Scrub your Plans

(ESV) — 6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.

Transition to title: Luke, the writer of Acts, goes on to tell of the Amazing things God does in that region which includes planting a church, bringing freedom and healing to the community. It’s amazing what can happen when we let God order our steps. Today I want to talk about our response when things shift unexpectedly and what it means to cooperate with grace. I’ve entitled this message: Scrub your Plans

Luke, the writer of Acts, goes on to tell of the Amazing things God does in that region which includes planting a church, bringing freedom and healing to the community. It’s amazing what can happen when we let God order our steps. Today I want to talk about our response when things shift unexpectedly and what it means to cooperate with grace. I’ve entitled this message: Scrub your Plans

Illustration

Today I want to talk about our response when things shift unexpectedly and what it means to cooperate with grace. I’ve entitled this message:

Most of us are familiar with idea of when things don’t go according to planned. Whether it’s sports, career, financial dynamics or health, our setbacks aren’t patented. Even NASA deals with it. On November 11th, my family and I were excited to watch NASA send rocket full of supplies to the Space Station. Countless hours of work went into the planning, training and preparation of the launch. Many people traveled for miles to witness the marvel of space exploration. 1 minute before launch, their radars detected an unidentified aircraft in the airspace. The launch window was narrow so they screamed abort, abort. The next notification we heard was, the shuttle launch has been scrubbed for today. After all the preparation, the launch was postponed. They began to strategically shut everything down. You could hear the disappointment in their voices. People took off work and travelled miles to witness the launch. Not to mention all the employees and resources that went into this plan and moment, only for something as small as a private plan not being on the correct frequency causing the entire mission to be scrubbed.

Launch Window

When I think about the shuttle launch being scrubbed, I didn’t understand why they just couldn’t wait for the plane to clear the airspace and simply launch afterwards. Why did we have to wait until the next day? I learned about the launch window. They kept saying the delay caused them to miss the launch window. I discovered that everything with space is precise. Because of our orbit, the space station is at this exact location only once per day for a limited moment. Being off by even 5 minutes could result in wasted gas, energy and resources.

Perhaps you’re in here today and you feel like you’ve missed your launch window and you’ve spent so much energy chasing down your blessing but you can’t seem to keep up and keep your breath simultaneously. You feel like you missed it. You missed your opportunity to intersect with love, joy, peace, freedom, breakthrough; and because of that, you are exhausting every effort to capture it. Allow me to give you some insight, you will never run fast enough to catch up to the past.

I have since learned that my wins in a previous season is not a tombstone, it’s a milestone. The same God that lead me then, is leading me now and my best days are still ahead. Sometimes we romanticize what was that we end up cheating on what can be.

However, I do have a present question that depending on your answer will move you into your future: do you want to be made well? Jesus poses this question in to a man who has been paralyzed for 38 years. The man’s response was, each time I have an opportunity to get better, I experience a setback and “miss my launch window”. The man was talking to the healer that wanted to move him forward and was fixated on his past. It is possible to be so paralyzed in the past that we won’t step into our future. Jesus interrupts him and says, get up and move forward. I know that past provides perspective but your grace period has been extended because Jesus is your grace period...and is here…now; get up and move forward. Don’t get lost day dreaming out of old closed windows when God is opening new doors. The shuttle was able to launch the next day…His mercy is renewed every morning, it’s time to get up. () Jesus is your grace PERIOD!

Forbidden

Paul and his crew just came from an important meeting. A meeting that literally determined how the church would function going forward. Turns out, God was not requiring extra stuff of the Gentiles. Paul and his team set off to inform and encourage people of the freedom they have in Christ. The text tells us that Paul and his crew are anxious to get the message of freedom in Christ out to Asia but they are stopped by God. They redirect themselves and it says the Spirit of Jesus prevented them from going forward. Think about that for a moment, God literally keeps them from going according to their planned destination? The original word is forbidden. Forbid means a corrective change of course. I mean like Gandalf “you shall not pass” type of forbidden.

This is a big deal because they travelled approximately 200 miles on foot. This is about 2-3 weeks. Imagine the resources and energy they spent getting there only to see that God was shifting them in a new direction. On 2 occasions, their well thought out plans were shifted. What we discover about the Apostle Paul is he is a deeply educated man that was only matched by his spirituality. This means, he likely prayed about it, planned it, had peace and in both instances, it refers to the Spirit redirecting them. The Spirit of God is often seen as the breath of God. The same breath that breathed in Adam, Red Sea, Dry bones, Jesus breathed His last breath so that we could inhale purpose, healing, etc. was the same breath that was breathing on their plans and sending them in a different direction. When we invite God to breathe on our plans we have to be prepared for when He blows them off the desk. We must surrender our plans to God’s will if we want to see God move in them.

Maegan and I have been trying to move to Orlando for 20 years. After our honeymoon, 5 years ago, 2 years ago. Each time, the Spirit of God literally stood in the way. Each time God moved us out of our comfort zone, it required us to forfeit comfort and pursue calling because the two can’t occupy the same space at the same time. I’ve seen God do some incredible things in the moments I didn’t plan for. Sometimes...

The same breath that breathed in Adam, Red Sea, Dry bones, Jesus breathed His last breath so that we could inhale purpose, healing, etc.

God will alter your plans so that He can use you to alter someone’s life.

God isn’t keeping you from something, He’s keeping you for something. I believe we have a Heavenly Father who isn’t keeping us at a standstill, He’s keeping us so that we can stand out. God is closing doors so that He can open eyes. If a door closes in front of you, perhaps God is opening something inside of you.

God isn’t keeping you from something, He’s keeping you for something.

God is closing doors so that He can open eyes. If a door closes in front of you, perhaps God is opening something inside of you.

I believe we have a Heavenly Father who isn’t keeping us at a standstill, He’s keeping us so that we can stand out.

God is closing doors so that He can open eyes. If a door closes in front of you, perhaps God is opening something inside of you.

I believe we have a Heavenly Father who isn’t keeping us at a standstill, He’s keeping us so that we can stand out. God is closing doors so that He can open eyes. If a door closes in front of you, perhaps God is opening something inside of you.

Go with God

The text tells us that Paul had 2 trips that didn’t go according to plan. Notice, God tells him where not to go, but there is no indication on where he should go. Perhaps you can identify with this a little, you can sense that this relationship isn’t right but you don’t want to risk being alone, you don’t want to miss your launch window. What do you do when God is clear on no but silent on yes? As he looks to revise his strategy, he get’s a vision at night. You may be working the night shift right now. There appears to be no light but the Bible declares that God created 2 great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser night to rule the night. You may have lesser light but you still have dominion. In your darkest moment, God brings the brightest clarity. Fresh vision is often birthed when our plans get aborted.

Our plans are meant to execute God’s vision, otherwise we run the risk of allowing our ambition to outpace grace.

Paul’s vision includes a man who was in desperate need of hope. It’s possible that you haven’t made it to your destination yet because you are supposed to have more passengers. Joseph and Mary were traveling but they didn’t make it to their destination because they got down the road and realized they didn’t have Jesus. Maybe your plans have been shifted so that someone else can be uplifted.

Paul now knows where God is leading him and quickly departs. It took 2 days to arrive and 5 days to make it back. (156 miles) It’s amazing to see how far we can go when we cooperate with grace. It’s amazing the ground you can cover when the “wind” of God is in your sails. My only point is GO WITH GOD.() With God, all things are possible.

With God a shepherd becomes a king (David).

With God a bypassed death (Enoch).

With God a 100 year old man can produce a son (Abram).

With God a woman caught in the act of adultery can experience forgiveness.

Closing

There is an interesting contrast I need us to acknowledge. God is for us and has a plan for us; , . Not only do we have plans, but the enemy of our soul has a plan for us as well. says his plan is to steal, kill, and destroy…seeking whom he may devour. ()

I recall watching the shuttle launch get scrubbed and something peculiar stood out to me. The shuttle is filled with many intricate parts to shutting it down wasn’t as easy as turning off a car. Thrusters had to shut down, then navigation, engines. It was a process. That said, it was all triggered because an unidentified object flew into the air space. Grace is often hard to define but never hard to find. I believe the enemy had plans to destroy you but grace enters the airspace and shuts down his plans. The enemy had plans to devour, to steal, to kill, to destroy but grace stepped in and said, I have plans too. Plans to help you. Grow you. Grace flew into the airspace and shutdown the enemies plan. Bless you.

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