honesty guides you. Wouldn’t it be better to say God guides honest people? Yes, of course, that’s true, but don’t you see what it’s saying?
God does not so much tell you how to get guided but how to become the kind of person who gets guided
This is how to become the kind of person who makes wise choices.
The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.
Through a profound commitment to God, acknowledging our imperfections and placing unwavering trust in His love, our understanding of self and divine guidance deepens over time. As we grow spiritually, our plans and decisions naturally become wiser, just, fair, and balanced, as we align them with God's divine wisdom and purposes
You become a wiser person from this radical commitment.
Look at all the other verses which tell you …
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
DEVELOP THE WISDOM
Here’s how you get God’s guidance. You commit yourself to him utterly. That slowly turns you into a person of wisdom. Because of the humility you get, you turn to everybody else, and so you generate lots of options. You’re not a fool.
DEVELOP THE WISDOM
You don’t think you know everything. Because of the love you feel from him, at the same time you’re bold, you’re diligent, you make plans, and that’s how God shows you what you should be doing. This isn’t necessarily, however, what most Americans want to hear.
DEVELOP THE WISDOM
When most people have come to me over the years, as a pastor they come to me and say, “I have decisions to make, and I want God’s guidance. I want to discern the will of God.” I always say, “Make a decision.” They say, “How spiritual! I thought you were a pastor. I’m trying to find out the will of God. How do I know what God wants?
DEVELOP THE WISDOM
In the Old Testament you had the Urim and the Thummim. There were many places in the Old Testament where people went to the Urim and Thummim and there was no answer from God. That is they didn’t get a yes or no answer.
DEVELOP THE WISDOM
One time David went and asked God a question with the Urim and Thummim. He was on the run from Saul, and he said, “If I hide in that city and Saul pursues me there, will the people of the city give me up to Saul?” God said yes, so David didn’t go there.
DEVELOP THE WISDOM
We read that, and we go, “That’s what I’m talking about! However, there’s no talk of that when you get into the New Testament. Why doesn’t God do that? Because it requires no use of wisdom.
Be careful of creating emotional Urims and Thummims.
You say, “I have peace about this, but I don’t have peace about this. I’m praying about this, and it feels good. I’m praying about this, and it doesn’t feel good. How do I know?”
I am not saying to listen to your feelings I am only encouraging you not to lean on them.
Listen but don’t lean and talk it out with somebody else.
What if Jesus had decided the will of God based on some emotional Urim and Thummim?
“Should I go to the cross or not? I don’t have any peace about it …” Of course, he didn’t have any peace about it! He would never have gone. Where would you be? Why doesn’t God just do it? Why doesn’t he give us the answer? Why does he say make a decision?
PERSONAL TESTIMONY
We have to understand the guidance God gives does. Then we can understand and use the guidance God gives. They operate together.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
This is very important. When you read 16:3, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed,” which actually means, “Unconditionally trust God. Make a radically unconditional trust commitment to him, and you will slowly become the kind of person … He will guide you. He will make you the kind of person whose plans are wise and you make good choices.”
Who does that? Who commits completely? Who rolls everything over onto God?
That word commit is an absolute word. Who puts all their weight? Nobody in this room. In that case, I guess we’re not eligible for his guidance and yet it still comes to people.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
When Jesus Christ was in the boat asleep during the storm and his disciples were just flipping out, they were freaking out, why? Because here they are in a storm and their Navigator, the Lord, is sleeping. There’s no navigation, no guidance in the storm.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
They’re freaking out, so they wake him up, and they say, “Lord, don’t you care that we’re dying?” He says, “Where is your faith?”Let me interpret Jesus response through our own parental experiences.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
At some point your child is going to look at you when you withhold something from him or her. You don’t let your child have something they really want. They look at you, and they say, “You don’t love me.”
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
You want to say, “How dare you! You have no idea what I have done for you. You have no idea the sacrifice. You have no idea the things I have withheld from myself to raise you. If you knew all I have done for you, you would never question my motive for withholding that from you.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
When they said, “Master, don’t you care that we’re dying?” I think Jesus was saying back to them, “Don’t you care that I’m dying?” When they said, “Master, you’re not really navigating us through the storm,” here’s what Jesus is saying.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
“There is a real storm coming,” a cosmic storm, a storm of God’s wrath, a storm of eternal justice, a storm of the justice we deserve for everything we’ve done as human beings.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
He says, “I am going to bow my head before that storm, and I’m going to take it for you. I’m going to go through that storm without any navigation.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
The Father is going to abandon me. I will be the only righteous person in history who committed absolutely everything, rolled everything over onto the Father, and I’m going to sink. He’s going to abandon me.”
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
He says, “I am going through the ultimate storm without navigation so you can be sure, in spite of the fact you don’t deserve it, you will always have me at the helm.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
I’m going through the ultimate storm without navigation. I didn’t abandon you to that storm. Therefore, I will not abandon you in this storm. You know it now because I’m telling you.”
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
Look at Jesus. Look what he’s done. To the degree you know that, to that degree you will be able to commit everything to him and become the kind of person who makes wise decisions.
THE GUIDANCE GOD PURCHASES FOR US.
There was a man who was very prone to clinical depression who wrote a wonderful hymn. This is how he got through it.