When the Plan Doesn’t Go According to Plan

SCRIPTURE: 1 KINGS 19:19-21

1 Kings 19:19–21 NIV

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

INTRO.

How do you feel about surprises?

Hands up, who LOVES a good surprise? Who HATES surprises?

TENSION.

Personally, I HATE surprises! I don’t hate that other people love them. I just hate them for myself because I pride myself on being a planner.

Anybody else? Where are the planners in the room?

Who is the opposite and you’re a free spirit who doesn’t want to be tied down to a plan and just wants to go where the day takes you?

Y’all make me anxious, I don’t know how you do it.

Me, I’m a planner, and exhibit A of that is Christmas.

When I was a kid, I used to sneak into my parent’s closet and look at my Christmas presents because I wanted to know (have a plan) for what I was going to be getting! Even now as an adult, the way that Shelby and I do Christmas is I send her a link to exactly what I want and she buys me that thing for Christmas. And you know what…I LOVE IT! I love knowing exactly what I’m going to get with no surprises.

And that’s why I really vibe with Elisha, because he was a planner…and a really good one!

Like, in Elisha’s high school year book, he’s the dude getting voted as most likely to plan his own surprise party.

TRUTH.

I also really vibe Elisha because he was a farmer. In fact, that’s the first thing we learn about him when the Bible introduces him.

1 Kings 19:19a (NIV)

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.

I grew up around a LOT of farmers. In fact, my main job when I was in middle school and high school was working on a farm. And the thing about farmers is that they are MAJOR planners. They are unbelievably strategic about what they do and when they do it. They know what field they’re going to plow at what time because they know what seed they’re going to plant in that field at what time because they know when they’re trying to harvest that crop and they know how much time that crop will need to grow.

So when we read that Elisha was plowing the field, what I want you to see is that,

1. Elisha has a plan

And…

2. Elisha is working the plan

And apparently, Elisha’s plan is a good one because Scripture tells us that he’s got 12 yoke of oxen helping him plow the field - it means that Elisha’s family is well off. They’re able to buy more oxen to help them farm more land!

So Elisha’s got a plan, he’s working the plan, and it’s working.

But an interesting thing happens to him as he’s working the plan…he gets interrupted.

1 Kings 19:19b (NIV)

Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him

I know we’re talking about Elisha, but we have to pause for a second because it’s hard to talk about Elisha without talking about Elijah. In the Old Testament, specifically in the time that Elisha was alive, God had set up Israel to have 3 “offices” that helped rule over the people: a king, a priest, and a prophet. The king was in charge of running the kingdom and making sure that God’s law was enforced in Israel. The priest was in charge of the temple and spoke to God on behalf of the people. And the prophet was as an advisor to the king and spoke to the people of Israel on behalf of God.

Elijah was Israel’s prophet. His job was to listen to what God said and then deliver the message to the relevant people.

So Elijah shows up to Elisha’s farm because God had something to say to Elisha. Look at 1 Kings 19:16-17

1 Kings 19:16–17a (NIV)

Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.

And so Elijah heads to the farm and he throws his cloak over Elisha, which symbolized that Elijah was appointing Elisha to be the next prophet of Israel. I don’t know if you’ve picked this up yet, but that was NOT part of Elisha’s plan. Elisha’s a farmer, he’s not a prophet. He hasn’t been trained for this, he hasn’t grown up aspiring to this, heck, earlier that day he didn’t even know that this was a possibility.

He was just plowing the field and working the plan.

Have you ever been interrupted like that before?

What do you do when your plan doesn’t go according to plan? I think there’s a unique temptation for the planners in the room and the free sprits in the room.

For the planners, the temptation is to assume that your plan is the right plan and an interruption is a temptation. So when you get interrupted, you grit your teeth and get back to working the plan as fast as possible.

And listen, there’s a time and a place for getting back to working the plan and overcoming temptations. But I also think it’s really easy to make an idol out of your plan and miss Divine interruptions that could serve as invitations into God’s plan.

For the free spirits, the temptation is to abandon the plan or just not have one and assume every interruption is an invitation. And while there are moments of Divine interruption that is an invitation from God, there are also PLENTY of moments where the interruption is a temptation, not an invitation.

Despite being a planner, and I imagine being prone to ignoring the interruption and going back to working the plan, Elisha engages the interruption and discerns whether it’s a temptation or an invitation.

1 Kings 19:20 NIV

Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

Did you see that Elisha had to run after Elisha? I think that means it took him a minute. Elijah threw his cloak on Elisha, and I think Elisha took a minute to discern - is this an interruption to my plan or invitation to a better one?

And that’s actually an important piece of the story. Even though God had spoken and Elijah delivered the message, Elisha got to decide if he went or not.

1 Kings 19:21 NIV

So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

Elisha goes, and not only does he leave his plan, he actually makes a sacrifice of the tools that were helping him accomplish his plan earlier that day.

APPLICATION.

Sometimes when you read a story like this, it’s hard to know what to do with it. What are we supposed to take from Elisha’s story?

Best I can tell, this is a story about faith and it offers a word of challenge to anyone who reads it, planners and free spirits alike.

To the planners I want you to see that Elisha had a plan but he followed a person.

To be honest, I’m often impressed by the plans that some of you have and the discipline you have to work the plan. Many of you have a really good plan for your life and you’ve done such a great job at working the plan, plowing the ground in front of you, and it’s working. But can I tell you something? It’s usually easiest to drift in your faith when the plan is working.

Over and over again in the Old Testament, the people of Israel drifted from worshipping the one true God to worshipping idols. And over and over again when the people drifted is wasn’t when things were going badly, it was when things were going really well. Some of the worst drift from God happened when the people were living in the Promised Land God had given them. I think there’s a real temptation to make an idol out of your plan and drift into no longer following the person of Jesus.

In fact, a helpful question to ask yourself may be can you step out in faith if God interrupts your plans? Some interruptions are actually Divine invitations to step into a better plan than the one you have for yourself.

For some of you, I think you’ve got some really great plans for your life that aren’t God’s plans for your life. And just like Elisha, even though God is inviting you, you have to decide if you’ll actually follow Him and step into His plans for you.

Can you step out in faith if God interrupts your plans?

And just a warning for those who do, you have to sacrifice in order to do it. Things that used to serve your old plan may have to be sacrificed as you follow a new one.

STORY.

[SP Note: Tell a personal story of a sacrifice you had to make in order to take a next step towards Jesus]

My first job was at a church in Kentucky, and on paper, everything was going according to plan. There were definitely parts of it that were hard - like living 6 hours away from our family and not having a lot of friends there that were our age. But there was a lot that was going right too. Our student ministry was growing, the Senior Pastor had just named me as the successor of the church, and Shelby and I had more money than we knew what to do with. But as we were there, I kept feeling like we were supposed to leave. I didn’t necessarily want to leave. We’d only been there one year, if we stayed there I was going to end up running the church, and we were only going to be making more money. It felt really dumb to abandon the plan. It felt like the plan was working too well to justify leaving and going somewhere else.

And the more that we explored going somewhere else, the more pulled I felt toward coming to 12Stone to do the Residency. That would mean Shelb and I quitting both of our jobs and moving 12 hours away from our family for me to only make $500 a month. And it meant giving up being in charge to become someone’s Resident. On paper, it didn’t make sense to me to leave, but I couldn’t help but feel like it was a Divine interruption that was an invitation to a better plan.

I remember talking about it with Shelb one day and a picture came to our minds. One day we were going to have grandkids sitting on our laps and they were going to ask us about our story. This felt like one of those pivotal points in our story and we were going to get to decide what story we wanted to tell. Did we stick to the plan, or did we have faith to sacrifice things that were working in our lives now for something better that God had for us?

The rest, as they say, is history. It brought us here and I can’t imagine what life would be like if we had stuck to the plan. We would’ve missed out on so much.

And I wonder, what would Elisha have missed out on if he’d have just ignored the interruption and stuck with the plan?

Planners in the room, have a plan, but follow the person of Jesus. And trust that as you follow Him, He has good plans that He will lead you to.

To the free spirits, I want you to see that, while Elisha followed a person, he did have a plan.

Do you think that Elisha was living outside of God’s plan when he was farming?

I don’t think so. In fact, I think that being a farmer was as much a part of God’s plan for Elisha as being a prophet was.

Some of you are missing out on God’s plan for you right now because you refuse to make a plan and plow the ground right in front of you. In the name of waiting for God to tell you His plans for you, you’ve decided to burn the plows before Elijah shows up.

Elisha had a plan and plowed the ground that was in front of him until God said otherwise. What if Elisha actually became a candidate to become a prophet because of how good he got at farming?

Elisha grew up in a farming society. Can you imagine how many people who picked up the plow and became farmers God never called away from farming? What if God never intends to call you away from just plowing the ground that is right in front of you? Pick up a plow and apply yourself in school. Steward the mind that God has given you. Pick up a plow and get really good at bagging groceries at Publix. Pick up your plow and get really good at budgeting the $70 that you have in your bank account.

God knows where to find you and will call you IF and WHEN He wants to.

For the planners, you have to decide if you will step out in faith when God interrupts. But to the free spirits, you have to decide: will stay faithful if God doesn’t interrupt?

So right now as we pray and get ready to head to groups, I want you to

Identify where you’re tempted. (are you a planner or a free spirit)

Answer the corresponding question for yourself (can you step out in faith if God interrupts your plans/will stay faithful if God doesn’t interrupt?)