Come out of that Grave - Plans

Where are my planners?

On a road trip you have every last detail planned out.

Others don’t even know where you are going!

First BYKH trip - every minute planned out.

On my trips, I preach the F word.

Today we are celebrating our graduates. As they have been finishing up their high school time, they have also been working on their plans for what’s next. Some are farther than others.

In our series Come Out of that Grave, we have been looking at letting go of dead things in our lives. Story of Lazarus - take off the grave clothes and let him go. Jesus invites us to remove the dead things in our lives, and help others do the same - Sin, shame, the past.

Today - letting go of our plans.

Right off the bat - perhaps it would be better to say loosening our grips on our plans rather than letting go of them. Hear me say - plans are not bad. In fact I hope to show you that planning is ok and good. But when we hold so tightly to our plans, they can quickly become our plans rather than God’s plans.

Let’s jump into some scripture to help guide us.

What are the key components of a plan?

-Mission or goal

-Path to get there/steps

-Anticipated results

Let’s take a look at what a plan submitted to God looks like:

Paul.

Had completed his first missionary tour. Had come back to Antioch and reported their progress to the church.

Then attended the Council at Jerusalem - the purpose of which was to determine which of the Jewish rituals and traditions non-Jewish converts to Christianity had to keep.

Paul and Silas then departed for missionary tour number 2. And of course they came up with a plan.

It started with a goal - what was the goal? One of the goals was to spread the news of the decisions of the Council at Jerusalem to the churches. But that was just a tool to accomplish his main goal - to continue to grow and strengthen the church.

So he had his goal. Next in a plan comes the action steps.

Go to Syria, then Derbe, then Lystra.

Things were going well. The plan was working. Actually 16:5 says “so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.”

Fantastic!

Let’s continue the story:

Actually 16:6-10

6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Did you notice what happened? It’s a very small detail in verse 6 and 7.

Paul had a plan. After Syria, Derbe, Phrygia and Galatia, he would go to Asia. Likely Ephesus because Ephesus was sort of a central city of Asia. It was where the action was. If you want to make big impact, it makes sense to go to where all the people and all the commerce are. And so that was Pual’s plan.

But what happens? The Holy Spirit forbid them to speak in Asia.

Then they thought they’d go to Mysia, then Bithynia.

But the spirit of Jesus did not allow them to enter.

And all of the sudden Paul’s plans are just not working out.

And we know what that’s like, right? To have our plans wrecked. Things just aren’t working out.

I think we can be tempted to use this as a reason to not plan. Just fly by the seat of our pants as the spirit leads. I think what we see in the life of Paul is that it is ok to have a plan. In fact I would argue that God gives us resources that we use to make plans. We can use our own common sense to plan. We can use our reasoning abilities to plan. I would say that God even gives us gifts and skills and passions, and those should all be taken into consideration when we are planning.

But then comes those times when our plans aren’t working anymore.

And we can do one of two things:

We can double down on our plans - this has to work! It’s what I had planned. We can force everything to fit into our plan - I think parenting has helped me understand this.

Or we can pivot and submit to God’s plans. And so it’s worth looking a bit further in this story to see what happens as Paul loosens his grip on his plans and grabs hold of God’s plan.

So they end up in Troas. They had already been to the west. God said no to the north and the south. So the obvious option is east. In Troas he has a vision of a man begging for help in Macedonia.

So listen to how they responded to this new plan:

“We immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia.”

Let’s continue the story:

Acts 16:11-15

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi,a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

So they set sail from Troas and head straight to Samothrace, then to Neapolis, then to Philippi (a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony).

There is lot’s that can be said about the significance of where they find themselves as it’s a significantly Roman place, but we don’t have time in this sermon.

We’ve talked about the goal. We’ve talked about the steps or action of a plan. What’s left?

The anticipated results.

As we pivot and submit our plans to God, and ultimately follow her plans, I think it’s pretty normal to expect that the anticipated results just come flooding in, right? I would imagine that’s what Paul anticipated.

There’s another small detail in the scripture. I don’t want to try to make to much of it and read too much into it, but I think it points to a helpful reminder.

Verse 12 - And we stayed there several days.

You know that feeling.

But I think it’s significant to remember that when we submit our plans to God, we are also submitting the results of the plan to God. It’s not on us to produce results. It’s not on us to make things happen. The results belong to God.

So let's talk about the results that God produced as Paul and his entourage submit their plans to God:

Lydia - a purple cloth dealer. Wealthy. From… Thyatira - in Asia… you know, the place where the Holy Spirit said no to Paul in his travels

Says she was open to and received Paul's message, and then her entire household was baptized! There is also some evidence that suggests that it was because of this connection with Lydia that Paul had such a strong relationship with the church in Philippi. The results likely weren't what Paul had in mind when he started making his plans, but the plan was submitted to God and the results belonged to God.

And that's as far as our text this morning goes… but the list of God's results don't end there. If you were to keep reading, you'd find several other prominent people that join the movement. People that Paul likely didn't anticipate in his planning…

Also in Philippi - The Roman Jailer

In Thessalonica - Prominent women

In Berea - Prominent Greek women and many Greek men

In Athens - Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, the Greek aristocratic council

In Corinth - Crispus, the synagogue ruler. And Aquila and Priscilla, a wealthy couple.

When we make plans:

God is in charge of the mission

It's God who sets its direction

And it's God who determines its results.

And those results are often far more significant that any results we could ever anticipate.

But what does that look like? How do you plan? More importantly, what does it practically look like to submit a plan to God?

As we are celebrating our grads, I think of the conversations I have had with my teens as they have prepared for the next steps in their lives. I get asked "how do I know what God's plans are?"

Even in this story, I think there are some "methods" we see.

I think sometimes God can speak to plans in visions or dreams

I think at times the Holy Spirit can close doors to things - whether it's just a gut feeling, or through actually closing down the opportunity to pursue a particular path.

But I think the single most significant way that we can submit our plans to God is found in a very small detail in the passage we read. End of verse 10 - after seeing the vision - "concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them"

It's not even a well spelled out detail, but to me, when it sounds like a very communal conclusion. Like It wasn't just Paul that decided they should go. It sounds to me like all of the entourage got together, and together they concluded that this was God's plan for them, that they would go to Macedonia and preach the gospel.

See I think that when we are submitting our plans to God, and we are figuring out what is next in our plans, this points us to a significant tool - our community.

Do you have a plan in mind, but your not sure if it lines up with God's? Can I encourage you to use the tool of community? I tell my teens all the time - talk to people. Talk to their small group leaders, their parents, me. Seek wise council. Explore God's plans together. When we try to figure it out all on our own, who knows where we will end up! God gives us such an incredible tool in community.

My prayer for my grads, and for all of us, would be that as we make plans in life, we would submit those plans to God. And ultimately, it is my prayer that we would do that in the context of our community.