August 18, 2025 • 32 mins
In this message from the "Dear Younger Me" series, Pastor Joe Liles explores wisdom for people in their 20s and 30s, focusing on aligning personal plans with God's purpose. Using Proverbs as a guide, Pastor Joe emphasizes that while humans make many plans, God's purpose will ultimately be established. We have all tried to control the narrative in our life and plan for...everything...this message illustrates life's unpredictability and the importance of trusting God's plan!
Quotes from the message:
• "If you start a plan, first pray to align to God's will."
• "You are not meant to go through the motions. You are promised a kingdom by Christ, who forgives you on a cross."
• "Stop treating people as though they're different because their life is not in the same place as yours."
Key Scriptures:
• Proverbs 19:21 - "The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established."
• Proverbs 16:1-3 - Guidance on committing work to the Lord
- v.1: "The plans of the mind belong to mortals, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord."
- v.3: "Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established."
• Proverbs 20:18 - "Plans are established by taking advice"
• Proverbs 16:9 - "The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Joe Liles (00:00):
Did. So we're in a series right now that is
(00:05):
called Dear younger me, and itis a series about the wisdom
that we would give. Thank you.
Appreciate that. Matthew in aseries about the wisdom that we
would give to our youngerselves. And we're walking
through generations. And so howmany of you would appreciate it,
a little bit of wisdom to youryounger self? Do we have a Do we
have a little bit out there?
Okay, a little bit of wisdom toyourself, which means you've
(00:26):
been through some lifeexperience, which means, as you
think about your life, you'vehad some life experience. You're
like, Man, if I and here's thestatement, I wish I would have
known this when I was this yearsold, right? I wish I would have
known that. How many of you havetried to teach that to younger
ones and they won't hear youlike it just doesn't matter. You
realize that you're like, I wishI would have known this, and
(00:46):
then you try to teach it to theyounger generation, and you're
like, did someone try to teachme this? And I just didn't
listen, and that's why I didn'tget the wisdom when I was that
age. How many of you have hadthat thought? Because that's
probably true. What's probablytrue is You didn't listen, and
you're like, I got this, I knoweverything I can get through
life in this way, and I want tomake sure that's a reality. So
we've been in this series, andwe've been walking through some
(01:09):
really incredible book ofProverbs, verses that have
taught us about wisdom and whatthat means. And so we really
walk through like, what is thebook of Proverbs, and what does
it mean to be in this wisdomnarrative from King Solomon, and
as he's writing this wisdomnarrative, and he was talking to
the people of Israel, and he wasbuilding the temple, and he was
(01:29):
kind of this prosperous king,and he was sharing this wisdom,
but he also didn't geteverything right. This was not a
reality of everything thathappened. And so we took
forward, what is this wisdom, tohave this knowledge of God and
then apply it to your dailylife, and say that we need not
only knowledge and learningabout God, but we need to live
that life also. You can show upon a Sunday and you can go to a
great Bible study. You can goand serve in an event. But if
(01:52):
you're just learning about Godwithout applying it to your life
and sharing your testimony, thenreally you just know God, but
you're not living a Christianlife. And those are very
distinct realities. And thenTom, last week spoke really in
an incredible message, and hespoke to our high school selves.
How many of you love your highschool self? Do you guys love
your high school self?
Everything about it? Yeah, goodglory days going on there. And
(02:13):
so he spoke back these words ofwisdom to our high school
selves, and that it's really nota popularity contest, which is
really hard to hear as a highschooler, because it's truly a
popularity contest. And I don'tknow if we have the wisdom at
that point to really understandthat we can walk through life
without having to gaineveryone's affection and gain
(02:35):
everyone's love and do more andbe more all the time in order to
get to a status level wherepeople will see us, right? We're
really talking about what Godwill see and and I just want to
let you know that it's even hardto break away from that as an
adult. And we're going to betalking about wisdom today, and
we're going to be moving into apart of wisdom where we're
talking to our 20s and 30s. Butjust for a joy, I had a high
(02:57):
school experience yesterday, onSaturday, my daughter runs cross
country for Bentonville West,and they had their Bentonville
West two mile Wolverine TimeTrial, right, which is two miles
around the track. It is eightlaps around the track. They have
like 160 kids on their crosscountry team. It's maybe not
that many. It's probably like80. There's a lot of kids on
(03:18):
their cross country team. And sothis this sign up, is open to
the public. And Kaylee goes,Hey, Dad, would you sign up? Now
here's the great thing, like, Irun long races. I don't run fast
races. I'm not a fast race.
Can't breathe, send it, falldown on the track at the end.
That's not where I'm at in mylife anymore. I don't need that
kind of stress in my lifeanymore. And she looked at me,
(03:40):
and she's like, Dad, will youplease sign up to go? And I was
like, of course, I'll sign up.
I'm excited. I'll sign boom,I've been training. I was like,
Cool. I signed up. I was one ofthree adults who signed up that
I realized when I got there andthey had the heats for all the
high schoolers planned. But ifyou don't know the two mile time
trial, they also invite thejunior highs across. And I got
placed in the fifth heat withall the junior high kids. And I
(04:03):
figured this out the day before,and I was like, Great, I'm gonna
whoop some junior high kids. I'mcoming for you, right? I was
like, here we go. So I showed upyesterday, and I walked out on
the track, and I was like, Howcan you not like, the lights
were on. It was early in themorning, like the coaches were
out. They had the time trial setup over there. And I'm walking,
(04:24):
it's on. We didn't have turf,like these schools got turf. And
I'm like, oh, and I was so nice,and I was running and jog around
the track, and I had my Westgear on right, and I was just, I
was feeling it. And all the kidswhen I was like, this is, this
is why it's so hard. It'sbecause it like moves you into
this popularity contest. And soall these high schoolers are
getting on the track, andthey're they're faster on the
(04:44):
track, and they're just wrong.
They don't go that direction.
It's only one direction. Buthere we go. And so, so they're
running around the track heatone goes, and I'm like, oh man.
And they're running, like, sub10s, elevens. That's really,
that's. A five minute mile, justfor anyone who's wondering, 445
mile is super fast, super fast.
I can't touch that. Can't touchthis. Yeah, I can't touch it.
(05:07):
And so, so I was like, great. Sothey were running, and that was
heat one. Heat two, went great.
So Kaylee ran in. Heat one, itwas awesome. She did incredible,
super consistent, super fast.
I'm like, Just awesome. So I'mcheering her on. Well, they all
get done. And like, what's up?
Kelly's Dad, you ready? And I'mlike, Oh, they all know. And I'm
like, so many people are gonnabe watching me. And I was like,
(05:28):
Oh my I had this plan in mymind. Like, I trained. I had a
plan as, like, you know what I'mgonna do. I was like, I'm gonna
run a 615 first mile. I waslike, I know it. Can do this.
I'm gonna run a 615 and I waslike, and I was like, and then
I'm gonna, I'm gonna back it offa little bit hitting that 630
range. I knew exactly what paceI need to be. I was like, a one
minute 32nd like 400 to oneminute 37 is where I wanted to
(05:50):
land. I could sneak up to 145 ifI wasn't feeling I had the whole
race strategy in my head. Iwanted to do negative splits on
the back end, which when I gotfaster each lap on the back. And
I was like, Whoa, Joe's back inthe game. Let's do this. And
then this 43 year old got on thetrack with 13 year olds, and it
was and they walked up to like,are you running? And I was like,
Are you saying that because youthink I can't run? Are you
(06:12):
saying that because you thinkI'm fast? And they're like, and
that's all they did was juststare at me. And so I have a
picture. I have a picture of melining up like and there's all
these kids that weigh 85 poundsnext to me. And so here's my
thought, here's how the plansgo. Here's my thought, This is
(06:36):
my wisdom. I don't want to shootout so fast that I kind of blow
all their spirit away. I I wantto go out. I am sensitive and
compassionate towards the youth.
I want. I want to go out at apace where we can run together
for a while, and we're going todo this so I get on the track,
(06:58):
and there's 24 of us out on thetrack, and the three adults are
a little bit older than me,maybe a generation older than
me, and they've already run acouple miles, and they're just
gonna run around the track. It'salmost like, Oh, hey, we've
already put in seven we're justhere to run. Like, it's so big.
And I'm like, Ooh, I did thisall wrong. And I'm like, I'm
here to race. And I was like,let's go. And so we get going.
I'm like, Okay. I'm like, I'mnot gonna come out of the gate
(07:19):
too fast. I know my pace,everything. And they go ready,
and they blow it, right? I mean,these kids light a fire, and I'm
like, I start running. I'm like,Well, don't have to worry about
being first anymore. And I waslike, that's not gonna happen.
And so I started when I waslike, I gotta settle into my
(07:40):
pace. And I came around thefirst lap at 130 on point,
literally on point, and Icouldn't breathe for the life of
me. And I was like, I am in somuch trouble. And then here I
come around the track, andthere's Kaylee, good job, Dad,
you're doing so great. And allher cross country girls next
year. Like, oh my gosh, Kaylee'sDad, you're gonna do awesome. Oh
my god. I'm dying. I'm dying.
And I'm like, I'm just tryingto, oh my gosh. I'm not meant to
(08:02):
43 years. You're not meant torun like our body shuts down at
some point, like you can't dothis anymore, right? And so I'm
like, why? All I did wasquestion my life for eight laps.
That's all I did. I ran. I waslike, why am I doing this? Why
is it the same direction all thetime? And I'm like, oh, and then
my parents were in the stands.
(08:23):
Now I feel like, I gotta be go,Joe, go. You're doing You look
great. And I'm like, You knowwhat you and they say you look
great. It's because they have noother compliment on a track.
You're running fast. That's agreat compliment. Wow, we can't
even see you. You're the blueblur. Whoa. I was wearing blue
shoes. That would have beencool, right? You look great
(08:44):
today. So I'm running right, andI get five laps in, I got three
laps to go, and I'm heaving Allright, and I'm just trying to
keep it together. And I'mhitting my pace, 137 130 814, I
mean, I'm right there. I'm doingreally well. I come up on this
(09:04):
junior high kid, and I'm aboutto pass him, but I'm just doing
my pace. I'm not like, comingaround on the outside, you know
I'm talking about. I'm justlike, keep it together. Keep it
together. Here we go. Just don'tdie, right? I'm just going, and
I'm about to pass him. And now,mind you, I have a race plan. He
has a race plan too. We haveplans. We've built plans for
this race. And I get next tohim, and I can hear his mom
(09:26):
cheering in the stands, don'tlet him pass you. And I'm like,
Oh, this is so bad. I'm crushinga soul right now. And I was
like, I'm crushing a soul atlike, a seven minute mile, you
know? And I was like, ah, and soI'm running by, I get by him,
and I can hear him behind me.
Unknown (09:46):
He goes, Ah, and he wham, and he runs by me.
Pastor Joe Liles (09:54):
And if you know running, if you know
running, you know that'sunsustainable. You. A mile from
the end, like you just know. AndI wanted to be like, No, don't
do that. But I didn't haveenough in my soul, like, if I
spoke, I would have died. And soI let him do his plan, and I was
just like, You do you. And whenhe beat me, he pulled in front
(10:18):
of me like a car that cut youoff. And then he did this, which
I thought was great. And at thispoint, I did want to race him,
but in my wisdom, I did not racehim. He was like, oh, and he
comes up, and he cuts in frontof me and he goes, and he was
just waiting for me, and I, inmy soul, was like, I will crush
(10:41):
you. I was like, this is 43years of training, right for
this moment right here. You'velived your life barely 12. I
have like, three of you in me,like, that's what I ah. And I
was like, I was like, that's notwhat it's supposed to be, right?
It's just not what it's supposedto be. And I come around to
Kaylee, and she's cheering meon, and I finish, and I can't
(11:02):
even breathe, right? I didn'thit my time goal. I didn't beat
Kaylee. She's too fast. And Ilaid on the ground. She came
over. She goes, Hey, 1330 whichhe was saying, really was,
wasn't my time. It's like, oh.
And in a moment, I gave it up,and I said, that was the last
time I could have beat you. Isaid, I sent it, I gave it in
(11:24):
full, that was my plan. And Isaid, hey, you've now reached a
level where you run faster andyou run harder than I do, and I
won't be able to beat you again.
And I know it. And I just laidthere and tried to suck in air
for my life, is what I tried todo. I had a lot of plans going
(11:45):
into that race. I think a lot ofus have a lot of plans for life.
Can I get an amen and nothing?
Not one bit went to plan. Themoment that gun fired, they
said, boop, go right. Nothingwent to plan. All Out the
window, every part of it. Andthen I stayed in for eight more
(12:06):
laps. There's a part of our lifewith God when we need to
understand the wisdom of havingplans, is that when you have
plans in your life, and nothingis going to plan, it's not like
we can redo everything that'shappened. We're still walking
forward in life, and with that,it means that we need to connect
back in on the primary focus ofour life. We need to connect
back in on a moment that saysthere's a foundation underneath
(12:29):
all of our plans that has agreater plan for every one of
us. And when we get lost in ourearthly plans and our human
plans, right, we are forgettingthat God has a plan for every
single one of us, and we need togo back to that. Being on a
track in a circle is a fun wayto talk about it, but you can
talk about the times in yourlife when you've gone back and
(12:49):
back and back again and justcheap on trying to get forward
one more step, one more step,and it's just not working and
not working, and you can'tunderstand why. And then all of
a sudden you figure out thatthree years later, you're in a
different place than you were,and you're like, Wait, how did I
get here? How did this happen?
How did I get through all thehardest days of my life to be
(13:09):
here today? And you realize it'sbecause there's always been a
plan and effect in your life,sometimes it was just our plan
versus God's plan. And we needto learn how to live God's
purpose for our life versus justliving our plan. That's what
we're gonna get into when wetalk about this today. So I want
you to open your scripture. Iwant you to open your scripture.
And a couple things today, whichis really neat. One, we got some
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Bibles in our Bible boxes, sowe're gonna be in the book of
Proverbs. And we always tell youwhere we're gonna be in the
Bible. This is in your OldTestament, right? If you kind of
flip to the middle of the OldTestament, you'll see Psalms.
PSALMS Psalms is really long,and it comes to the Proverbs
after that. And so you can kindof find where you're at. But we
always want you to have a Biblein your hand. And so with that,
we're putting new Bibles in ourBible boxes for the year. And
what we do with these is we gota couple one. This is your Adult
(13:53):
Bible right here. It looks likethis. This is a Lutheran Study
Bible. And so it's great. It'swhat all of us use. And so you
can do this. You can bring thisto studies with you. It's
awesome. And if you don't have aBible, you can take one home
with you. But what we're gonnado starting next week is there's
gonna be a little card insidethe Bible that you can bring to
our welcome desk, and we willorder a Bible for you. That way
all of our Bibles can be herefor anyone who needs them. And
(14:14):
then we'll order a Bible for youby the next week when you come
back. And so that way everyonewould have a Bible. But we also
have kids Bibles. Have you gotpreschoolers that you want to
read to? We got preschool Biblesthat you can read, and they have
those over in the Bible boxestoo. So if you need a Bible to
read at home at night, beforebedtime, to your preschooler,
you have stories to read. We gotyour elementary Bible, which is
called a spark Bible, right? Soyou got the spark Bible right
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here. That's your elementaryBible, right? So it's actually
more in the Scripture, but itbrings kind of themes throughout
the Scripture. So you can talkthrough more theme development
in Scripture than just readingit. And then, in a really cool
way, we have the CollaborateLutheran Study Bible. So this is
an intro into a study Bible forall of our youth, fifth through
12th grade. And so if your youthdon't have a Bible, as we're
getting back into youth thisweek and next week, on
Wednesdays, they can have aBible too, and all you'll do
(14:58):
next week is grab the cardthat's in. Side and say, hey, I
want to grab this Bible, andwe'll have extra Bibles here for
you. So who's excited for someBibles in the church? You guys
excited for some Bibles? Sowe're gonna be in the Bible. And
if you don't have a Bible withyou, that's okay. Our mission is
that everyone would bring aBible. So if you got one today,
show your Bibles. We love Biblesin the church. Yes, yes. Love
it. This is great. If you're onthe Bible app. You can get on
(15:19):
the Bible app right now. There'sa couple ways to do that. One
good job, Mason. One is that wehave the Bible app card in front
of you on your chair back. It'scalled church apps. If you scan
the Bible app, it'll open theBible app and ask you to
download it. Or if you alreadyhave it, it'll connect you to
our event today. So you can scanthat anytime Bible app, and
it'll connect you into ourscripture for today and download
that too. You can walk throughwith notes and different things
(15:40):
like that, and get connected. Sowe're going to be in Proverbs
today. And as we start today,we're going to start in chapter
19, and we're going to readverse 21 chapter 19, and read
verse 21 and this is going to beabout plans and purpose of God.
And so here's what it says inProverbs, Chapter 19, verse 21
(16:02):
the human mind may devise manyplans, but it is the purpose of
the Lord that will beestablished. One more time, the
human mind may devise manyplans, but it is the purpose of
the Lord that will beestablished. Here's the
(16:26):
important part about thislanguage. I chose this verse
specifically because there arethree parts to it. The first
part is this, the human mind,there's a separation from the
Divine. May devise many plans,many plans. And so how many of
you love to have a plan in life?
How many of you are planners?
Raise it up. Okay. How many ofyou are contingency planners,
(16:49):
where you have a main plan andthen you have contingency plans
on top of those main plans,that's great. Okay. How many of
you have plans, A, B, C and Doff that main plan, just in case
something goes wrong? Raise itup. You can raise the hand of
your loved one if they do thatand don't feel comfortable
raising their hand, because Godknows that's really great. Okay,
how many of you are a no plannedperson, and you love to just
(17:11):
experience spontaneity in lifeand the love of the Lord and the
guidance of the Holy Spirit,which is more holy? Anyone else?
Does anyone else experience thatout there? Okay, not as many
people out there, the human mindmay devise many plans. That is a
part of Scripture. So what Iwant to give you to first is
that I want to say that it's notfor us to put away our plans and
(17:32):
just say, trust God. That's notwhat Scripture is saying. What
scripture is saying is that manyof the human minds may devise
many plans, which means that asyou come into life, you're gonna
put many plans together for thepeople and places you need to
be. And we're speakingspecifically to our 20s and our
30s year olds. That's kind ofwhere this message is kind of
(17:52):
packed in for and I want you tothink about that time in your
life, 20s and 30s. Ah, it'sbeautiful. You're starting
careers. How many of you had acareer plan going into your 20s,
like this is the route I want totake. How many of you are still
in that career plan? Exactly?
Okay, that's great. So let'sstart. We got a couple over
here. That was good. Okay,you're starting relationships.
Think about that, right? You'restarting a little bit of
(18:14):
independence and maybe gettingyour first apartment or your
first home, and you're learningabout how you work in order to
pay off the things that you'regetting in your life also. And
you get into the space where youhave no money. Even though you
make money, you have no money.
And you don't know how that'spossible, because you used to
have no money, and now you havemoney and no money at the same
time. And you're just, I don'tunderstand, and all these plans
(18:36):
are in place for you to do good,but you're in your 20s and 30s,
and you're establishingindependence, and a lot of us
establish that independence inour 20s and 30s. Outside of God,
we establish that independencesaying that we can do the things
that will bring our life forwardinto who we're supposed to be,
and we're trying to discoverthat on our own. Now listen to
(18:58):
the second part of this text.
The human mind may devise manyplans, but it is the purpose of
the Lord that will beestablished. The purpose of the
Lord that will be established.
When it talks about the purposeof the Lord, it's talking about
(19:18):
God's plan for your life. Andwhen it talks about established
it means that it's a commitmentby God. The purpose for your
life is a commitment by God.
It's not a question of God.
God's not discovering who you'regoing to become. God is
committed to the purpose foryour life. And our many plans
(19:40):
need to align to God's purposefor our life. If your plans are
not going as you planned,each time, you will find that
you focus back on centering yourlife on God as a plan fails.
What do you. Do you strip itaway? And you come to a base
(20:01):
level and you say, Okay, thatdidn't work. I'm coming to here
as that one falls away. Yousaid, that didn't work. I'm
coming to here as that one fallsaway. That didn't work. I'm
coming to here. And where do youend? You end on a space that
says, I have a relationship withGod, and I know that there's a
plan for me. And you take a stepforward in faith. That's the
commitment of God. Thecommitment of God is to never
(20:24):
leave you. The commitment of Godis to say that there's always a
path forward for you and a placefor you in the kingdom. And
that's the wisdom from thistext. The wisdom from this text
is saying that your knowledge ofGod helps you to understand your
place in the kingdom and alignyour plans to God's purpose. And
(20:45):
here's how that begins, ifyou're taking away one thing
from this message today, whenyou start a plan, first pray to
God and ask if it aligns toGod's will for your life. If you
start a plan, first, pray toalign to God's will. And I know
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that's not in every part of ourlife, the first thing that we do
when we put a plan together,where it's a plan for a career,
a plan for a family, a plan fora relationship, a plan for a
house, a plan for something fun.
The first thing that we don'talways do is come to the
understanding that it's a planaligning to God's purpose. We
(21:30):
want to get the logistics down.
We want to make sure there'ssecurity there. How many of you
love security in a plan to makesure that it's going to go as
far as you can get to but thefirst thing we don't do is pray
together. That's the firstevidence of this. Now I want you
to turn a little bit and backjust a couple chapters. We're
going to go to chapter 16, and Iwant you to read verses one
(21:52):
through three with me. Andhere's what 16, one through
three says, the plans of themind belong to mortals, but the
answer of the tongue is from theLord. All one's ways may be pure
in one's own eyes, but the Lordweighs the spirit. Commit your
(22:13):
work to the Lord and your planswill be established. Commit your
work to the Lord and your planswill be established. See, I
wanted to give you a processhere. It's not enough just to
say pray to it, but it says, Ifyou commit your work to the
Lord, your plans will beestablished. In the previous
(22:34):
verse, we said, it said that theLord is establishing God's
purpose, and will establish thatfor you. So now what God is
saying is, hey, I have acommitment to you. Do you have a
commitment to me? Are youcommitted to me? Are you going
to commit your work to me sothat I can establish your plans?
And what that means is we haveto give that work back to God.
(22:55):
And here's what that looks like.
Are you the same person onSunday morning, committing your
work to God that you go out intothe world and be also, or is
there a separation there? Areyou committing your work to God
(23:15):
so that your plans will beestablished? See, what I think
we do is I think we commit ourfaith life to God and hope our
plans will be established. Ithink we can commit our serving
to God and hope that our planswill be established, but
sometimes our career, ah, Idon't know if that's okay.
Sometimes our friend group, ah,but I have some friends who
(23:37):
aren't really like that, and soI don't know if that's I'm not
going to commit that side of mylife. Oh, my family. Yes, I take
my family to church. I'mcommitted God. Here we go, but
raising them at home as aspiritual disciple maker. Ah,
I'm gonna leave that to thechurch. Do you see how we commit
our lives to God? Our plans willbe established. God's not asking
for one part of your life andonly the faith part of your
(23:59):
life. What God is saying is thatfaith should permeate your life,
and in every moment, you shouldcommit your work in daily life
to God, and your plans will beestablished. You need to
discover who you're becoming,and that's only if you commit to
God. That's part of the processof having plans that align with
God's purpose. Now listen towhat happens next. I want you to
(24:23):
turn over to chapter 20 andlisten to 18 and 19 in chapter
20. And remember we're workingoff this established language,
this work language, thiscommitment by God. And now
listen to verse 18 in chapter20, of Proverbs. Plans are
established by taking advice.
Oh, that's good. Plans areestablished by taking advice.
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Wage war by following wiseguidance. That's a great verse.
A gossip reveals secrets.
Therefore. Do not associate witha babbler. Have you ever heard
that in Scripture before ababbler? How many is that? The
first time for a lot of people,can I get an amen? I was just
(25:09):
going to go with 18. Had tochoose 19 because it said
babbler. That's why it's putthat in there. Plans are
established by hearing wordsfrom the wise. We talked about
this in week one. Who is in yourlife that is speaking wisdom to
you. If you are planning alone,you're not aligning to God's
(25:35):
will, I can tell you right nowyour plans should be laid out
with a wise people in your life,because God has placed them
there for a reason. If you arepraying about your plans and
committing that you should prayto God first and say, I want
this to align to your will, andGod, I know that you've aligned
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these people in my life. So nowI'm going to take these plans
and I'm going to talk with thesepeople about the plans in life,
because I need to hear from thewise. And if they come to me and
they're talking about theseplans, and they start talking
about other people, that's nowbabbler, that's not who you
need. You need the wise personin your life who's going to look
at your plans and say, Are yousure this is where you need to
be? Are you sure this is who youneed to be in your life? Are you
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sure this is where God's callingyou? Just the question alone,
can pause you for a moment to belike I didn't consider that, and
that's a part of knowing thatyour plans align with the
purpose of God in your life. AndI would say at all costs, avoid
those who gossip. Avoid thosewho like talking about other
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people without them there. Can Iget an amen? How many of you do
that? Can I get an amen? Yeah,that was a softer Amen. You
sinners. Oh, man, is this great?
We're guilty of it. Are we not?
There's a reason the Scripturemakes a depiction between the
both. You can gossip aboutpeople, or you can give wise
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wisdom to people. There are twosides. Speak life into people.
That's our mission asChristians. That's how we align
to God's purpose. When we speaklife, when you gossip and speak
down on others, that is not whatGod intends. That's not aligning
to God's purpose for your lifeor anyone else's. Go learn a
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story. Go hear a testimony. Gotalk to someone that's broken.
If you're in a relationshipthat's struggling, go meet that
person. Do the thing that isChristian that sits in the
tension of those relationships,and say that there's something
more important. That's becausethe plan that is underneath this
is true for me, and it's truefor you, whether you're a sinner
in need of redemption or you'rea pure Christian who is
completely faithful, which thetwo are the same. Just a heads
(27:45):
up. But here's what we got if wetake that moment and are walking
through life, the plan that gothis aligns to each and every one
of us. Stop treating people asthough they're different because
their life is not in the sameplace as yours. You've been
there before. You know what it'slike. Stop pretending that we're
strong. Speak wisdom to people,speak life to people. That's how
(28:06):
we align our plans to God. Nowlisten to this final verse. I
want you to turn back to 16 andlisten to verse nine. We're
going back to the human mind,the human mind plans the way,
(28:26):
but the Lord directs the steps.
The human mind plans the way,but the Lord directs the steps.
What I love about this is itbrings in how God's relationship
through Jesus Christ is with usin our plans. And here's the
purpose of God. We're trying toalign to God's purpose in our
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life through our plans. I wantto give you God's purpose so you
can, you can align to that God'spurpose is eternity in the
kingdom of heaven for everysingle one of us, that is the
salvation on the cross by JesusChrist, that is God's purpose
for our life, for every singlethat is our testimony. That is
why we live to spend eternitywith God. You have been promised
(29:11):
the kingdom of heaven. You havebeen promised eternity with God,
your plans should reflect thathope. And what I wanted to do
with that statement is saysometimes we are so worried
(29:35):
about this little part of theplan in the span of our life,
we have all been hurt, we haveall been broken, we've all been
betrayed, we've all hurt others.
And we take this moment and wemove it to the greater plan,
which is the kingdom of heaven.
And I just want to take you thatyour plans in life should
(29:56):
reflect that hope. I. Kingdomhope. If your plans don't have
that level of hope, it might begood to sit down with the people
that you love and that are wisein your life again and ask the
question of, who is God reallycalling me to be? You are not
meant to go through the motions.
You are promised a kingdom byChrist, Who forgives you on a
(30:18):
cross. That's the plan of yourlife. And all God's people said,
Amen, let us pray, heavenly andgracious Father. We come before
you today knowing that our plansare not perfect, but the kingdom
is we come together today,knowing that as as we walk into
your life that that sometimes wetake our own will, sometimes we
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take our own plans and we makethem the purpose of our life. We
think that we know everythingthat is going on and so, so we
walk that direction. And Lord, Iam so humble and so thankful and
grateful that you would say youdirect our steps, because I know
I need that. So, Lord, pleasewatch over us, watch over us and
remind us again that our planscan align to your will. Remind
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us again that whatever's in oureyes and whatever's on our mind,
that we can give to you, theauthor and perfecter of our
faith. So Lord, in this wisdom,I pray that we can look back on
ourselves who are 20s and 30s,or if we're there now in our 20s
and 30s, we can ask theseprofound questions that we
didn't know to ask then. Andwhat is God aligning with us as
(31:27):
we discover not independence,but dependence on our
relationship with God. And wepray these things in your holy
and precious name, And all God'speople said, Amen. You guys
enjoying our series on wisdom sofar about aligning to God's will
for your life and applying thatto your life. Next week, we're
gonna jump up a generation. Sowe're gonna jump up a generation
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into the older generation, andthe wisdom that comes from the
older generation also thatwisdom that can have to the
older generation that's comingup. So if you have a lovely
parents, grandparents that arein that space. This is gonna be
a great message. We're gonnaactually take some notes from
people in that wisdom era, andso we're gonna hear back some
actual wisdom that's going on.
(32:09):
So that would be next week as wejump in and continue our series,
dear younger me.
Did. So we're in a series right now that is
(00:05):
called Dear younger me, and itis a series about the wisdom
that we would give. Thank you.
Appreciate that. Matthew in aseries about the wisdom that we
would give to our youngerselves. And we're walking
through generations. And so howmany of you would appreciate it,
a little bit of wisdom to youryounger self? Do we have a Do we
have a little bit out there?
Okay, a little bit of wisdom toyourself, which means you've
(00:26):
been through some lifeexperience, which means, as you
think about your life, you'vehad some life experience. You're
like, Man, if I and here's thestatement, I wish I would have
known this when I was this yearsold, right? I wish I would have
known that. How many of you havetried to teach that to younger
ones and they won't hear youlike it just doesn't matter. You
realize that you're like, I wishI would have known this, and
(00:46):
then you try to teach it to theyounger generation, and you're
like, did someone try to teachme this? And I just didn't
listen, and that's why I didn'tget the wisdom when I was that
age. How many of you have hadthat thought? Because that's
probably true. What's probablytrue is You didn't listen, and
you're like, I got this, I knoweverything I can get through
life in this way, and I want tomake sure that's a reality. So
we've been in this series, andwe've been walking through some
(01:09):
really incredible book ofProverbs, verses that have
taught us about wisdom and whatthat means. And so we really
walk through like, what is thebook of Proverbs, and what does
it mean to be in this wisdomnarrative from King Solomon, and
as he's writing this wisdomnarrative, and he was talking to
the people of Israel, and he wasbuilding the temple, and he was
(01:29):
kind of this prosperous king,and he was sharing this wisdom,
but he also didn't geteverything right. This was not a
reality of everything thathappened. And so we took
forward, what is this wisdom, tohave this knowledge of God and
then apply it to your dailylife, and say that we need not
only knowledge and learningabout God, but we need to live
that life also. You can show upon a Sunday and you can go to a
great Bible study. You can goand serve in an event. But if
(01:52):
you're just learning about Godwithout applying it to your life
and sharing your testimony, thenreally you just know God, but
you're not living a Christianlife. And those are very
distinct realities. And thenTom, last week spoke really in
an incredible message, and hespoke to our high school selves.
How many of you love your highschool self? Do you guys love
your high school self?
Everything about it? Yeah, goodglory days going on there. And
(02:13):
so he spoke back these words ofwisdom to our high school
selves, and that it's really nota popularity contest, which is
really hard to hear as a highschooler, because it's truly a
popularity contest. And I don'tknow if we have the wisdom at
that point to really understandthat we can walk through life
without having to gaineveryone's affection and gain
(02:35):
everyone's love and do more andbe more all the time in order to
get to a status level wherepeople will see us, right? We're
really talking about what Godwill see and and I just want to
let you know that it's even hardto break away from that as an
adult. And we're going to betalking about wisdom today, and
we're going to be moving into apart of wisdom where we're
talking to our 20s and 30s. Butjust for a joy, I had a high
(02:57):
school experience yesterday, onSaturday, my daughter runs cross
country for Bentonville West,and they had their Bentonville
West two mile Wolverine TimeTrial, right, which is two miles
around the track. It is eightlaps around the track. They have
like 160 kids on their crosscountry team. It's maybe not
that many. It's probably like80. There's a lot of kids on
(03:18):
their cross country team. And sothis this sign up, is open to
the public. And Kaylee goes,Hey, Dad, would you sign up? Now
here's the great thing, like, Irun long races. I don't run fast
races. I'm not a fast race.
Can't breathe, send it, falldown on the track at the end.
That's not where I'm at in mylife anymore. I don't need that
kind of stress in my lifeanymore. And she looked at me,
(03:40):
and she's like, Dad, will youplease sign up to go? And I was
like, of course, I'll sign up.
I'm excited. I'll sign boom,I've been training. I was like,
Cool. I signed up. I was one ofthree adults who signed up that
I realized when I got there andthey had the heats for all the
high schoolers planned. But ifyou don't know the two mile time
trial, they also invite thejunior highs across. And I got
placed in the fifth heat withall the junior high kids. And I
(04:03):
figured this out the day before,and I was like, Great, I'm gonna
whoop some junior high kids. I'mcoming for you, right? I was
like, here we go. So I showed upyesterday, and I walked out on
the track, and I was like, Howcan you not like, the lights
were on. It was early in themorning, like the coaches were
out. They had the time trial setup over there. And I'm walking,
(04:24):
it's on. We didn't have turf,like these schools got turf. And
I'm like, oh, and I was so nice,and I was running and jog around
the track, and I had my Westgear on right, and I was just, I
was feeling it. And all the kidswhen I was like, this is, this
is why it's so hard. It'sbecause it like moves you into
this popularity contest. And soall these high schoolers are
getting on the track, andthey're they're faster on the
(04:44):
track, and they're just wrong.
They don't go that direction.
It's only one direction. Buthere we go. And so, so they're
running around the track heatone goes, and I'm like, oh man.
And they're running, like, sub10s, elevens. That's really,
that's. A five minute mile, justfor anyone who's wondering, 445
mile is super fast, super fast.
I can't touch that. Can't touchthis. Yeah, I can't touch it.
(05:07):
And so, so I was like, great. Sothey were running, and that was
heat one. Heat two, went great.
So Kaylee ran in. Heat one, itwas awesome. She did incredible,
super consistent, super fast.
I'm like, Just awesome. So I'mcheering her on. Well, they all
get done. And like, what's up?
Kelly's Dad, you ready? And I'mlike, Oh, they all know. And I'm
like, so many people are gonnabe watching me. And I was like,
(05:28):
Oh my I had this plan in mymind. Like, I trained. I had a
plan as, like, you know what I'mgonna do. I was like, I'm gonna
run a 615 first mile. I waslike, I know it. Can do this.
I'm gonna run a 615 and I waslike, and I was like, and then
I'm gonna, I'm gonna back it offa little bit hitting that 630
range. I knew exactly what paceI need to be. I was like, a one
minute 32nd like 400 to oneminute 37 is where I wanted to
(05:50):
land. I could sneak up to 145 ifI wasn't feeling I had the whole
race strategy in my head. Iwanted to do negative splits on
the back end, which when I gotfaster each lap on the back. And
I was like, Whoa, Joe's back inthe game. Let's do this. And
then this 43 year old got on thetrack with 13 year olds, and it
was and they walked up to like,are you running? And I was like,
Are you saying that because youthink I can't run? Are you
(06:12):
saying that because you thinkI'm fast? And they're like, and
that's all they did was juststare at me. And so I have a
picture. I have a picture of melining up like and there's all
these kids that weigh 85 poundsnext to me. And so here's my
thought, here's how the plansgo. Here's my thought, This is
(06:36):
my wisdom. I don't want to shootout so fast that I kind of blow
all their spirit away. I I wantto go out. I am sensitive and
compassionate towards the youth.
I want. I want to go out at apace where we can run together
for a while, and we're going todo this so I get on the track,
(06:58):
and there's 24 of us out on thetrack, and the three adults are
a little bit older than me,maybe a generation older than
me, and they've already run acouple miles, and they're just
gonna run around the track. It'salmost like, Oh, hey, we've
already put in seven we're justhere to run. Like, it's so big.
And I'm like, Ooh, I did thisall wrong. And I'm like, I'm
here to race. And I was like,let's go. And so we get going.
I'm like, Okay. I'm like, I'mnot gonna come out of the gate
(07:19):
too fast. I know my pace,everything. And they go ready,
and they blow it, right? I mean,these kids light a fire, and I'm
like, I start running. I'm like,Well, don't have to worry about
being first anymore. And I waslike, that's not gonna happen.
And so I started when I waslike, I gotta settle into my
(07:40):
pace. And I came around thefirst lap at 130 on point,
literally on point, and Icouldn't breathe for the life of
me. And I was like, I am in somuch trouble. And then here I
come around the track, andthere's Kaylee, good job, Dad,
you're doing so great. And allher cross country girls next
year. Like, oh my gosh, Kaylee'sDad, you're gonna do awesome. Oh
my god. I'm dying. I'm dying.
And I'm like, I'm just tryingto, oh my gosh. I'm not meant to
(08:02):
43 years. You're not meant torun like our body shuts down at
some point, like you can't dothis anymore, right? And so I'm
like, why? All I did wasquestion my life for eight laps.
That's all I did. I ran. I waslike, why am I doing this? Why
is it the same direction all thetime? And I'm like, oh, and then
my parents were in the stands.
(08:23):
Now I feel like, I gotta be go,Joe, go. You're doing You look
great. And I'm like, You knowwhat you and they say you look
great. It's because they have noother compliment on a track.
You're running fast. That's agreat compliment. Wow, we can't
even see you. You're the blueblur. Whoa. I was wearing blue
shoes. That would have beencool, right? You look great
(08:44):
today. So I'm running right, andI get five laps in, I got three
laps to go, and I'm heaving Allright, and I'm just trying to
keep it together. And I'mhitting my pace, 137 130 814, I
mean, I'm right there. I'm doingreally well. I come up on this
(09:04):
junior high kid, and I'm aboutto pass him, but I'm just doing
my pace. I'm not like, comingaround on the outside, you know
I'm talking about. I'm justlike, keep it together. Keep it
together. Here we go. Just don'tdie, right? I'm just going, and
I'm about to pass him. And now,mind you, I have a race plan. He
has a race plan too. We haveplans. We've built plans for
this race. And I get next tohim, and I can hear his mom
(09:26):
cheering in the stands, don'tlet him pass you. And I'm like,
Oh, this is so bad. I'm crushinga soul right now. And I was
like, I'm crushing a soul atlike, a seven minute mile, you
know? And I was like, ah, and soI'm running by, I get by him,
and I can hear him behind me.
Unknown (09:46):
He goes, Ah, and he wham, and he runs by me.
Pastor Joe Liles (09:54):
And if you know running, if you know
running, you know that'sunsustainable. You. A mile from
the end, like you just know. AndI wanted to be like, No, don't
do that. But I didn't haveenough in my soul, like, if I
spoke, I would have died. And soI let him do his plan, and I was
just like, You do you. And whenhe beat me, he pulled in front
(10:18):
of me like a car that cut youoff. And then he did this, which
I thought was great. And at thispoint, I did want to race him,
but in my wisdom, I did not racehim. He was like, oh, and he
comes up, and he cuts in frontof me and he goes, and he was
just waiting for me, and I, inmy soul, was like, I will crush
(10:41):
you. I was like, this is 43years of training, right for
this moment right here. You'velived your life barely 12. I
have like, three of you in me,like, that's what I ah. And I
was like, I was like, that's notwhat it's supposed to be, right?
It's just not what it's supposedto be. And I come around to
Kaylee, and she's cheering meon, and I finish, and I can't
(11:02):
even breathe, right? I didn'thit my time goal. I didn't beat
Kaylee. She's too fast. And Ilaid on the ground. She came
over. She goes, Hey, 1330 whichhe was saying, really was,
wasn't my time. It's like, oh.
And in a moment, I gave it up,and I said, that was the last
time I could have beat you. Isaid, I sent it, I gave it in
(11:24):
full, that was my plan. And Isaid, hey, you've now reached a
level where you run faster andyou run harder than I do, and I
won't be able to beat you again.
And I know it. And I just laidthere and tried to suck in air
for my life, is what I tried todo. I had a lot of plans going
(11:45):
into that race. I think a lot ofus have a lot of plans for life.
Can I get an amen and nothing?
Not one bit went to plan. Themoment that gun fired, they
said, boop, go right. Nothingwent to plan. All Out the
window, every part of it. Andthen I stayed in for eight more
(12:06):
laps. There's a part of our lifewith God when we need to
understand the wisdom of havingplans, is that when you have
plans in your life, and nothingis going to plan, it's not like
we can redo everything that'shappened. We're still walking
forward in life, and with that,it means that we need to connect
back in on the primary focus ofour life. We need to connect
back in on a moment that saysthere's a foundation underneath
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all of our plans that has agreater plan for every one of
us. And when we get lost in ourearthly plans and our human
plans, right, we are forgettingthat God has a plan for every
single one of us, and we need togo back to that. Being on a
track in a circle is a fun wayto talk about it, but you can
talk about the times in yourlife when you've gone back and
(12:49):
back and back again and justcheap on trying to get forward
one more step, one more step,and it's just not working and
not working, and you can'tunderstand why. And then all of
a sudden you figure out thatthree years later, you're in a
different place than you were,and you're like, Wait, how did I
get here? How did this happen?
How did I get through all thehardest days of my life to be
(13:09):
here today? And you realize it'sbecause there's always been a
plan and effect in your life,sometimes it was just our plan
versus God's plan. And we needto learn how to live God's
purpose for our life versus justliving our plan. That's what
we're gonna get into when wetalk about this today. So I want
you to open your scripture. Iwant you to open your scripture.
And a couple things today, whichis really neat. One, we got some
(13:31):
Bibles in our Bible boxes, sowe're gonna be in the book of
Proverbs. And we always tell youwhere we're gonna be in the
Bible. This is in your OldTestament, right? If you kind of
flip to the middle of the OldTestament, you'll see Psalms.
PSALMS Psalms is really long,and it comes to the Proverbs
after that. And so you can kindof find where you're at. But we
always want you to have a Biblein your hand. And so with that,
we're putting new Bibles in ourBible boxes for the year. And
what we do with these is we gota couple one. This is your Adult
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Bible right here. It looks likethis. This is a Lutheran Study
Bible. And so it's great. It'swhat all of us use. And so you
can do this. You can bring thisto studies with you. It's
awesome. And if you don't have aBible, you can take one home
with you. But what we're gonnado starting next week is there's
gonna be a little card insidethe Bible that you can bring to
our welcome desk, and we willorder a Bible for you. That way
all of our Bibles can be herefor anyone who needs them. And
(14:14):
then we'll order a Bible for youby the next week when you come
back. And so that way everyonewould have a Bible. But we also
have kids Bibles. Have you gotpreschoolers that you want to
read to? We got preschool Biblesthat you can read, and they have
those over in the Bible boxestoo. So if you need a Bible to
read at home at night, beforebedtime, to your preschooler,
you have stories to read. We gotyour elementary Bible, which is
called a spark Bible, right? Soyou got the spark Bible right
(14:36):
here. That's your elementaryBible, right? So it's actually
more in the Scripture, but itbrings kind of themes throughout
the Scripture. So you can talkthrough more theme development
in Scripture than just readingit. And then, in a really cool
way, we have the CollaborateLutheran Study Bible. So this is
an intro into a study Bible forall of our youth, fifth through
12th grade. And so if your youthdon't have a Bible, as we're
getting back into youth thisweek and next week, on
Wednesdays, they can have aBible too, and all you'll do
(14:58):
next week is grab the cardthat's in. Side and say, hey, I
want to grab this Bible, andwe'll have extra Bibles here for
you. So who's excited for someBibles in the church? You guys
excited for some Bibles? Sowe're gonna be in the Bible. And
if you don't have a Bible withyou, that's okay. Our mission is
that everyone would bring aBible. So if you got one today,
show your Bibles. We love Biblesin the church. Yes, yes. Love
it. This is great. If you're onthe Bible app. You can get on
(15:19):
the Bible app right now. There'sa couple ways to do that. One
good job, Mason. One is that wehave the Bible app card in front
of you on your chair back. It'scalled church apps. If you scan
the Bible app, it'll open theBible app and ask you to
download it. Or if you alreadyhave it, it'll connect you to
our event today. So you can scanthat anytime Bible app, and
it'll connect you into ourscripture for today and download
that too. You can walk throughwith notes and different things
(15:40):
like that, and get connected. Sowe're going to be in Proverbs
today. And as we start today,we're going to start in chapter
19, and we're going to readverse 21 chapter 19, and read
verse 21 and this is going to beabout plans and purpose of God.
And so here's what it says inProverbs, Chapter 19, verse 21
(16:02):
the human mind may devise manyplans, but it is the purpose of
the Lord that will beestablished. One more time, the
human mind may devise manyplans, but it is the purpose of
the Lord that will beestablished. Here's the
(16:26):
important part about thislanguage. I chose this verse
specifically because there arethree parts to it. The first
part is this, the human mind,there's a separation from the
Divine. May devise many plans,many plans. And so how many of
you love to have a plan in life?
How many of you are planners?
Raise it up. Okay. How many ofyou are contingency planners,
(16:49):
where you have a main plan andthen you have contingency plans
on top of those main plans,that's great. Okay. How many of
you have plans, A, B, C and Doff that main plan, just in case
something goes wrong? Raise itup. You can raise the hand of
your loved one if they do thatand don't feel comfortable
raising their hand, because Godknows that's really great. Okay,
how many of you are a no plannedperson, and you love to just
(17:11):
experience spontaneity in lifeand the love of the Lord and the
guidance of the Holy Spirit,which is more holy? Anyone else?
Does anyone else experience thatout there? Okay, not as many
people out there, the human mindmay devise many plans. That is a
part of Scripture. So what Iwant to give you to first is
that I want to say that it's notfor us to put away our plans and
(17:32):
just say, trust God. That's notwhat Scripture is saying. What
scripture is saying is that manyof the human minds may devise
many plans, which means that asyou come into life, you're gonna
put many plans together for thepeople and places you need to
be. And we're speakingspecifically to our 20s and our
30s year olds. That's kind ofwhere this message is kind of
(17:52):
packed in for and I want you tothink about that time in your
life, 20s and 30s. Ah, it'sbeautiful. You're starting
careers. How many of you had acareer plan going into your 20s,
like this is the route I want totake. How many of you are still
in that career plan? Exactly?
Okay, that's great. So let'sstart. We got a couple over
here. That was good. Okay,you're starting relationships.
Think about that, right? You'restarting a little bit of
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independence and maybe gettingyour first apartment or your
first home, and you're learningabout how you work in order to
pay off the things that you'regetting in your life also. And
you get into the space where youhave no money. Even though you
make money, you have no money.
And you don't know how that'spossible, because you used to
have no money, and now you havemoney and no money at the same
time. And you're just, I don'tunderstand, and all these plans
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are in place for you to do good,but you're in your 20s and 30s,
and you're establishingindependence, and a lot of us
establish that independence inour 20s and 30s. Outside of God,
we establish that independencesaying that we can do the things
that will bring our life forwardinto who we're supposed to be,
and we're trying to discoverthat on our own. Now listen to
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the second part of this text.
The human mind may devise manyplans, but it is the purpose of
the Lord that will beestablished. The purpose of the
Lord that will be established.
When it talks about the purposeof the Lord, it's talking about
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God's plan for your life. Andwhen it talks about established
it means that it's a commitmentby God. The purpose for your
life is a commitment by God.
It's not a question of God.
God's not discovering who you'regoing to become. God is
committed to the purpose foryour life. And our many plans
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need to align to God's purposefor our life. If your plans are
not going as you planned,each time, you will find that
you focus back on centering yourlife on God as a plan fails.
What do you. Do you strip itaway? And you come to a base
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level and you say, Okay, thatdidn't work. I'm coming to here
as that one falls away. Yousaid, that didn't work. I'm
coming to here as that one fallsaway. That didn't work. I'm
coming to here. And where do youend? You end on a space that
says, I have a relationship withGod, and I know that there's a
plan for me. And you take a stepforward in faith. That's the
commitment of God. Thecommitment of God is to never
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leave you. The commitment of Godis to say that there's always a
path forward for you and a placefor you in the kingdom. And
that's the wisdom from thistext. The wisdom from this text
is saying that your knowledge ofGod helps you to understand your
place in the kingdom and alignyour plans to God's purpose. And
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here's how that begins, ifyou're taking away one thing
from this message today, whenyou start a plan, first pray to
God and ask if it aligns toGod's will for your life. If you
start a plan, first, pray toalign to God's will. And I know
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that's not in every part of ourlife, the first thing that we do
when we put a plan together,where it's a plan for a career,
a plan for a family, a plan fora relationship, a plan for a
house, a plan for something fun.
The first thing that we don'talways do is come to the
understanding that it's a planaligning to God's purpose. We
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want to get the logistics down.
We want to make sure there'ssecurity there. How many of you
love security in a plan to makesure that it's going to go as
far as you can get to but thefirst thing we don't do is pray
together. That's the firstevidence of this. Now I want you
to turn a little bit and backjust a couple chapters. We're
going to go to chapter 16, and Iwant you to read verses one
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through three with me. Andhere's what 16, one through
three says, the plans of themind belong to mortals, but the
answer of the tongue is from theLord. All one's ways may be pure
in one's own eyes, but the Lordweighs the spirit. Commit your
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work to the Lord and your planswill be established. Commit your
work to the Lord and your planswill be established. See, I
wanted to give you a processhere. It's not enough just to
say pray to it, but it says, Ifyou commit your work to the
Lord, your plans will beestablished. In the previous
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verse, we said, it said that theLord is establishing God's
purpose, and will establish thatfor you. So now what God is
saying is, hey, I have acommitment to you. Do you have a
commitment to me? Are youcommitted to me? Are you going
to commit your work to me sothat I can establish your plans?
And what that means is we haveto give that work back to God.
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And here's what that looks like.
Are you the same person onSunday morning, committing your
work to God that you go out intothe world and be also, or is
there a separation there? Areyou committing your work to God
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so that your plans will beestablished? See, what I think
we do is I think we commit ourfaith life to God and hope our
plans will be established. Ithink we can commit our serving
to God and hope that our planswill be established, but
sometimes our career, ah, Idon't know if that's okay.
Sometimes our friend group, ah,but I have some friends who
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aren't really like that, and soI don't know if that's I'm not
going to commit that side of mylife. Oh, my family. Yes, I take
my family to church. I'mcommitted God. Here we go, but
raising them at home as aspiritual disciple maker. Ah,
I'm gonna leave that to thechurch. Do you see how we commit
our lives to God? Our plans willbe established. God's not asking
for one part of your life andonly the faith part of your
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life. What God is saying is thatfaith should permeate your life,
and in every moment, you shouldcommit your work in daily life
to God, and your plans will beestablished. You need to
discover who you're becoming,and that's only if you commit to
God. That's part of the processof having plans that align with
God's purpose. Now listen towhat happens next. I want you to
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turn over to chapter 20 andlisten to 18 and 19 in chapter
20. And remember we're workingoff this established language,
this work language, thiscommitment by God. And now
listen to verse 18 in chapter20, of Proverbs. Plans are
established by taking advice.
Oh, that's good. Plans areestablished by taking advice.
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Wage war by following wiseguidance. That's a great verse.
A gossip reveals secrets.
Therefore. Do not associate witha babbler. Have you ever heard
that in Scripture before ababbler? How many is that? The
first time for a lot of people,can I get an amen? I was just
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going to go with 18. Had tochoose 19 because it said
babbler. That's why it's putthat in there. Plans are
established by hearing wordsfrom the wise. We talked about
this in week one. Who is in yourlife that is speaking wisdom to
you. If you are planning alone,you're not aligning to God's
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will, I can tell you right nowyour plans should be laid out
with a wise people in your life,because God has placed them
there for a reason. If you arepraying about your plans and
committing that you should prayto God first and say, I want
this to align to your will, andGod, I know that you've aligned
(25:55):
these people in my life. So nowI'm going to take these plans
and I'm going to talk with thesepeople about the plans in life,
because I need to hear from thewise. And if they come to me and
they're talking about theseplans, and they start talking
about other people, that's nowbabbler, that's not who you
need. You need the wise personin your life who's going to look
at your plans and say, Are yousure this is where you need to
be? Are you sure this is who youneed to be in your life? Are you
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sure this is where God's callingyou? Just the question alone,
can pause you for a moment to belike I didn't consider that, and
that's a part of knowing thatyour plans align with the
purpose of God in your life. AndI would say at all costs, avoid
those who gossip. Avoid thosewho like talking about other
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people without them there. Can Iget an amen? How many of you do
that? Can I get an amen? Yeah,that was a softer Amen. You
sinners. Oh, man, is this great?
We're guilty of it. Are we not?
There's a reason the Scripturemakes a depiction between the
both. You can gossip aboutpeople, or you can give wise
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wisdom to people. There are twosides. Speak life into people.
That's our mission asChristians. That's how we align
to God's purpose. When we speaklife, when you gossip and speak
down on others, that is not whatGod intends. That's not aligning
to God's purpose for your lifeor anyone else's. Go learn a
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story. Go hear a testimony. Gotalk to someone that's broken.
If you're in a relationshipthat's struggling, go meet that
person. Do the thing that isChristian that sits in the
tension of those relationships,and say that there's something
more important. That's becausethe plan that is underneath this
is true for me, and it's truefor you, whether you're a sinner
in need of redemption or you'rea pure Christian who is
completely faithful, which thetwo are the same. Just a heads
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up. But here's what we got if wetake that moment and are walking
through life, the plan that gothis aligns to each and every one
of us. Stop treating people asthough they're different because
their life is not in the sameplace as yours. You've been
there before. You know what it'slike. Stop pretending that we're
strong. Speak wisdom to people,speak life to people. That's how
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we align our plans to God. Nowlisten to this final verse. I
want you to turn back to 16 andlisten to verse nine. We're
going back to the human mind,the human mind plans the way,
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but the Lord directs the steps.
The human mind plans the way,but the Lord directs the steps.
What I love about this is itbrings in how God's relationship
through Jesus Christ is with usin our plans. And here's the
purpose of God. We're trying toalign to God's purpose in our
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life through our plans. I wantto give you God's purpose so you
can, you can align to that God'spurpose is eternity in the
kingdom of heaven for everysingle one of us, that is the
salvation on the cross by JesusChrist, that is God's purpose
for our life, for every singlethat is our testimony. That is
why we live to spend eternitywith God. You have been promised
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the kingdom of heaven. You havebeen promised eternity with God,
your plans should reflect thathope. And what I wanted to do
with that statement is saysometimes we are so worried
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about this little part of theplan in the span of our life,
we have all been hurt, we haveall been broken, we've all been
betrayed, we've all hurt others.
And we take this moment and wemove it to the greater plan,
which is the kingdom of heaven.
And I just want to take you thatyour plans in life should
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reflect that hope. I. Kingdomhope. If your plans don't have
that level of hope, it might begood to sit down with the people
that you love and that are wisein your life again and ask the
question of, who is God reallycalling me to be? You are not
meant to go through the motions.
You are promised a kingdom byChrist, Who forgives you on a
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cross. That's the plan of yourlife. And all God's people said,
Amen, let us pray, heavenly andgracious Father. We come before
you today knowing that our plansare not perfect, but the kingdom
is we come together today,knowing that as as we walk into
your life that that sometimes wetake our own will, sometimes we
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take our own plans and we makethem the purpose of our life. We
think that we know everythingthat is going on and so, so we
walk that direction. And Lord, Iam so humble and so thankful and
grateful that you would say youdirect our steps, because I know
I need that. So, Lord, pleasewatch over us, watch over us and
remind us again that our planscan align to your will. Remind
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us again that whatever's in oureyes and whatever's on our mind,
that we can give to you, theauthor and perfecter of our
faith. So Lord, in this wisdom,I pray that we can look back on
ourselves who are 20s and 30s,or if we're there now in our 20s
and 30s, we can ask theseprofound questions that we
didn't know to ask then. Andwhat is God aligning with us as
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we discover not independence,but dependence on our
relationship with God. And wepray these things in your holy
and precious name, And all God'speople said, Amen. You guys
enjoying our series on wisdom sofar about aligning to God's will
for your life and applying thatto your life. Next week, we're
gonna jump up a generation. Sowe're gonna jump up a generation
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into the older generation, andthe wisdom that comes from the
older generation also thatwisdom that can have to the
older generation that's comingup. So if you have a lovely
parents, grandparents that arein that space. This is gonna be
a great message. We're gonnaactually take some notes from
people in that wisdom era, andso we're gonna hear back some
actual wisdom that's going on.
(32:09):
So that would be next week as wejump in and continue our series,
dear younger me.
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