James 4:13-17

Intro : Elsie’s Plans

Human Beings are planners. Planning is such a massive part of who we are and how we function that we are willing to spend millions of dollars on tools to helps us plan better. Some of us may not be quite as organized, but we all plan our lives out. What we are going to eat, who we are going to spend time with, where we want to go after school, what game we want to play and when and for how long. Even Elsie is a planner, and boy does she come up with some plans. Most of Elsie’s plans involve putting things in her mouth, and actually I think her master plan is to have put everything in my house into her mouth. For example, we spent the day at Mo’s parents house the other day and we were playing out in the backyard while Elsie was doing some exploring. I watched her as she crawled over to a pile of rocks, and then she carefully picked one that was exactly the size of her esophagus. Knowing that she was about to pop it right in her mouth, I ran over to take it away from her. Naturally, she tightened her grip on it and tried even harder to et it in her mouth, screaming and crying as I took it away from her. It wasn’t that I didn’t love Elsie, it was just that she had come up with a horrible plan and didn’t think at all about where her plan was going to lead her. I had a better plan for Elsie, and even though it involved making her cry, I loved her too much to let her carry on with her plan.

The truth is, we all come up with some pretty horrible plans, don’t we? In fact, I’m sure that I have come up with plans that are even worse than putting an esophagus-sized rock in my mouth.

Our Plans Are Evil And Lead To Death

We get that from our father Adam

Adam had plans in the garden...

Adam’s plans were more than just a tasty snack.

What was Adam’s sin?

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He wanted to be equal with God, so at the very best he no longer wanted to need God or at the worst he wanted God gone. He made his plans without considering his loyalty to God for even a moment.

We got that passed down to us

Our plans attempt to remove God (verse 16)

We also are constantly making plans. We make plans about college, relationships, jobs, where we want to live, what level income we need to get, how to spend our time today

But, just like Adam, our plans are more than that. We make great plans and we think we are laying out our lives responsibly, but God rarely if ever factors into our plans.

Removing God gets us to a vaporous life (Verse 14)

We make all these plans, but we have no control over what tomorrow brings

In removing God from our plans, we are removing our only hope for true value and meaning.

Psalm 127:1 ESV

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Ecclesiastes 2:16–17 ESV

For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Just like Elsie, in making plans without considering God we have grabbed onto something deadly. We have grabbed onto sin. We cling to it, and it drains us of meaningful life.

Clinging to sin is like clinging to a ticking sticky bomb. Even if we come to realize how dangerous our sinful plans are, they begin to cling back to us and we may find ourselves in inescapable situations.

It clings back to us.

TRANSITION: Our plans are evil, but we have a Dad who has other plans for us.

God’s Plans Are Good And Lead To Life

These plans are fully revealed in Christ

You see, Jesus had plans from the very beginning.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Jesus had plans to deal with the sin that we chose, the sin that clings so closely. Just like when I see Elsie in a dangerous situation, Christ comes to us and removes that which threatens to kill us. He rips the ticking sticky bomb away from us, though it may hurt us. He removes it, and he dies the death that we chose.

Beyond that, we are left standing here, watching as God the Son is mutilated because of our mistakes. We remain alive as though we have never made a mistake, while he is blown to bits who has never made any error.

Just think for a moment about this situation, because it is your reality if you are one of Christ’s redeemed. How could you ever be the same again? If this is reality for you, how could you decide once again to choose death over Christ?

But again, there is even more. Christ didn’t stay dead. He came back up, he killed death and he went back to the Father, sending us His own Spirit to live in us and to empower us to live differently. He empowers us to choose God, to plan for His glory and to live for His Kingdom.

God’s plan bring Himself back into our lives

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Though we removed ourselves from God’s side, he was not content to watch us die. Though we chose death over him, he removes death from us, taking it in himself, and brings us back to eternal glory by his side.

A life lived with and for God dis infinite in value and length of days.

Because God has done this, we are not doomed to perish. Our end is no end at all, but an eternal beginning. We are no longer vapors or flashes of light, but our lives have real and significant meaning now!

Though we have attempted to remove God from our lives, He has taken control of the story and has written Himself back into our stories.

In sacrificing himself for us, Christ has made a life of true value and meaning possible again, but it is only thorugh Christ that we will experience that value.

In all of our planning, in all of our living, may all be done for the glory of Him who loved us from the beginning.